The message stayed burned into Sheila’s mind long after she locked her phone and slipped it back into her pocket.
You’re getting closer to him. That makes you easier to break.
The words clung to her like frost that refused to melt, creeping deeper beneath her composure no matter how firmly she tried to shake them off.
Across the rink, practice resumed, whistles slicing through the air while skates carved sharp patterns across the ice. To anyone watching, everything appeared normal — another routine training session, another day in professional sports.
But Sheila could feel it.
The tension had shifted again.
And it was tightening.
She forced herself to focus on her notes, her pen moving steadily across the clipboard even as her thoughts spiraled. She tracked performance metrics, reco
