Chapter 1
The day before the major swimming competition, my boyfriend's childhood sweetheart, Cecilia Deverell, was all set to make him a cup of cold medicine.
I stepped in right on time to stop her, warning her that the cold meds contained sedatives. If my boyfriend, a professional swimmer, took them, he'd get hit with a lifetime ban from the sport.
But the little brat thought I was just bluffing to scare her.
She shot me a snarky look and spat, "You're just jealous that Neo and I are so close! If he underperforms because of this cold, I won't let you get away with it!"
When my talking sense got me nowhere, I lost my cool and smashed the water cup on the spot.
The second my boyfriend, Neo Kirkwell, found out what happened, he didn't even let me explain. He slapped me hard across the face without even asking for my side of the story.
I was so furious I could barely breathe.
As it turned out, after the competition, my boyfriend came down with a brutal fever that wouldn't break.
That little sweetheart of his immediately hopped on a live stream to sic her fans on me, stirring up a whole online harassment campaign.
She even posted a heavily edited clip of me training the team, cutting out all context to make me look like some cruel, sadistic monster of a coach in the eyes of netizens.
With no way to clear my name, one of my boyfriend's unhinged superfans poisoned me with rat poison.
The very last thing I remembered before the rat poison took me out was that childhood sweetheart, Cecilia, kicking me hard, sneering, "Elodie Montague, if you hadn't gotten in the way, Neo and I would have been together openly ages ago. Though hey, I guess I should thank you. If it wasn't for you, I never would have blown up as a huge influencer and raked in all this cash."
I jolted awake with a sharp gasp. The first thing I saw was the familiar interior of the swimming stadium.
Cecilia was glaring daggers at me, her voice shrill as she snapped, "You're just jealous that Neo and I are so close! Are you trying to sabotage him so he loses the competition?"
All the swimmers in the stadium turned to stare at the commotion. Right on cue, Cecilia forced tears to well up in her eyes. Her voice wobbled like she was on the verge of breaking as she said, "Elodie, what did I ever do to you? Why are you saying these things about me?"
Charlie Fox, one of the team members, darted over to stand in front of her, shielding her from me. The look he shot me was pure disgust as he said, "Coach Elodie, we put up with you being hard on us during training, but how can you bully Cecilia? She's just a fragile, harmless girl!"
At his words, I glanced around and noticed the other three swimmers were all staring daggers at me too, their eyes burning with hatred.
In my past life, I was their swimming coach. I poured ten whole years of my life into that team, worked my fingers to the bone to plan their training schedules, adjust their techniques, and give up almost all my free time to help them improve.
I'd carried them every step of the way, from tiny local matches in small towns all the way to city-level, provincial, and even national competitions, and they were on track to compete on the global stage next. Yet all those ten years of my blood, sweat, and tears couldn't hold a candle to the two measly months since Cecilia had shown up.
They'd written me off as some sort of villain, and were even sneaking around trying to set her up with my boyfriend, Neo.
Neo came barreling over once he heard the commotion, his face set in a cold, impassive mask, his tone sharp enough to cut ice. "Elodie, what the hell is your problem now? I've told you a hundred times, there's nothing going on between me and Cecilia. Why can't you get that through your head? Do you have to pick on her and make her life miserable every single chance you get?"
Listening to that ice-cold bite in his voice, I clenched my fists so tight my knuckles went white, and it took me a long, quiet moment to force the words out. "Do you have any idea she was about to put cold medicine in your water cup?"
Neo froze for a second, right as Cecilia broke into fresh, heaving sobs, her tiny frame collapsing against his chest like a delicate little flower caught in a storm.
"I was just worried about you, Neo," she blubbered, sniffling into his shirt. "I checked with a doctor about these pills, they're totally safe for athletes to take."
Neo held her tight, his chest soft with concern for her, then turned to glare daggers at me. "As if Cecilia would ever hurt me. You're the only one who's so messed up you think everyone's out to do someone harm, huh?"
With that, he picked up the water cup laced with cold medicine and chugged the whole thing down in one go, gulping loudly.
I stared at him, my face completely blank.
This time, I wasn't going to stop him. Let him get himself banned from competition for life...
He deserves every bit of it.
