Florence wasn't surprised.
If anything, the moment Timothy said the words out loud, what settled over her was a hollow kind of calm, the sort that comes when something one has long braced for finally arrives.
'I knew this all along, didn't I?' she thought.
That Timothy would choose Amelia over her had never really been in question.
And still, knowing it did nothing to soften the ache.
She couldn't come to terms with it. She truly couldn't.
Timothy sat at the judges' table, his expression giving nothing away, and said, "The chance was the same for every dancer in this round. I made my call with my heart."
He went on, "This time my heart told me that Amelia's variation carried the stage better than Florence's."
As he spoke, his eyes found Florence's across the stage. Her gaze held pe
