ログインBailey POVThe days after Mark's display at the academy were strange.Nobody said anything to my face. But I felt the shift. In the way coaches looked at me a beat too long in the hallway.The way athletes whispered when I passed the water station. Even Mercer avoided me completely, like I was a fire he didn't want to get close to.Mark and I didn't hide anymore. We didn't hold hands in the hallway or kiss by the track. But we didn't pretend either. He transferred back into my sprint group at the academy and showed up to our sessions boldly. Walked beside me to the parking lot after practice. Said goodbye without looking over his shoulder first.It was quiet. Simple.But everyone knew.And I was still waiting for the consequences to land.They came on a Wednesday afternoon, but not in the way I expected.I was sitting in the staff room after practice, logging training times into my laptop, when my phone buzzed with an unknown number. I almost ignored it. Unknown numbers usually meant
Mark POVBailey left my apartment early Monday morning.She kissed me at the door, quick and soft, her eyes still puffy from last night but lighter than I had seen them in weeks."I'll see you at the academy," she said."Yeah, you will."She gave me a look."What does that mean?""It means I'll see you at the academy."She shook her head and walked to the elevator. I watched her go, leaning against the doorframe, a feeling settling in my chest that I hadn't felt in two weeks.Certainty.I was done hiding.Done sneaking around. Done pretending she was just my coach. Done watching her carry the weight of us on her shoulders while I stood in the shadows like a coward.She loved me.She said it to my face. Standing in my living room, tears running down her cheeks, voice cracking on every word. She loved me.And I wasn't going to let her walk into that academy alone. Not today. Not ever again.I showered, got dressed, and drove to the academy.The parking lot was already full when I pulled
Mark POVThe drive back from my father's house felt different.Lighter. Like something that had been sitting on my chest for two weeks had finally cracked loose and fallen away.I didn't know if he would make the calls. Didn't know if Mercer would get what was coming to him. My father said "I'll see what I can do," and with Theodore Kingsley, that could mean anything.But it didn't matter.What mattered was that I said what I needed to say. Stood in front of the most powerful man I knew and told him the truth. About Bailey. About us. About what I was willing to give up if the world kept trying to tear her down.I meant every word.The city was quiet by the time I pulled into my building. Normal Sunday evening. Streets mostly empty. The sky had turned that deep shade of blue that came right before full dark.I parked, grabbed my keys, and rode the elevator up to my floor.When the doors opened, I stopped.Bailey was standing at my door.She looked small. Smaller than I had ever seen he
Mark POVTwo weeks without Bailey, and I was falling apart.My times were worse than they've ever been. My focus was gone. My body showed up to the track every morning, but the rest of me stayed in that park on that bench, replaying the sound of her voice breaking as she told me it was over.I was the one who walked away that night. Turned my back and left, because staying would have meant begging. And Mark Kingsley didn't beg.But God, I wanted to.I tried to push through it. Tried to do what I always did. Train harder. Run faster. Bury everything under sweat and reps and sore muscles.It didn't work.Because every time I lined up at the blocks, I looked for her at the finish line.And she wasn't there.On a Sunday evening, I sat in my apartment with my father's voice ringing in my head.Fix whatever needs fixing.He was right.Something needed fixing.But it wasn't my times.I showered, got dressed, and drove to my father's house.The Kingsley estate sat on twelve acres of manicured
Bailey POVBy the end of the second week, I couldn't carry it alone anymore.The apartment was suffocating. The silence was deafening. And the memories from our time together kept tormenting at every turn.So I drove to Lola's.It was a Sunday evening. Our usual time. But nothing about this visit felt usual.I knocked.She opened the door.And didn't smile.That was the first sign.She stepped aside without a word and let me in. No greeting. No joke. No comment about how terrible I looked, even though I knew I looked terrible.I sat on the couch. She sat on the floor across from me, legs crossed, arms folded. I hadn't seen her since I got back from Atlanta and the rumors spread.The silence between us was thick. Heavy. The kind that only existed between two people who had something ugly sitting between them."So," she said finally. "When were you going to tell me?"My stomach tightened."Tell you what?""Don't." Her voice was sharp. "Don't do that. Not again."I closed my mouth."I as
Bailey POVThe first week without him was the hardest.I went to work, coached my groups. Ran drills, gave feedback. Said the right things at the right times.But I wasn't there.Not really.My body moved through the motions, but the rest of me had checked out. Like someone had reached inside my chest and flipped a switch, turning off everything that made me feel alive.I stopped eating proper meals. Coffee in the morning. Maybe a sandwich at lunch if I remembered. Dinner was whatever I could grab without thinking, usually nothing.Every night, I lay in bed with the lights off, my body exhausted but my mind wide awake. Replaying the same scene over and over. The bench. The park. His face when I said it had to end. The way his expression crumbled for half a second before the wall went up.The sound of his footsteps walking away.Fading.Until there was nothing.At the academy, I avoided the sprint section completely. Rearranged my schedule so I never had to be near him. He was back to
Sheila's POVZuki was straddling the blonde guy's lap, her knees on either side of his thighs on the velvet booth seat. Their mouths were locked together in the kind of kiss that should have been private - deep, hungry, desperate. Her hands were in his hair, tugging hard enough that his head was ti
Sheila's POVThe Uber pulled up to our gate at nearly 1 AM. The driver whistled low at the sight of the estate beyond the iron bars."Nice place," he muttered.Zuki was already typing in the gate code on her phone app. The massive gates swung open silently, revealing the long driveway lined with pa
Sheila’s POVAfter the makeup test, I begged for a break. Zuki gave me exactly ten minutes.Then she clapped her hands. “Up. We are going to fix your walk.”“I thought we already fixed my walk,” I said from the couch.“That was basic spine survival,” she said. “Now we are adding attitude.”“I don't
Chapter 1: Airport Terminal. Sheila's POV. I stood in the airport waiting section, flipping through the file for what had to be the tenth time. Name: Zuki Mason. Gender: Female. Age. 26. Race: Caucasian. Dual Citizenship: American-born, naturalized British. Height: 5 ft 7. Physical Chara







