LOGINSKY’S POV Amira called instead of texting, which hadn’t happened in weeks, and something about hearing her actual voice again made the whole conversation feel different before she’d even finished her first sentence. “I need to see you,” she said. “Not over the phone. In person. There are things I don’t want to write down anywhere, not even in a message.” “When?” “Tonight, if you can. Somewhere neither of us usually goes. My lawyer suggested I stop all contact entirely until the hearing, and I’ve been following that advice for weeks. But this can’t wait, and I trust you more than I trust waiting.” I didn’t ask what “this” meant. I just told her where to meet me — a diner on the edge of town, the kind of place neither of us had any reason to be seen, plain enough that nobody would think twice about two people sharing a booth. • She was already there when I arrived, sitting in the back corner, a cup of coffee in front of her that looked untouched. She looked thinner than I rememb
SKY’S POV Reyes shut the door behind us and set a single sheet of paper on his desk instead of just telling me the name outright, like he wanted me to see it in writing before either of us said it out loud. I looked down. Read it twice. Damian Baron. Records request submitted March 14th. Reason listed: “HR compliance review.” “He requested it himself,” I said. “Not through someone else. His own name, right there.” “His own name,” Reyes confirmed. “Which either means he didn’t think anyone would ever check, or he didn’t care if they did.” “Why wouldn’t he care?” “Because up until now, nobody has.” Reyes leaned back against his desk. “This is the kind of request that gets buried in a system nobody audits unless somebody specifically goes looking. I only found it because the IT staffer mentioned it in passing. If she hadn’t, this stays invisible.” • I stared at the sheet a long moment, feeling something settle into place that had been circling for weeks without ever quite landi
SKY’S POV Reyes found me before practice the next morning, coffee in hand, glancing down the hallway before he spoke as he’d already decided this conversation shouldn’t happen anywhere with cameras. “I thought about what you said,” he told me. “About finding proof instead of just suspecting.” “And?” “And I think you’re right that we need to try. Quietly. If we go to Marcus with a theory and nothing behind it, Damian spins it as harassment before we’ve even started.” He kept his voice low. “So we do this carefully. No accusations out loud. Just information.” “What kind of information?” “Meeting schedules. Who had access to what, and when. If the leaks are timed to internal meetings the way I think they are, there should be a pattern showing exactly who was in the room each time.” • We started small, which felt strange given how large the problem had become. Reyes pulled meeting logs he had legitimate access to as coaching staff — nothing confidential, nothing that would raise
SKY’S POV I called Reyes before practice, too early for it to be a casual conversation, and he must have understood that from the tone of my voice because he told me to come straight to his office instead of the locker room. “You read the article,” he said, not a question. “Somebody close to the organization. That’s a pretty small circle, Reyes. Who has access to whether my sessions got discontinued?” “HR. Legal. Marcus’s office. Damian, obviously.” He rubbed his forehead. “That’s still six or seven people minimum, and that’s assuming nobody talked to somebody who talked to somebody else.” “It’s not random anymore. First it was a photo. Then rumors. Now specific details about my therapy sessions that only people inside this building would know.” I sat down across from him. “This isn’t bad luck. Somebody’s doing this on purpose.” “I agree with you,” he said, quieter than I expected. “I’ve thought that for a while now. I just didn’t have anything solid enough to say it out loud.”
SKY’S POV Thursday’s game started wrong and never fully corrected itself. I felt it in warm-ups already, a heaviness in my legs that had nothing to do with conditioning, my glove a half-step slow on shots I would normally read without thinking twice. I told myself it was fatigue. I told myself a lot of things that week that didn’t hold up once the puck actually dropped. First period, I let in a soft one. Not a bad shot, not a screen, just a wrist shot from the top of the circle that I should have had and didn’t, my angle slightly off, my reaction slightly behind where it needed to be. The bench went quiet in that particular way benches go quiet when nobody wants to say what everyone’s thinking. • Second period, it got worse before it got better. A two-on-one broke in clean, and I overcommitted to the pass, left the shooter an open net, and watched the puck go in from an angle I should have covered without any real effort. Two goals now, both on me, both the kind of mistake tha
SKY’S POV The new psychologist’s name was Dr. Whitfield. He had a firm handshake, a leather notebook, and an office that had been a spare conference room before someone decided the team needed continuity of care while Amira’s leave played out. “Sky. Good to meet you.” He gestured at the chair across from his desk. Not the low armchair Amira used. A regular office chair, the kind you’d get called into for a performance review. “I’ve read your file. I want you to know I’m not here to replace anyone. Just to help however I can during this transition.” “Sure,” I said, and sat down, and felt the wrongness of the room before he’d said another word. • He started with breathing exercises, the same basic ones I’d learned years ago before Amira ever taught me anything real. Box breathing. Four counts in, four held, four out. I did it because refusing seemed like more trouble than it was worth, but my chest stayed tight the whole time, like my body knew this wasn’t the same conversation ev







