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Chapter 76 — Before the Ice Wall
Data de publicação:
2026-09-07 00:04:04
Último capítulo
Behind the Ice Wall Chapter 85 — The Athlete Before Sky
SKY’S POV “There’s one more thing,” Amira said, almost a week later, the two of us back on my balcony, something different in her posture that told me before she spoke that this conversation would cost her more than the previous ones combined. “The case. The one I’ve mentioned before, in passing, without ever actually telling you what happened.” “You don’t have to tell me if it’s still too raw.” “I want to. Especially now, given everything else we’ve already shared.” She wrapped her hands around her mug, steadying herself. “You deserve to understand exactly what shaped my caution, before either of us started this. Why I fought so hard against what was developing between us, even after I knew I’d already lost that particular fight.” • “Several years ago,” she began, “before I joined your organization, I worked with a different athlete. Extremely talented. Football, not hockey, but the pressures translate similarly across most elite sports. He was young, early in a promising caree
Behind the Ice Wall Chapter 84 — Why She Became a Psychologist
SKY’S POV “I want to tell you how I actually became a psychologist,” Amira said, a few nights later, the two of us in her apartment this time, dinner finished, the dishes still sitting unwashed in the sink because neither of us wanted to interrupt whatever this conversation was becoming. “I thought Daniel was the answer to that.” “He’s the beginning of the answer. There’s more underneath it, though. The specific shape my career actually took, once I understood what I wanted to spend my life doing.” • She told me about university, about choosing psychology almost by instinct, without a fully formed plan yet for what specialty she might eventually pursue. “I took a sports psychology elective almost by accident,” she said. “Figured it might help me understand what had happened to Daniel, even years later. I didn’t expect it to become the entire direction of my career.” “What changed?” “I started reading case studies. Athletes who’d been praised for exactly the kind of composure
Behind the Ice Wall Chapter 83 — The Dream He Lost
SKY’S POV She continued the story two nights later, unprompted, the two of us sitting on my balcony with the city lights spread out below us, the open air making the conversation feel less confined than it might have inside. “I keep thinking about what you asked me,” she said. “About Daniel’s career, and how it actually ended. I don’t think I gave you the full picture. Just the outline.” “You don’t have to fill in every detail if it’s too much.” “I want to, actually. I think I’ve spent so long summarizing that story to myself that I’ve forgotten how much it actually cost, watching it happen in real time.” • She told me about the year after the tournament that broke him, the slow unraveling that followed rather than any single dramatic ending. “Coaches kept pushing,” she said. “Told him he needed to toughen up, told him other athletes managed pressure without falling apart the way he had. My father agreed with all of it. Reinforced it, actually, every time Daniel came home from
Behind the Ice Wall Chapter 82 — The Brother She Couldn’t Save
SKY’S POV Amira was quiet the next morning, quieter than I’d seen her since the earliest days after her resignation, and I noticed it immediately over coffee, the particular stillness of someone holding something carefully behind a closed door. “You okay?” I asked, though I already suspected the answer, given everything the previous night had unearthed for both of us. “I’m fine,” she said, too quickly, the same automatic deflection I recognized instantly because I’d spent years perfecting an identical version of my own. I set my mug down and looked at her directly. “That’s the same thing I used to say to you. Right before you’d tell me it wasn’t actually an answer.” A look crossed her face — recognition, maybe, or the particular discomfort of having your own technique turned back on you. “Fair,” she admitted. “I’m not fine. I’m just not sure I’m ready to talk about why yet.” “You don’t have to be ready. I’d just like you to trust me enough to try, the way I trusted you last ni
Behind the Ice Wall Chapter 81 — The Ice Wall
SKY’S POV I told Amira everything on a Tuesday night, the two of us on my couch, the surveillance file still open on my laptop across the room, though neither of us had looked at it in hours. I hadn’t planned to tell her all of it that night. But the memories had been surfacing for weeks by then, unbidden, insistent, and sitting beside her, safe for a few hours from everything else threatening us, finally loosened whatever had kept the full story locked away for over a decade. “I need to tell you something,” I said. “About my mother. About the panic attack. The real version, not the one everyone’s always believed.” She turned toward me fully, giving me her complete attention the way she always did, the particular quality of listening that had made those early therapy sessions feel different from anything I’d experienced before. “Take whatever time you need,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere.” • I told her about the driveway, about my father’s philosophy, about the specific se
Behind the Ice Wall Chapter 80 — The First Crack
SKY’S POV The locker room after the game carried a particular quiet that I’d never experienced before, the specific silence that follows a loss significant enough that nobody quite knows what to say to fill it. I sat at my stall, still mostly in my gear, staring at the floor, waiting for something inside me to feel more solid than it currently did. My coach approached first, crouching down to my level the way coaches do when they’re trying to soften whatever comes next. “Tough way to lose that one,” he said. “You played well most of the game. That last stretch just got away from you.” “I know.” “What happened out there? During that timeout, you looked different. Lost, almost.” I looked up at him, understanding this was my chance, if I ever intended to take it, to actually say the words. Panic attack. Something happened to my body I couldn’t control. I need help understanding what that was. “I lost focus,” I said instead. “Should have refocused faster than I did.” He nodded, a
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