Offside Hearts: The Captain's Forbidden Girl

POV: Evangeline "Eva" Laurent

The entire country watched me become a villain in less than twenty-four hours, I was standing in the backstage hallway of the arena while my phone buzzed so hard it nearly slipped from my hands.

Five minutes remained before I had to step onto the ice for the National Figure Skating Qualifiers, but my screen was covered in endless notifications from social media accounts I had never seen before. Anonymous posts were spreading across every platform, and the main headline kept repeating that I was having an affair with my married coach just to secure higher scores in my routines.

"Look at this," I whispered, holding the phone out toward my coach, who was standing right next to me while holding his own phone with a pale face.

"Don't read those comments, Eva," he said, stepping back slightly and putting his hands on his hips. "Someone made up a story, and people are going to share it because they love drama."

"It isn't just a story," I said, pointing at the screen where edited photographs showed me standing close to him in a hotel lobby, even though those photos were cut together from old team meetings. "They put this on the front page of the sports news, and people are already saying I should be banned from competing today."

Before he could answer, a loud ping echoed from my phone, a formal email notification popped up on the display. It was from my main brand sponsor, the company that paid for my skates, my dresses, and my ice time.

"They dropped me," I said, staring at the message while my throat tightened. "They just canceled my contract live on their official website, and they are demanding all their gear back by tomorrow morning."

"We can talk to them after the competition," my coach said, looking around the hallway as if he was afraid someone would see us together. "Right now, you need to focus on your program, because if you don't skate, you give them everything they want."

From outside the heavy dressing room doors, the sound of the crowd was getting louder, but they were not chanting my name the way they usually did. I could hear people yelling insults from the concourse, and someone shouted that I was a cheat and a homewrecker through the public speakers before the security guards muted the feed.

My phone rang in my hand, displaying my mother's contact name across the screen, so I hit answer instantly and pressed the phone against my ear.

"Mom, please tell me you don't believe this," I said, taking a step toward the wall.

"How could you do this to our family, Evangeline?" her voice came through the speaker, sharp and cold, without a single trace of worry for me. "Do you have any idea what people are saying to us right now, and how embarrassing this is for your father at his job?"

"None of it is true," I yelled into the mic, feeling tears burn the back of my eyes. "The photos are fake, Mom, and someone edited them to make me look bad so I would lose my spot today."

"You expect me to believe that thousands of people online made this up for no reason?" she asked, her tone flat and distant. "Your father and I gave up everything so you could skate, and now you have ruined our family name over a scandal with a married man."

"I didn't do anything," I said, but the line went dead before I could finish my sentence, leaving me listening to the rapid dial tone.

I wiped my cheek with the back of my hand and immediately pulled up my direct messages, clicking on the conversation with Damien Cross, my skating partner and the boy who had spent the last three years promising he would stand by me through everything.

"Please answer me, Damien," I typed, sending three messages in a row, watching the tiny status icon turn to read right away.

He didn't call me back, and instead, a single text appeared on the screen from him.

Don't contact me until this is over.

"He left me too," I said, looking up at my coach while my hands shook.

"Damien has a career to protect, Eva," my coach answered, taking another step back and refusing to meet my eyes. "His family is worried about his reputation, so you can't expect him to take the blame for this with you."

"He knows me," I said, locking my phone screen and shoving it into my equipment bag. "He knows I would never do what those posts are saying, but he chose to run away instead of helping me."

"The officials are calling your name," an arena worker said, opening the heavy metal door and pointing down the dark corridor toward the bright lights of the main ice surface. "You have thirty seconds to report to the gate, or you will be disqualified automatically."

"You don't have to go out there," my coach said, remaining near the wall instead of walking with me. "People are angry, and the judges are going to be tough on you today."

"If I stay in this hallway, I am telling everyone that the lies are true," I said, turning away from him and stepping out into the cold air of the arena.

The bright lights blinded me for a second, and the noise from the stands hit me like a wall of sound, with hundreds of people holding up signs and yelling insults as I walked along the rubber mat toward the ice entrance. I kept my head high, ignoring the cameras pointed directly at my face, and pushed through the wooden gate onto the smooth surface.

The ice was cold beneath my blades, but I glided toward the center of the rink, taking a deep breath while the judges sat in silence at their long table. The music started playing over the arena speakers, and I let my body take over, moving into my opening sequence while the crowd continued to shout from the stands.

I pushed off hard with my left foot, building up speed as I approached the first major jump of my routine, feeling the familiar rush of wind as I leaped off the ice into the air. My body rotated quickly, and for a split second, everything was quiet, making me feel like I had control over my life again.

I landed cleanly on my right skate, but as I pressed my weight down to push out of the turn, a loud metallic snap echoed from beneath my foot, and the blade caved under me.