All Chapters of Second Chance on the Rink: Rebirth of the Ice Queen: Chapter 101 - Chapter 109

Scarlett's POVI don't know how long I was in there.Time does something strange when your body is shutting down from cold. It stops feeling like time and starts feeling like pressure. Like something heavy sitting on your chest.I could still hear Soren above me, calling down every thirty seconds or so. "Stay awake. Don't close your eyes. Talk to me."I tried to answer but my voice wasn't working right anymore. The words came out slow and thick, like they had somewhere else to be first.My legs had stopped hurting, which I knew was not a good sign.I reached into my jacket pocket. My phone was still there. The screen came on when I pressed the button, dim and cracked at one corner from when I'd grabbed the ice wall on the way down. The battery was at three percent.I opened my messages.Preston's name was at the top of the list.I don't know why I went there.I started typing.Do you ever like me even a littleThe send button turned grey. No signal. I stared at the words on the screen

Scarlett's POVWhen I woke up, the room was lighter than before.Afternoon light was coming through the blinds, which meant I'd been out for several hours. My body felt heavy in the specific way that happens after something bad, like everything had used up whatever reserves it had and was now presenting the bill. My legs still felt strange, a kind of deep residual cold that hadn't fully gone away yet.I turned my head.Pierce was sitting in the chair beside my bed.He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, looking at his phone, but he looked up the second I moved. Like he'd been waiting for exactly that."Hey." He sat up straighter. "You're awake.""Yeah." My voice was still rough. I cleared my throat.He reached for the cup on the tray table and held it out to me. Water, with a straw. I took it and drank and said nothing for a moment.He watched me with the careful attention of someone who wa

Scarlett's POVMy phone buzzed on the table.I glanced at the screen. Preston.What are you doing right now?I set it face-down without answering.Pierce noticed. "Everything okay?""Fine." I picked my fork back up. "Just a message."But the thing about Preston was that he didn't ask questions he didn't already know the answer to. I'd figured that out somewhere around the third or fourth time he had shown up somewhere I hadn't expected him to be.My phone buzzed again.I didn't look at it.Pierce was talking. Something about a charity event in the spring. I nodded in the right places and kept half my attention on the table beside my plate, watching the screen light up and go dark.By the time we finished eating, he had called twice.I told Pierce I had to get going, said it was good to see him, meant maybe twenty percent of that, and walked out into the afternoon.I called Preston back the moment I hit the sidewalk.He picked up on the first ring."Hey," I said. "Sorry, I was in the m

Madison's POVThe engagement party was one week out.I had been pacing my bedroom for the better part of an hour, which I never did, because pacing was something people did when they were out of options, and I was not out of options. I was just very, very unhappy about the options I had."We have a week," I said.My mother, Olivia, was sitting at my vanity, reapplying her lipstick like we were discussing brunch reservations. She looked incredible for a woman who had spent time behind bars. Unfair didn't even begin to cover it."I know," she said."A week. Seven days. And then Scarlett Huntington is officially engaged to Preston Beaumont, and the whole city is going to be there to watch it happen." I stopped pacing. "Do you understand what that means for me? She is going to bury me. The second that ring goes on her finger, she is going to come after everything I have left. She'll have the connections, she'll have the money, she'll have Preston behind her." I pressed my hand flat agains