All Chapters of FAKING IT ON ICE: DATING THE SPORT KING: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

MIKKA.I barely slept that night.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the photographs from the brown envelope. One was taken outside the university. The other showed me sitting inside Seven's SUV only minutes before it was delivered. Whoever was watching me hadn't just followed me. They had stood close enough to see us without either of us noticing. Every creak outside my motel room made my heart race. By the time the first light slipped through the curtains, I gave up trying to sleep and sat on the edge of the bed, hugging my notebook against my chest.Fear wanted me to run again.It whispered that I should disappear before Seven got hurt because of me. It reminded me about Levi, about the scholarship, about the loan shark, about the text messages and the people who never stopped watching. But another voice inside me refused to give up. If I stopped coaching Seven now, then the people threatening me had already won. They had already taken my home, my scholarship and almost my hope. I

MIKKA I stood inside my tiny motel room with the folded piece of paper still in my hand. My eyes stayed on the short message until the words became blurry. I could not understand how someone knew about the email from the university. I had only received it a little while ago, and I had not told anyone except Seven that I was still trying to save my place in the programme. My heart felt heavy again. For a few minutes, hope had returned after seeing the meeting invitation. Now fear had pushed that hope away once more. I slowly folded the paper and slipped it into my bag. Whatever happened, I could not let fear decide my future.The next morning, I reached the University of Toronto much earlier than my meeting was scheduled for. The campus looked the same as always, but it no longer felt like home. Some students hurried to class with books in their hands while others laughed with their friends. A few people recognised me straight away. They whispered behind my back, then quickly looked a

MIKKA.I stayed on the bench outside the Faculty of Kinesiology long after I had gotten the review I came for. The folder rested on my lap, but I kept reading it over and over again, hoping that maybe I had misunderstood something the first time. Every sentence felt colder than the last, and no matter how many times I reached the end, the words never changed. Someone had officially questioned my academic integrity. Someone believed I had used my connection to Levi and now Seven to influence my research. I had spent two years working until midnight almost every day to earn my place here, and now everything I had built felt as if it were hanging by a single thread.My hands shook as I unlocked my phone. I stared at Seven's name for almost a full minute before pressing the call button. The moment he answered, I regretted it because I did not want to drag him into another problem that had my name written all over it. Still, I forced myself to speak."Seven... I'm sorry for calling."His v

MIKKA.Everything around me seemed to stop the moment the reporter's question echoed across the university courtyard, and even the wind felt like it had forgotten how to move as dozens of cameras stayed fixed on Seven, waiting for him to either deny me like Levi had or walk away before this became an even bigger disaster. My heart pounded so hard that I could barely hear anything except my own breathing, and I knew that whatever happened next would follow both of us for a very long time. I slowly shook my head at Seven, silently begging him not to sacrifice his reputation for someone like me, because I had already lost almost everything, and I couldn't bear the thought of watching him lose something too. When he glanced at me, I whispered as softly as I could, hoping only he would hear."You don't have to do this."He didn't answer immediately, and instead he kept his eyes on the crowd standing in front of us while more reporters squeezed closer, stretching their microphones toward hi

MIKKA.I stood frozen in front of the administration building while my own name glowed across the giant digital noticeboard for the whole university to see, and for a few terrible seconds I forgot how to breathe. Students slowed down as they walked past, pretending not to stare while staring anyway, and some quietly lifted their phones to take pictures as though I had become another piece of campus news instead of a real person whose life was falling apart. I heard someone say the university would never schedule a formal hearing without proof, while another student answered that they had always thought there was something suspicious about me ever since the videos with Levi and the photos with Seven appeared online. A few familiar faces tried to defend me, saying I had always been one of the hardest-working students in the department, but their voices disappeared beneath the growing wave of gossip, and I realized that rumours always moved faster than the truth."Come on," Seven said qu