Chapter 20. Aftershock (2)

The first rumor didn’t sound dangerous.

Just a comment buried under a clip of her collapse:

“Funny how some people get a second chance when they’ve got the right coach.”

By noon, it had mutated—screenshots, cropped headlines, whispers that her training fees weren’t the only thing Cassian covered.

Lia read them once, twice, then shut the phone off and shoved it into her locker like it could infect her.

People looked longer now. Not curious, not cruel—just careful, like she might bruise on eye contact.

Cassian was across the room correcting a rookie’s form. He didn’t notice her standing frozen at the lockers.

Or maybe he did. He was good at not looking.

She unwound and then retightened the hands, pulling them tauter than necessary. If she could make her fingers go numb, maybe the rest of her would follow.

***

In another part of the city, Nadia sat in a sponsor’s office pretending to be unbothered.

The man behind