Chapter 2

In my previous life, this wild, impulsive cheerleader completely wrecks Eric's focus. He starts skipping practices and cutting classes. His performance tanks. The day before the U18 evaluation camp, he calls in sick to his coach. Behind everyone's back, he sneaks off to Chicago with Charlotte for a weekend-long rager.

That camp only happens once a year. That specific year, scouts from three different NHL teams show up in person. Missing it basically means a death sentence for his career.

I thought I was saving him.

Out of my pathetic goodwill and stupid crush, I tell his parents and coach the truth. His coach moves mountains to contact the camp directors, begging for a makeup slot. Eric gets dragged onto the ice and manages to save his future entirely on raw talent.

Charlotte, meanwhile, gets shipped off to a new school by her furious parents. Cut off from her usual crowd, she spirals fast. She falls in with a much sketchier party scene, gets hooked on drugs, and eventually dies of an overdose on some random street.

Back then, I thought everything would be fine as long as Eric got back on track.

I am so hopelessly stupid.

For him, I defer my Early Action acceptance to MIT. I give up my dreams of aerospace and settle for a regular college near his campus to study sports management. I work myself to the bone to get my NHLPA agent license.

For years, I cover up all his messes. I schmooze with team executives and fight tooth and nail to land him the biggest endorsement deals. I even build his personal charity foundation from the ground up, branding him as the league's most flawless, untouchable superstar.

I bleed myself dry putting him on a pedestal.

And then, he shoves me straight into hell.

Once he reaches the absolute top and secures a team of elite lawyers, his carefully woven trap finally snaps shut. The foundation's financial records are secretly doctored. The fabricated charges crush me like a mountain. Before I can even get a word of defense out, they slap cuffs on my wrists and throw me into federal holding.

In the visiting room, the flickering fluorescent lights make my head spin.

Eric wears the custom suit I picked out for him. He looks down at me through the glass. There is zero warmth in his eyes, only a bone-chilling coldness.

"Your parents didn't teach you right," his voice is flat, "That's why you turned out to be the kind of person who ruins people's lives. So, I had to step in and fix their mistake."

That winter night. The intentional rear-end collision on the icy road. The completely mangled sedan.

It was all his doing.

He laid low for seven whole years just to get revenge for Charlotte. He sucked me dry of my value, built his throne on my blood and sweat, and finally trampled over my parents' dead bodies to mourn his lost love.

Crack!

The loud smack of a hockey puck smashing against the boards violently yanks me out of my suffocating memories.

"Goal!"

The entire arena erupts in deafening screams. Down on the ice, Eric raises his stick, the blonde hair under his helmet soaked with sweat. He glides right up to the glass. His eyes cut straight through the crowd and lock onto the section right next to me.

Charlotte jumps up in excitement. She cups her hands over her mouth and blows him a kiss.

A cocky, winning smirk spreads across Eric's face.

I watch this happen in dead silence. I don't feel jealous. My heart doesn't ache. There is nothing left in my chest but a freezing, dead emptiness.

Go ahead, Charlotte.

Go catch your prey.

In my last life, I did everything in my power to drag him out of the mud, only to end up with my family destroyed and my own life ruined.

This time?

I slowly zip up my backpack and swing the heavy AP Physics textbook over my shoulder.

I am not going to stand in his way anymore.

I will grab a front-row seat and watch him plunge straight into the abyss for this so-called grand romance.

I will watch him lose his talent, his spotlight, and every single thing he is so damn proud of.