"Sloane..."
"I'm serious. What kind of man says he loves you and then disappears the second things get hard?" She's pacing now, gesturing wildly. "You gave him your trust, your body, even your career. And he ends up ghosting you?"
"Maybe he realized I wasn't worth the trouble."
"Don't minimize what he did," she says, wagging a finger at me. "He abandoned you when you needed him most. That's not love. It's not even basic human decency."
My shoulders slump. I blink away tears. Declan abandoned me after everything we shared.
My phone buzzes. For a second, I think it might be him. That he'll have an explanation that makes this hurt less. But it’s not.
King:
I saw the video. I know you're going through hell right now. Want to talk?
Warmth floods my chest. At least someone cares.
"I need to take this," I say, retreating to Sloane's bedroom before she can ask questions I don't want to answer.
Closing the door, I sit on the edge of the bed. Then I type, pouring everything about.
King responds. His messages are steady and supportive, reminding me that the video is obviously edited and that I'm a brilliant researcher who won't be defined by this scandal.
King:
You're stronger than this. The truth always comes out eventually.
Ivy:
What if eventually is too late? What if my career is over before the truth matters?
King:
Then you rebuild. You're Dr. Ivy Chandler. You earned your doctorate at twenty-six. You revolutionized concussion assessment protocols. One scandal doesn't erase that.
Tears fill my eyes. I pull in a raged breath as the screen blurs.
King sees me in a way Declan never did.
We text back and forth for over an hour, his words a lifeline in this drowning chaos. He doesn't offer empty platitudes or tell me everything will be fine. He acknowledges the reality of how bad this is while reminding me I'm capable of surviving it.
When we finally say goodnight, I feel I can survive all this. There are people who believe in me, and that's enough.
I return to the living room to find Sloane at her laptop, her expression grim.
"You need to see this."
"No, I don't."
"You need to see this," she repeats, turning the screen toward me.
My face fills the display. The headline reads:
“Disgraced Researcher's Connection to Hockey Star: A Timeline of Deception”
The article is comprehensive, showing my relationship with Declan, Marcus's attempts to protect his sister from making career-ending mistakes, and building speculation about other players.
There are quotes from anonymous sources, implying that my entire research project was designed to get close to players and suggesting that I falsified data from the beginning.
