My stomach drops.
She listens, nods at whatever voice is filtering through the speaker. Her free hand comes up to rub her temple, and when she finally lowers the phone, her eyes find mine with something that looks disturbingly like resolve.
"That was Evelyn Sterling."
Founder of ERS. Not who I wanted to hear from right now.
"ERS already reviewed your case." Sasha's voice has gone soft, careful—the tone you use when delivering news that can't be taken back. "And… they found someone. Someone who fits every safety, PR, and psychological requirement."
The air leaves my lungs.
Found someone.
Already.
Like I'm a problem that needed solving and they went ahead and solved it while I was still onstage finishing the show.
"No." The word comes out strangled, barely audible. "This can't be real."
But Sasha's expression doesn't waver. If anything, it hardens with conviction. Or guilt. Or both.
"You'll meet him tomorrow. Nine a.m."
The room shrinks. Walls pressing in, oxygen thinning, that same lightheaded sensation from the stage creeping back into the edges of my vision.
"Tomorrow," I squeak.
Not next week. Not after I've had time to process.
Tomorrow.
Already arranged. Already moving forward. Already decided.
My breath catches—high, thin, painful—and I can't tell if I'm about to cry or scream or faint all over again.
Manny shifts by the door, his silence loud enough to confirm what I already know: he signed off on this.
They all did.
While I was singing my heart out for twenty thousand strangers, my team was concocting a plan.
My fainting hadn't just been a crack in the armor.
It had been a catalyst.
The question wasn'tifI was ready to trust again, to let someone in, to risk the kind of intimacy that shattered me the first time.
The choice had already been made without me.
Chapter two
Cam
Ihit the locker room doorway still flushed from practice, sweat rolling down my spine beneath the pads.
I'd been running drills with a kind of vengeance today, pushing harder than the trainers liked, but I needed the burn. Needed something I could control.
Football is simple. Push, pull, run, hit. Rules are clear. Results are earned.
