Page 132 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

“Wow… they did it. They really did it…”

Alisa watched with tears of happiness in her eyes as Tora hugged Loke while sitting in the Kiss & Cry area. Their coach looked at them with a proud smile and immediately joined in the group embrace.

Norway had won the pair skating competition.

Tora had taken gold today.

Chapter 25

The day came when Alisa performed her short program. She was shaking all over before going out onto the ice.

She walked around the room as if wound up, like a spinning top; each athlete had their own room before going out, and she was grateful for that. Here she could be herself for at least a couple of minutes, here she didn’t have to smile at the audience, she could simply be nervous and drown in her anxiety, trying to breathe according to the 4/6 pattern, and cut circles around the small room with a sofa and a TV broadcasting the beauty of Italy.

She started jumping on two legs, waving her arms as much as she could, trying to distract herself from obsessive thoughts, while in her mind she tried to imagine skating her program perfectly.

The coach entered the room.

He put his hands on her shoulders, and Alisa stopped jumping, coming out of the trance where she had already skated the program cleanly in her head and had already won the highest scores of the day.

She swallowed nervously, trying to calm her heart that was beating wildly; her hands were shaking mercilessly. Arkadiy took them in his, beginning to calm her, stroking her knuckles with his big fingers.

“Alisa, look at me.”

She looked, trying not to burst into tears from fear.

“You can do it, do you hear me? You’ll skate this program perfectly, you’ll perform all your elements and jumps. You’re ready, you’ve been training for this for so long. It’s your time to shine. You’re our ice star. Go out there and show everyone that you are the champion of Russia.”

And then she felt it, I was at the Olympics, damn it, and I was about to perform. She had to go out there and skate perfectly, because Arkadiy had put so much training and effort into her. For the sake of her coach, for the sake of the team, for the sake of her country, she had to win, even when the whole world was looking at her team with hatred.

She took a deep breath.

Exhaled.

And turned around, following the volunteer organizers whose jackets were labeled Volunteer – Italy – Milano – Olympics 2026.

“Warm-up: six minutes! Group A.”

Then the competitors began taking the ice one by one.

And then—

No…

No, what is she doing here?!

Alisa froze as Tora stepped onto the ice.

She couldn’t have messed up the timing of the event.

She simply couldn’t have.

Anger rose inside Alisa, growing into something like an Armageddon, ready to destroy everything in its path.

Tora still didn’t look in Alisa’s direction; instead, she continued in her own world, practicing her elements for the short program—the single program.

The fucking single program.

Was she really performing here today, competing with me in my own group?