Silver Preston was supposed to be America’s next figure skating sweetheart—until a brutal injury shattered her Olympic dreams and left her stranded at Yale, miles away from the ice that defined her. All she wants is to stay invisible, to escape the suffocating grip of her former coach-mother, and to outrun the whispers that she’s finished.

But Yale hockey isn’t quiet, and neither is Eli Hayes—the team’s captain, campus golden boy, and infuriatingly unreadable. To Silver, he’s arrogant, cold, and everything she swore she’d avoid. To Eli, she’s reckless, stubborn, and a distraction he can’t afford. Their worlds were never meant to collide—except the rink has a way of pulling broken people back onto the ice.

When gossip turns cruel and secrets from the past threaten to destroy her for good, Silver is forced to decide whether she’ll keep running or fight for the life—and the love—she thought she lost. And as Eli battles his own demons under the unforgiving glare of NHL scouts, their fragile connection becomes the one thing that could save them both…or break them completely.

Full of sharp banter, late-night study sessions, stolen glances at the rink, and the electric push-pull of enemies who might be more, this is a story of ambition, redemption, and the thin line between pride and passion.

After Eli's quiet affirmation that she'd never been broken, Silver didn't know how long they sat in that charged silence. Her pulse had finally settled into something calm, the perpetual anxiety that usually hummed beneath her thoughts temporarily quiet. For the first time in months, she wasn't mentally cataloguing her failures or obsessing over what she'd lost.


Eli's expression had shifted to something unguarded. Not pity, which she'd learned to recognize and hate. Something steadier, safer. The kind of look that suggested he saw her clearly and wasn't going anywhere.


Chapter 148 - Americus Interrupts