Chapter 1

"I'm sorry, Valentina," my coach said. "But the final roster has been confirmed. There wasn't a mistake."

I stood outside the administration office for almost five minutes, staring at the sheet taped to the board.

My name was gone.

Under the National Ice Training Grant, where Valentina Moretti should have been, was Bianca Bellini instead.

My first thought was that something had gone wrong with the roster. Then I saw the Romano family guarantee stamped into the review column, and I understood Dante Romano had done it. He had made his family people alter the files and take my spot from me.

When I found him, he was leaning against an armored car, scrolling through his phone.

He saw me and only flicked ash from his cigarette, squinting at me through the smoke. Two family guards in black suits stood beside the car, silent as walls.

"Bianca lost her protection," he said before I could even open my mouth. "Her stepmother's side owes money in Jersey and Boston. If she doesn't get that national grant, she's finished."

"You're strong. You can fight your way into the East Coast Ice Trials on your own."

"That national grant comes with a fully funded place at the Olympic Ice Training Center, housing, and training covered," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "You know what that means to me."

I stared at him. He looked everywhere except at my face.

Then he sighed, reached into his wallet, and pulled out a black card stamped with the Romano crest. He held it between two fingers, like he was tipping a valet.

"Fine. Listen. I'll pay for your training. Coaches, rink fees, equipment, all of it. Consider it me buying the spot from you. Are we good now?"

The rain started.

I looked at the card in his hand. Then I looked at his face.

He used to tell me that if I trained hard enough, I could leave my ruined family behind, leave this dirty, chaotic place controlled by mafia power, and step onto a bigger stage where my dream could actually mean something.

So I trained until my body hurt.

The irony was that now he was trying to buy my dream out from under me.

I turned around and started walking.

His voice cut across the parking lot, even and cold.

"Are you serious right now? You've spent your whole life chasing money, and you're really going to walk away from this much?"

"What I'm offering you is more than you'd make washing thousands of dishes at that part-time job, more than you've ever seen in your life, and you still want to play noble?"

I stopped and turned my head just enough to see him through the rain.

For years, I had believed some things were untouchable. Then all at once, they rotted through.

I gave him a faint smile.

"Sure, Dante. Think whatever you want."

By the time I got back to my part-time job, my phone was buzzing.

Sofia Quinn, my friend.

"Valentina. Tell me I'm reading the list wrong. Tell me Bianca's name isn't sitting where yours should be."

"You're reading it right."

"It's Dante. It has to be Dante. Did you confront him?"

"I just came from him."

I leaned against the back counter, looking at a pile of dirty bowls.

"He offered to pay for the rest of my skating career. Said he was buying the spot from me."

The line went quiet for a long beat.

"That entitled bastard," Sofia Quinn said finally. "Tell me you cursed him out."

"I walked away."

"Valentina, you have to fight this. That national grant is yours. Do you have any idea what you went through to earn it? The all-night training, your father—"

"It won't matter."

"What do you mean it won't matter?"

"The spot is funded by the National Sports Bureau, but the Romano family controls this school and half the city around it. The school leaders won't care whether my place gets stolen. They'll only listen to the next don of the Romano family."

She went quiet again.

"I just saw Bianca's Instagram story. Dante booked out an entire private club restaurant to celebrate her nomination."

"Fine."

"Fine? That's it?"

"I have to go. The boss is coming."

I hung up before she could say anything else.