Chapter 3

Piper's POV

"Piper..." Haley's tears spill over. "I know you're still mad. You think because I don't have money, nothing I do is good enough for you. But I meant well. You don't have to drink it, fine. Why do you have to treat me like I don't even exist?"

A few skaters from other clubs nearby exchange looks and start whispering.

"Piper Calloway is something else. The girl was just trying to be sweet, and this is what she gets?"

"Old money, you know how they are. Word is she was hitting people in the locker room yesterday too."

Every word lands exactly where Haley wants it to. For just a second, something shifts behind her eyes. Then she turns away, leaning hard into the wounded routine, hugging the cup to her chest as she retreats to a corner.

I don't give any of it a second thought. I walk to my locker and pull out my personal water bottle. The one I carry everywhere.

It's a smart bottle with a fingerprint lock. No one should be able to open it but me.

I twist off the cap, about to take a sip.

Then I stop.

After what happened to me in my last life, my senses never quite went back to normal. The second the cap comes off, underneath the faint smell of lemon water, there's something else. Faint, chemical, bitter.

I narrow my eyes and look closer at the mouth of the bottle.

Along the inside of the cap, barely visible, a thin white residue.

I thought I'd covered every angle. I was wrong. The honey lemon tea was never the real play. That was just the distraction, something to pull my attention while she cracked my fingerprint lock and got into my bottle.

If I'd grabbed it just to prove a point, just to show I wasn't drinking her tea, I'd have walked right back into the same trap.

One move. Two targets. Clean.

I breathe through it, put the bottle back, and close the locker.

The competition starts.

Over the next two hours, the announcer's voice fills the arena, names and scores rolling out one after another.

When it's all over, everyone filters backstage to wait for final results. That's when the doors swing open and a group of people in uniforms push through.

The one in front is a committee official, anti-doping staff right behind him.

"Which one of you is Piper Calloway?"

The room goes quiet. Every head turns toward me.

Haley stands in the crowd, both hands over her mouth, wide-eyed. But her eyes are alive. Lit up in a way she can't quite hide.

Grant is there too, jaw tight, reading the room.

"That's me." I stand up, calm.

The official walks straight over, report in hand. "Piper, we received an anonymous tip that you used banned stimulants during competition. We ran an emergency test on the water sample you left in the rest area. It came back positive. This is a serious violation."

The room erupts.

"She was on something? Are you serious?"

"That's disgusting. She should be banned for life. She has no place in this sport."

Grant pushes through to the front, looking at me like I just let him down personally. "Piper, this is low. Even for you. You really couldn't just win on your own?"

Haley steps forward, grabbing the official's arm, eyes wet. "There has to be some mistake. Piper works so hard, she wouldn't do this. Could someone have set her up? Or maybe she drank something without realizing what was in it?"

She frames it like she's defending me. She's not. Every word is carefully placed, steering everyone toward the same conclusion: Piper did it, one way or another.

"Stay out of this." The official pulls his arm free and turns back to me. "Piper, the committee is officially stripping your results from today's competition. We'll be reporting this to the NCAA. You're looking at a full suspension."

Grant's voice in my ear. Haley's performance. The whole room watching, waiting for me to fall apart.

I don't.

I stand there, look around at all of them, and let out a slow, quiet laugh.

"Strip my results?" I brush off my sleeve, completely unbothered. "I'm contesting that."

"On what grounds? The evidence is right in front of you!" the official snaps.

I look at him and shrug. "Because I wasn't in that competition today. I never set foot on the ice. So what exactly are you taking from me?"