But as soon as the anthem ended, I pressed my bouquet into Garrett’s hands. He gave me a bewildered look, but I was already stepping off the gold medal platform, heading for the exit.
I thought I’d lost Heath. When I reached the lobby, though, I spotted the back of his dark coat as he pushed through the glass doors leading to the parking lot. I ran after him as fast as I could still wearing my skates. I hadn’t even stopped to grab my guards; the blades would be ruined. I had custom ones now, like Bella’s and Garrett’s, with my name engraved in cursive.
The weather had been arctic all week, and it was snowing—white eddies swirling across the pavement, splinters of ice stinging my eyes. My blood had thinned after so many years in Los Angeles, but I hardly noticed the chill. I held my breath as I scanned the lot, from the dormant fountain in the center to the stand of cedar trees marking the edge. Heath had disappeared.
If he’d even been there in the first place.
“Kat!” Garrett caught up with me. “What are you—”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sheila was only a few steps behind her son, and while he seemed genuinely concerned about my erratic behavior, she was furious.
“Give her a minute,” Garrett said.
Sheila turned her glare on him. He shrunk from her, looking like a timid little boy instead of a twenty-year-old champion athlete.
“I’m sorry.” My legs shook, rocking on the curved blades like I stood on the deck of a pitching ship. I’d been so sure it was him, but I was already doubting myself. “I—”
“You’re a world champion now,” Sheila snapped. “So act like it.”
She turned on her heel and strode back inside.
“Come on.” Garrett draped his Team USA jacket around my shoulders. “Everyone’s waiting for us.”
I’d sacrificed so much for this moment. So much I could never get back, even if I wanted to. And it had all been worth it, hadn’t it? Garrett and I were world champions. We would be the gold medal favorites at the next Olympics.
So act like it.
Garrett Lin:In Moscow, it seemed like Kat had seen a ghost.
A closeup of Katarina Shaw during the medal ceremony at the 2005 World Figure Skating Championships. Her eyes widen with shock, and Garrett and the other medalists watch, confused, as she leaves the podium.
Garrett Lin:She didn’t tell me what happened, and I didn’t want to pry.
At the 2005 Worlds post-event press conference, the medal-winning teams sit at a long table with name placards and microphones in front of them, taking questions from reporters.
“Why did you take off so abruptly during the medal ceremony, Katarina?”
Katarina turns to the reporter with a stiff, too-wide smile.
“It’s always been my dream to win Worlds,” she says. “Standing up there, listening to the anthem, I suppose I was…overcome with emotion.”
The answer sounds overly rehearsed, as fake as her smile. Garrett puts his arm around her shoulders and shines a disarming grin over the whole room.
“She didn’t want anyone to see her cry,” he says. “Even though I was already up there blubbering like a baby!”
He laughs, and so do the reporters. Katarina relaxes a bit, leaning into Garrett’s side.
Ellis Dean:Yeah, no one believed that sad attempt at spin. Not Sheila’s best work.
Jane Currer:Ms. Shaw’s behavior was poor sportsmanship, plain and simple.
Veronika Volkova:Extremely disrespectful. My Yelena would never dream of doing such a thing.
Garrett Lin:It never feels like you imagine it will, when you achieve a milestone like that. I wasn’t in a celebratory mood either, because of how upset my sister was.
Bella Lin and Zack Branwell watch from the back of the stands during the 2005 Worlds free dance. Bella holds an American flag crumpled in her lap and wears a sullen expression. When she realizes the camera is focused on her, though, she brightens up and starts waving the flag, elbowing Zack until he does the same.
Garrett Lin:Bella wanted to go to the Olympics more than anything in the world. It was unfortunate, what happened with Zack, but I knew she’d still find a way to make it to Torino. My sister always got what she wanted. No matter what.
