“You want to give me feedback on my skating, fine,” I said. “But what I do in my free time is none of your business. This is my life, and—”
“If you want to be a champion, skating shouldbeyour life. And as your coach, everything you do is my business. You and Mr. Rocha are welcome to find another coach if you disagree with my methods.”
I should have anticipated this, when we decided to come back to the Academy. It was naive to think Sheila would welcome Heath and me with open arms after we’d cost the twins their Olympic birthrights. She could have cut us loose, told us to go train somewhere else—but under her control, we were a threat that could be neutralized.
If tarnishing us was what it took to let her children shine brighter, Sheila wouldn’t hesitate. As furious as I was, a small, mean part of me admired her for being so ruthless—and blamed myself for not seeing it sooner. When Sheila told us to ignore the media attention, I assumed it was sage advice born of her decades in the spotlight. But Sheila Lin had never in her life ignored the press. She’d played them to get what she wanted—the same way she’d played Heath and me to keep us from controlling our own career, our own story.
“I think we’ve learned all we can at the Lin Ice Academy.”
In my head the words were nasty, forceful; when I spoke them aloud, I sounded like a lost little girl. Sheila was silent for a long moment. The breeze picked up, sending the French flag on the roof of the Panthéon rippling. I tugged my robe tighter, tears stinging my eyes.
“As you said, Ms. Shaw.” Her voice was cold, but I could swear I heard a hint of sorrow in it. Maybe that was only wishful thinking, though. “It’s your life.”
She hung up. I snapped my phone shut, just as the terrace door scraped open. Heath stood on the threshold. He’d pulled on shorts, but he still looked half-asleep.
“I talked to Sheila,” I said.
I didn’t tell him the rest. I didn’t need to. He could see it all over my face.
He held out his hand. “Come to bed.”
I shed my robe, and we slid under the sheets together. Heath kissed my forehead.
“We don’t need her, Katarina. All we need is each other.”
I closed my eyes and listened to his heartbeat and, for the moment at least, let myself believe him.
Part IV
The Game
Garrett Lin:How would I describe the next phase of Kat and Heath’s career?
Kirk Lockwood:All over the place. They had, what, ten different coaches in five different countries in two years?
Jane Currer:Appalling. Parting ways with Sheila Lin may have been the worst mistake they ever made, and that’s saying something.
Ellis Dean:The best thing that ever happened to me. Those little attention whores provided so much content, it was hard to keep up.
Garrett Lin:I guess I’ll go with “wild.” In more ways than one.
Francesca Gaskell:It seemed like Shaw and Rocha wereeverywherein those days.
Katarina and Heath pose on the red carpet at a movie premiere. They pop champagne at the opening of a new dance club. They laugh on a talk-show sofa. Katarina’s hair has grown out into a sleek chin-length bob, and they’re both clearly being dressed by professional stylists.
Inez Acton:That nude shoot they did was an attack on bisexuals everywhere. Let uslive.
Behind-the-scenes footage of Katarina and Heath’s photo shoot forESPN The Magazine’s annual Body Issue. They pose with his arm across her chest and her thigh blocking his pelvis.
Inez Acton:And then there were all those YouTube supercuts. Pornographic, basically.
A snippet of a fan-made YouTube video plays: dramatically filtered clips of sexy moments from Shaw and Rocha programs, edited to match the song “Promiscuous” by Nelly Furtado.
Inez Acton:I heard the figure skating association tried to have the videos taken down—something about streaming rights? Big mistake ontheir part, if you ask me. Those were the most effective advertisements for ice dance ever made.
Jane Currer:Mind you, Shaw and Rocha still hadn’t won a major title. But the general public wasn’t interested in them for their athletic skills. Katarina and Heath werecelebrities.
Garrett Lin:By far the craziest thing I heard about was…I think they call it “fan fiction”?
