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.

Silver spent the rest of the day dreading her mother's arrival, checking her phone every few minutes for updates she didn't want.


By evening, she couldn't take the waiting anymore. She needed to get out of the dorm, away from Americus's knowing looks and Riley's concerned questions. So she did what she always did when she needed to think.


The Yale library at night had a different kind of silence. Alive, not empty. It wasn't the kind that pressed down on you. It breathed. Whispered pages turning, the soft hum of the heaters, the scratch of pencils against paper. Silver had always liked that kind of quiet. It let her think without having to talk.


Except tonight, she couldn't think at all.


Chapter 169 - Library Night