Mike would call Lily into the study, or she’d drift in there after practice and shut the door behind her.
They’d be in there for 15 or 30 minutes at a time.
I caught Mike watching her with quiet concern.
Every time I asked what they were talking about, Mike had an answer ready.
“Training schedule.”
“Competition strategy.”
“Mental prep.”
One evening, I opened the study door without knocking.
Mike was standing right in front of Lily with his hands on her upper arms.
I opened the study door without knocking.
They both spun round when I entered. They both fell silent.
Mike immediately stepped back.
“Everything okay?” I looked from Mike to Lily.
“Yeah,” Lily said, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Of course.” Mike shrugged.
But I couldn’t help feeling that I’d walked in on something they didn’t want me to know about.
That was when fear really settled into me.
They both spun round when I entered.
A few days later, her coach pulled me aside at the rink.
He was a careful man, not dramatic, which made what he said land even harder.
“Lily looks run down,” he said. “I know she’s been training hard, but I’m concerned. She’s getting dizzy between runs. Her recovery is slower. She seems weak.”
I looked through the glass toward the ice. Lily was standing by the boards, tugging at her sleeves, face pale under the bright rink lights.
“Has she been sick?” he asked.
I thought about her complaining about feeling dizzy. “I… don’t know.”
“Lily looks run down.”
That night, I told Mike we were taking her to the doctor.
He shut it down instantly.
“Let’s not turn this into a whole thing,” he said. “She’s under pressure. This is the biggest competition season of her career.”
“So we help her.”
“We are helping her.”
The way he said it made me stop. “What does that mean?”
“This is the biggest competition season of her career.”
He shrugged. “It means we support her goals.”
I felt cold all over. “What are you not telling me?”
He laughed once, short and sharp. “You hear yourself, right now?”
I wanted to push harder. I should have.
But Lily was upstairs, and I didn’t want another screaming match where she could hear every word.
Then came the night that broke whatever denial I still had.
“What are you not telling me?”
I woke up sometime after midnight because I heard something from Lily’s room.
