Chapter One- The Golden Boy Who Can't Breathe
The stadium roared his name like a prayer.
“Kai Rivers! Kai Rivers! Kai—”
He blocked it out. He always did.
All he could see was the defender charging toward him. All he could feel was the pulse in his legs, the familiar hunger to outrun the world. The ball rolled at his feet. A perfect setup. One more goal. One more reason to pretend he wasn’t falling apart.
Kai sprinted.
Flashbulbs exploded from every corner of the pitch. Commentators were already winding up their praise. His opponents knew the danger but still couldn’t stop him. He cut left, then right, the stadium holding its breath.
The tackle came late.
Studs tore into his ankle. His body hit the grass with a thud that knocked the breath from his lungs. Pain shot up his leg like a blade of fire. Gasps replaced cheers. Whistles pierced the air.
Kai lay still.
He hated that silence more than the pain. The world only went quiet when something was wrong.
His teammates rushed to him. The physio knelt by his side, asking questions Kai couldn’t answer. The sky above him blurred. The stadium lights were too bright. Too loud. His chest tightened, squeezing until his vision dimmed at the edges.
Not again.
Not here.
He tried to breathe, but the panic was faster than oxygen. His heart hammered against his ribs, fighting a war he couldn’t win.
You’re the strong one. Get up. Smile for the cameras. Pretend nothing hurts.
Still, he couldn’t move.
As the medics carried him off the field, cameras zoomed in on his face, searching for fear, weakness, anything to feed tomorrow’s headlines.
Kai kept his eyes closed.
If he didn’t look at the world, maybe it would stop looking at him.
Inside the tunnel, away from the crowd, he whispered the truth no one else would ever hear.
“I can’t keep doing this.”
And for the first time in his life, the golden boy didn’t feel like a legend.
He felt like he was breaking.
He finally looked at her. Dark eyes. Guarded. Dangerous in a quiet, broken way.
For a moment, the world seemed to pause.
Nova ignored the shiver that threatened to run down her spine.
Kai said nothing.
He just watched her, like he was trying to decide whether she was yet another person who expected him to be perfect… or someone who might see the truth he was trying so hard to hide.
Nova held her ground.
“Let’s begin.”
