Chapter 18: On His Knees

Lena's POV

The team send-off was held in the ballroom of a Vancouver hotel, under a banner with the maple leaf on it.

Forty athletes in red jackets stood on one side of the room.

On the other side stood sixty reporters, with their cameras up.

Theo stood beside me, close enough that our sleeves touched.

I had asked him the night before not to speak for me, and he had said, "I wasn't going to."

Wyatt came in at ten past eleven.

He wore the grey sponsor suit and a small, brave smile.

He walked straight up the center of the room, which someone had cleared for him.

His father's publicist followed with a phone held up, filming.

"Lena," Wyatt said.

He stopped three feet away, on my right.

He had found the right place to stand without looking, and I knew he had practiced it.

"I'd like to say something, and I'd like it to be in public, because that's where I wronged you."

He took an index card from his pocket.

He held it close to his face and read from it.

"I behaved badly. I treated eighteen years like a contract."

His voice caught in the right place.

"I chose my own fear over the person who never once let me fall. I'm sorry, Lena. I'm so sorry."

The cameras clicked.

Somewhere behind me, a woman said, "Oh, God."

He put the card away.

"I'd like to ask you to come home. For the Games, and after." He reached into his jacket. "I'd like to ask you again."

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