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“The last blog also said I was pregnant.”
“Are you?”
“No. Don’t believe everything you read in gossip blogs.”
“I’ll ask the question everyone wants to know. Is your relationship with Grady Radcliffe real?”
Reese bit her lip to keep it from quivering. “I want to clear this up once and for all. I knew the moment I laid eyes on Grady Radcliffe that he was the partner I’d been looking for all my life. That he was special. It took me a while to get to that point, to let myself believe it, but without him I’m not sure I would have been able to get through all this. He makes me laugh, and he listens when I cry, and he never judges. He gets me, and there is nothing fake or phony about that. Kasey, I love him. He is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
She wanted to glance over at him, but she knew it would look strange on camera. She would have to wait until the interview was over to see his reaction.
Kasey asked a few more questions and wrapped up the interview. Reese thought she’d fared well. The cameras stopped rolling, she shook Kasey’s hand, and she sought out Grady. He was off to one side, staring at her. When he gave her a half wave, she walked toward him, picking up her pace as she did, and when she stood before him, he reached his hand out to her.
“I love you too.”
* * *
“Vindication,” John said, sounding more animated than she’d heard him in years.
“What? What are you talking about?” Reese asked.
He shoved his tablet Reese and Grady’s way, and Reese gasped. Perhaps fearing that the interview would scoop him, Josh Semple and theGazettehad released the final article online, one day early.
Reese and Grady walked over to a quiet corner and read the article together. Reese thought her knees were about to buckle, and she grabbed Grady’s arm to keep herself upright. Because there it was—literally in black and white. Semple had published his final article, the longest of all of them, and it detailed what had gone on, Jen’s motives, and the sad outcome.
Jennifer Brennan found herself in an impossible situation. Her skating academy was failing, the father of her child had stopped paying child support, and a former rival had launched an athletic-wear line that was gaining traction. In the face of losing all she had, she wanted to settle an imaginary score about an old grudge.
“Wow,” Reese said, but she continued reading.
Spurred on by friends who knew only part of the story, Brennan bought into her own version of events. She would do whatever she had to in order to take down her former rival. And while Beresford bears some blame, can we really blame a fifteen-year-old for being reactionary? Based on the texts, emails, and interviews from friends of Brennan, she was clearly the aggressor and always had been. For some reason, she hated Beresford. As this columnist analyzed the evidence, the only conclusion I could come up with was that she felt inferior to the more talented Beresford. But then, many other skaters at the academy were much more talented than Brennan. Why target Reese Beresford?
“Ouch,” Reese said.
“Yeah, that’s brutal.”
She read on.
Perhaps the real fault lies at the feet of the adults around them. How could they have missed the rising tensions? It seems everyone at the skating academy was aware of the animosity, yet it got by coaches and parents. These two athletes were failed by the people around them.
Both Jennifer Brennan and Reese Beresford declined to be interviewed. I would have liked to have been able to talk to them, to get their sides of the story. What this whole sordid tale tells us is that we can’t be quick to judge. When the scandal broke three months ago, the first instinct of many people was to cancel Reese Beresford. To ruin her new company, to tar and feather her. Instead, if we’d all dug a little deeper, we would have seen the truth: Jennifer Brennan had always wanted to destroy the Queen of Ice, and this time she almost succeeded.
Reese leaned back into Grady for support. It was over. It was finally over.
“I think that was a pretty positive article,” Grady said.
“I’m in shock.”
They walked back to John and returned his tablet. He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
“I would love to sue her, but I think it’s best we put this whole matter behind us. I will warn her lawyer that if any other funny business starts, we are suing that woman into oblivion.”
“I never want to think about her again.” Reese turned to Grady. “Should we go home?”
“Definitely. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Epilogue
Reese loved the sound of church bells ringing. She could hear them in the distance as their car pulled up to the reception. Grady looked fabulous in his silver-blue suit, and Reese’s blue dress complemented it perfectly. He always knew what to wear. He took her hand as they got out of the car and walked into the reception hall.
