a sharp protest whenever I moved too quickly. It was the ghost of a dream, the ghost of the dancer I u

en who still had the future I' d lost, and the endless, flat silence of a

d, or a bill collector. It was a frantic sta

t' s Mr. H

was tight

ackstage. A lighting rig fell.

fire in a shy teenager and forged her into a principal dancer.

" I asked, my

ity General. But Sarah...

ckstage. An accident. It felt wrong, too convenient. A cold dread,

my words numb. "David.

he other end

id and Lily left right after their rehearsal. Said they h

Hayes. My

r, Lily Chen, the new prodigy, the sweet, charming girl who had appeared in our lives and effortlessly taken everything that was once mine. And Ethan, the b

y' s debut. While the man who had built al

ickening, gut-wrenching memory, so vivid it

r officially over, listening to the doctors talk in hushed, pitying tones. I remembered David visiting once, not to comfort me, but to tell me that Lily would be taki

ersible. He had been the one to oversee my therapy, to prescribe the treatments. He told me he had done everything he could

. I watched as they isolated Mr. Harrison, pushing him out of the company he built, until he was left with nothing. I had died a slow death, a forgotten name in a playbill, my spirit as b

d was clenched so tightly around my phone that my knuckles were white. The

memory. It w

me people, the same motives, t

time was

e. I let them win. I let them destroy me and

f my defeat. A fire I thought had died long ago began to burn in my chest.

Not

r the news to tell me it was too late. They had taken my career. Th

id, my voice no longer n

ovement sent a jolt of pain up my leg, a fierce reminder of what I had lost. But the

ing, but not from fear. It was from a surge of adr

id and I as children, him lifting me onto his shoulders. A picture of Ethan and me on the day we got

hind Lily' s innocent smile, the ruthless ambition behind Dav

ding toward danger. I was weak, impaired, and alone. But for the first time in a very long time, I was not helpless. I

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