On his way to realizing his Olympic dream, Tom Alan Baranowski finds himself in the midst of a dilemma. His traditional Japanese coach is insisting upon an arranged marriage between his biological daughter Erika and adopted son Tom Alan, who are partners on the ice. Tom Alan loves Erika, and his coach literally saved his life, rescuing him from an abusive home. How can he say no?<br><br>Somewhat resigned to his “not so bad” fate, everything changes when Tom Alan meets British ice dancer Milo Fisher. The spark between them is almost hot enough to melt the ice beneath their blades, and the two fall into an affair.<br><br>What about Erika? What about loyalty? What about gold? For Tom Alan, the impossible throw quadruple jump is suddenly the least difficult thing in his life.

Quadruple Flip

“But then one day, Ben, he did hit her. I was a kid, eleven, twelve, and tall for a kid. I’m a big guy, but…”


Ben reached for Tom Alan’s shoulder then, as he drove.


“But not big enough to really fight back. Anyway…” It suddenly got too difficult to fill in all the details, the end to the story especially. “Anyway, I got out. My mom…I feel like a coward sometimes, Ben. Still…Because he was hitting me more. I was definitely the first choice.” Tom Alan let out a humorless chuckle. “Definitely. But when I wasn’t around, it got to the point where he’d hit whoever was. I took the chance, when it came up, to never be there. I ran, like Henry. I am a coward, maybe.”


“Mr. Tsuchino—my papa—he got me out of there, but I left her behind.”


Chapter 44