Chapter 16 - The Fight She Wanted
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The charity exhibition had happened seven weeks earlier.
Damian remembered it clearly.
He had been recovering from knee surgery.
Celia insisted the family foundation needed publicity.
“You don’t have to fight,” she told him.
“Just three light rounds.”
Damian agreed.
The opponent was a retired cruiserweight named Eddie Knox.
A decent man.
Or so Damian thought.
Richard contacted Eddie.
Within an hour, Eddie called back.
He sounded horrified.
“Damian, I didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Celia paid my manager extra.”
“For what?”
“To push the pace.”
Damian went silent.
“She wanted me hurt?”
“She wanted you exhausted. Disoriented if possible.”
Damian remembered the third round.
Eddie had suddenly stopped treating it like an exhibition.
Hard body shots.
A hook near the temple.
Damian finished the round but stumbled leaving the ring.
Celia immediately rushed toward him with cameras nearby.
“Dad, do you know where you are?”
At the time, Damian thought she was concerned.
Now he remembered Lily standing outside the ropes.
Crying.
Celia had made sure she watched.
Eddie continued.
“My manager told me the whole thing was for a documentary about aging athletes.”
“There was no documentary.”
“I know that now.”
Damian hung up.
Lily sat across the room coloring.
He watched her.
Every moment Celia called family concern had been evidence collection.
Richard found the event footage.
There it was.
Damian stumbled.
Celia asked confusing questions.
A videographer zoomed in.
Later, Celia’s sealed petition cited the event as evidence that Damian suffered “episodes of disorientation.”
Damian laughed bitterly.
“She built me the same way she built Lily.”
Richard nodded.
“Two unstable people.”
“One responsible guardian.”
“Exactly.”
Then Frank found something else in Celia’s notebook.
A projected asset table.
If Celia became Lily’s guardian and Damian was removed as trustee, she expected to control millions in distributions, management fees and property decisions.
At the bottom she had written:
Sell west gyms.
Refinance mansion.
Liquidate Elena position.
Lily had never been family to Celia.
She had been access.
Damian closed the notebook.
“I want every gym protected.”
“They are.”
“Every employee.”
“Protected.”
“And Lily?”
Richard looked at him.
“She needs more than legal protection.”
Damian understood.
For two years, everyone had talked about what Lily inherited.
No one had asked what she had lost.
Her parents.
Her sense of safety.
Her ability to trust adults.
Damian knelt beside her coloring book.
“What are you drawing?”
“A boxing ring.”
He smiled.
“Who’s fighting?”
“Nobody.”
He looked again.
Inside the ring were tables.
Children.
Paint.
Books.
“What is it?”
“A room where nobody gets hurt.”
Damian’s throat tightened.
And suddenly he knew exactly what he would do with the place Celia tried to use against them.
But before he could begin, prosecutors called.
Celia wanted a deal.
And one of her conditions involved Lily.
May you like
👉 Even from a jail interview room, Celia was still trying to bargain with the child she had terrorized.
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