Part 21 (2/2)

”Cath-”

”Get out!” My voice cracks, and I get up from the sofa and fall onto the bed. I can't believe this is happening.

As Dad leaves, I hear him say to Chance, ”It's up to you.”

The door clicks shut. The silence between Chance and me is stifling.

”Ca.s.s,” he begins, coming toward me.

”I don't want you fighting my Dad's battles. He can get in that ring himself for all I care.”

”Ca.s.s, they'll use anyone to get to him, to force his hand. That means my mother. That means... you.”

”This is too much,” I tell him, shaking my head. ”You can't make this kind of commitment to me.”

He doesn't reply.

”Chance,” I say. ”I don't want to talk to you right now. I need to think about it.”

But he doesn't listen. Of course he doesn't. He climbs onto the bed with me. I turn away from him, show him my back, so he just wraps an arm around me, and holds me.

And we lie like that for who knows how long... his breathing is so steady, mine panicked. His huge hands hold onto mine, are still as stone and hot as burning coals. Mine tremble inside him.

I hate to feel selfish, hate to be self-centered, but all I can think about is how my world is falling apart.

I may not be able to go to college in England anymore.

I had a plan. I had it all mapped out!

My laptop screen comes to life on its own, and there I see my itinerary for tomorrow.

Another plan ruined.

Eventually I ask him, ”You think you can win?”

”I got more to lose,” he tells me. ”So of course I will win.”

”He's good?”

”Yeah, an ex-pro, semi-retired.”

”Bigger than you?”

”Yeah.”

”Stronger?”

”Probably.”

”Faster?”

”Definitely not.”

I turn around in his arms, and he presses his forehead against mine, sweeps hair out of my eyes.

”It's as bad as it sounds, isn't it?”

”Probably worse,” he says. ”G.o.d knows what kind of people your pops got caught up with.”

I shut my eyes and sigh. ”I find myself hating Dad a lot these days. I feel like I don't know him anymore. He's so different... ever since he got that promotion.”

”He wasn't always a d.i.c.k?”

Despite my feelings, I laugh. ”Believe it or not, no.”

”Could have fooled me.”

Chance leans in, gives me a kiss. I clamp onto his lip, feeling a surging need to be close to him, to be distracted from all of this.

But a knock at the door breaks our kiss. His mother's voice drifts into the room: ”Chance, come outside, please.”

”You'd better go,” I tell him. ”You need to talk to her about this.”

Chapter Twenty Four.

I leave the room, hope my b.o.n.e.r isn't showing too much.

One kiss is all it takes from Ca.s.sie.

I find my mother waiting for me in the hallway.

We've never had a good relations.h.i.+p. There is some part of me that regrets it, but I was a difficult son, and she was a difficult mother.

Strong and fiery in the workplace, she lacks a human touch, and often comes off as cold or aloof. She's efficient and methodical, but her decisions often confused me.

Even as a young teenager, I found myself wondering at why she did certain things. The boyfriends were a big red flag. Almost none of them were good men, or at least, not good enough for her.

They weren't bad. They didn't beat her or anything like that a G.o.d help them if they did a but they just weren't good for her.

She's a type-A, but for some reason she always ended up with type-B men.

When I turned fifteen, she basically stopped trying to mother me. I was fighting every day, training with Coach, doing amateur tournaments.

I was considered a wrestling prodigy, and the media would have you believe the crown was waiting for me when I came of-age, when I entered the pros.