His right knee rose high.
His hands dropped slightly.
My body remembered before my mind needed to.
I stepped outside.
Captured the leg.
Turned my hips.
Derek crashed onto the mat.
I followed him down.
One arm around his neck.
My chest against his shoulder.
My weight distributed so my damaged knee did almost nothing.
A rear naked choke was available.
Easy.
Instead, I whispered against his ear.
“Where did the hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars go?”
His entire body stiffened.
That was the confirmation.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Derek jerked violently.
“What?”
I loosened my position just enough.
“Claire stole seventy-two thousand from our savings and forged my name on a sixty-five-thousand-dollar equity line.”
His breathing changed.
Tiny detail.
Most people wouldn’t notice.
I did.
“Let go of me.”
“Where did it go?”
“You’re crazy.”
The clock showed 1:47.
Derek tried to
roll.
I followed.
He elbowed backward.
His glove clipped my brow.
I shifted.
“You knew,” I said.
“Go to hell.”
“Probably eventually.”
Then Derek did something strange.
He looked toward Claire.
Not for encouragement.
For instruction.
Claire’s face had gone pale.
There.
That was the moment.
The affair wasn’t the whole story.
I released Derek and stood.
The crowd booed.
Derek sprang up, furious.
“You scared?”
“No.”
He came at me swinging.
I didn’t hurt him.
That disappointed everyone.
I blocked.
Redirected.
Moved.
He grew sloppier with every second.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty.
Ten.
Derek threw one final desperate kick.
I stepped back.
His heel sliced through empty air.
The buzzer sounded.
Five minutes.
The gym went silent.
Then someone near the back started clapping.
Slowly.
One person.
Then another.
Derek ripped out his mouthguard.
“That doesn’t count!”
I looked at the clock.
“It appears to.”
“You ran!”
“I stood three
