Chapter 6 - The old Carter gym had been abandoned for eight years.It sat behind a mechanic's warehouse in a part of the city most people avoided after dark.
The sign had fallen years ago.
The windows were broken.
The front door hung crooked on one hinge.
I stood outside in the rain and stared at it.
This was where my father had taught me everything.
How to stand.
How to breathe.
How to fall.
How to get back up.
I entered alone.
At least that was what I wanted them to believe.
The place smelled exactly the same.
Dust.
Leather.
Old sweat trapped in canvas.
My father's heavy bag still hung from the ceiling.
I touched it.
My fingers shook.
Eight years.
I had told myself I hated this place.
The truth was worse.
I missed it.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Avery.”
I turned.
Elias Vale stepped into the light.
Dominic's lawyer.
Perfect suit.
Perfect hair.
Perfect smile.
He looked nothing like a man who had ordered my mother's kidnapping.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
“In time.”
I walked closer.
He studied me.
“You have your father's eyes.”
“And you have his blood on your hands?”
His smile faded.
“Your father was a stubborn man.”
“He was murdered.”
“He made choices.”
“What choices?”
“He chose loyalty over survival.”
I wanted to hit him.
I didn't.
“What do you want?”
“The second key.”
I held it up.
His gaze locked onto it.
“You came prepared.”
“So did you.”
He glanced toward the shadows.
Men emerged.
Six.
Maybe eight.
All armed.
I counted exits.
Three.
Windows.
One broken door.
Two stairways.
My old fighting instincts came alive.
Elias smiled.
“You've been pretending to be weak for years.”
“Maybe.”
“I've watched you.”
“For how long?”
“Seven weeks.”
My blood turned cold.
“The deliveries.”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa?”
“She was instructed to test you.”
“She knew.”
“Of course.”
I thought about every insult.
Every humiliation.
Every time Vanessa had pushed me.
It had never been random.
They had been measuring me.
Waiting to see if I was Daniel Carter's daughter.
Elias continued.
“Your father taught you to hide.”
“You taught Vanessa to humiliate me.”
“She enjoyed it.”
I believed him.
That made me hate both of them.
“Where's my mother?”
Elias nodded toward a side room.
They brought her out.
She looked exhausted.
But alive.
“Mom.”
She looked at me.
“Avery, don't.”
Elias smiled.
“She knows.”
I stared at my mother.
“Knows what?”
She began crying.
“Avery…”
“No.”
My voice became sharper.
“Tell me.”
She looked at the floor.
“Your father left something for you.”
“Where?”
“The gym.”
I felt my heart pound.
Elias said, “Behind the old training wall.”
I looked toward the back of the room.
My father's training wall.
The one place he never let anyone touch.
I moved toward it.
Elias watched carefully.
I pressed my palm against the wood.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the letter.
Three knocks.
I knocked.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
A click.
The wall opened.
Behind it sat a metal box.
I pulled it out.
Elias stepped forward.
“Give it to me.”
I opened the box.
Inside was a ledger.
Hundreds of names.
Transactions.
Photographs.
Payments.
Bribes.
Judges.
Police.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Then I saw something that made my entire body freeze.
A photograph.
Dominic.
My father.
And Vanessa.
Standing together.
But the date on the photograph was impossible.
It had been taken four years after my father supposedly died.
I flipped it over.
One sentence was written on the back.
Daniel Carter is alive.
My hands went numb.
Elias saw the photograph.
For the first time, real fear entered his face.
“You weren't supposed to find that.”
I looked at him.
“You killed the wrong man.”
He reached for his weapon.
I moved first.
I kicked his wrist.
The gun flew.
The room erupted.
My mother screamed.
The first attacker rushed me.
I stepped inside his reach.
Elbow.
Turn.
Throw.
The second came from my left.
I blocked.
Countered.
Dropped him.
The third fired.
I rolled.
The bullet shattered the old heavy bag.
Sand exploded across the room.
My old gym became a battlefield.
I moved faster than I had in eight years.
Not because I wanted to.
Because my body remembered.
Every movement.
Every lesson.
Every night my father made me repeat the same technique until my legs stopped shaking.
I reached the last man.
He raised his weapon.
I drove my forearm into his wrist.
He collapsed.
Silence.
Elias was gone.
He had escaped through the rear exit.
My mother grabbed my arm.
“Avery.”
I turned.
She pointed at the photograph.
“He's alive.”
I stared at the words.
Then at her.
“How?”
She whispered:
“Your father called me three months ago.”
My breath stopped.
“You knew?”
“I was afraid.”
“Where is he?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then her expression changed.
She looked toward the broken window.
“Avery…”
“What?”
“There was another person in the gym.”
I turned.
Nobody.
My mother whispered:
“The man who took the photograph.”
I looked down at the picture again.
At my father.
At Dominic.
At Vanessa.
And suddenly the truth became much darker.
May you like
If Daniel Carter was alive…
then the dead man in the car eight years ago had not been my father.
Related Stories
