Derek threw a right cross.
I parried.
His elbow opened.
I could
the move I had been waiting for.
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.
&
nbsp;
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.
