“It’s not enough.”
“I know.”
She hated that he kept giving the right answer.
“What are you doing about the fighters who are still alive?”
“Restitution where records support it. Legal fees. Medical assistance for some of the older men.”
“And the club?”
Vincent hesitated.
“What about it?”
“You offered me fifty thousand dollars to fight you.”
“I remember.”
“Still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Don’t give it to me.”
“What do you want?”
“A youth program. No betting. No private purses. Open books. Girls get the same ring time as boys.”
Silence.
Then Vincent said, “Patrick would have negotiated harder.”
Cassidy smiled for the first time.
“Add concussion screening and transportation vouchers.”
“There he is.”
Before the commission released its findings, Cassidy was asked whether she wanted to attend Dominic’s formal interview. Her first instinct was yes. Her second was to ask why.
“To watch him admit it?” the investigator offered.
Cassidy thought about that.
“No. I don’t need his face for it to be true.”
She submitted Patrick’s letter and answered questions about when she found it. Vincent supplied the ledger and internal records. The process moved without needing Cassidy to stand across from the man who had helped ruin her father’s career. That felt important. Closure did not require proximity.
Dominic tried to change his story twice. First he claimed the payment beside Patrick’s name had been a legitimate training advance. Then he argued Patrick had returned it only after becoming afraid the scheme would be discovered. The old ledger undercut both versions. So did Vincent’s father’s notes, which showed the theft accusation appeared only after Patrick refused the money.
When the commission issued its preliminary report, Vincent brought Cassidy a printed copy.
She read the sentence clearing Patrick three times.
“Why did your father keep all this if he was never going to use it?” she asked.
Vincent stood near the gym window. “I’ve been asking myself that.”
