Cassidy had no intention of returning to work as though Vincent’s world had not changed hers. The restaurant manager offered her a raise, clearly hoping to prevent awkward publicity.
She refused.
“I’m not getting hazard pay for knowing your owner.”
Instead, she gave notice on her own schedule after securing enough coaching hours to cover rent. Vincent offered to make her director of the athletic club. She refused that too.
“I have no idea how to run a nonprofit.”
“You learn quickly.”
“That is how rich men end up appointing unqualified people they like.”
Vincent stared at her, then laughed.
“All right.”
They hired an experienced program director. Cassidy stayed a coach. The financial controls were handled by an outside accountant, and quarterly spending reports were posted publicly in the lobby because Cassidy insisted that a gym born from hidden money should have no hidden money.
The program opened six months later.
Cassidy did not quit the Brass Lantern immediately. She needed the income. But she began coaching two evenings a week at the club, then three. The first class had seven kids. Four girls, three boys, none of whom cared that the man in the restored photograph on the wall had once been blacklisted by people who thought silence was cheaper than truth.
Cassidy cared.
She kept the photograph of Patrick holding her as a baby.
Vincent returned the red hand wraps too.
One evening, while cleaning out the old locker, Cassidy found a folded index card tucked behind the metal shelf.
The handwriting was her father’s.
Five rules.
Hands up.
Chin down.
Feet under you.
Never fight angry.
If somebody grabs you, make space before you make damage.
Cassidy sat on the locker-room floor and laughed through tears.
That was the rule he had repeated to her as a child.
She had always thought it was only boxing.
It was the reason Dominic ended up stumbling into a booth instead of getting punched in the face at the Brass Lantern. It was the reason Patrick taught her to move sideways when someone tried to control her body. He had not been training a daughter to become violent.
He had been teaching her that escape came before retaliation.
The next week, a twelve-year-old girl named Imani froze during a drill when her partner caught her wrist.
Cassidy stopped the class.
