Chapter 2 - Two Minutes, Forty-One Seconds
Sadi had not come to the Foundry looking for her brother.
Not tonight.
She had come because the hospital wanted another payment for her mother’s rehabilitation, and cash tips did not ask questions about missing years.
But Nox’s warning turned every stranger beyond the fence into someone who might know where Eli was.
She swallowed.
“Where?”
His grip tightened.
“Not here.”
Then he shoved her away.
She landed hard enough to convince the audience.
Leo shouted something obscene.
Sadi rose.
Her lower back protested. Old damage, earned during the championship season she had abandoned after her father’s death.
She had been Sadie Calder then.
Nationally ranked. Scholarship offers. A brother who filmed her training sessions and made ridiculous highlight reels.
The photograph had been taken outside their first gym, before the roof leaked and before men in expensive coats began visiting. Nathan stood behind her father, smiling awkwardly, holding a cheap trophy. Eli had drawn a crown above his head in blue marker. Sadi remembered teasing her brother about ruining the picture. She would have given anything to hear him defend that ridiculous crown again.
Then a warehouse fire killed their father.
Eli disappeared three weeks later.
Police called him a runaway.
Her mother called his phone until she forgot what day it was.
Sadi shortened her name, moved across the city, and learned how expensive grief became when nobody stopped charging rent.
Nox advanced again.
She watched his shoulders.
He could have ended the fight already.
Instead, he was offering her openings too obvious for anyone trained by Michael Calder to miss.
He wanted her to perform.
He wanted her to leave.
But he had said alive.
And she could not walk away from that word.
“Tell me where,” she said.
He threw a wide punch.
She slipped past it.
“Stop asking.”
At ringside, Dominic’s gaze narrowed.
He had seen the conversation.
Sadi knew it.
Nox knew it too.
His expression tightened with something like apology.
Then he came at her for real.
She barely avoided the first blow. The second caught her shoulder and spun her against the fence.
Pain flashed down her arm.
The crowd roared.
For an instant, she was seventeen again, her father beside the training mat, tapping his own chest.
Panic spends energy. Attention saves it.
She breathed.
Nox’s right knee dragged when he reset.
Not weakness.
Injury.
The kind she had watched him tape in the background of that old photograph.
She met his next advance without trying to overpower him.
A turn. A shift of weight.
He stumbled.
She followed him down, caught the position, and waited.
His arm stiffened beneath her hands.
“Tap,” she whispered.
His eyes locked on hers.
For a heartbeat, he looked relieved.
Then his free hand struck the mat.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The room exploded.
Sadi released him immediately and rolled away.
The timekeeper stared at the clock.
Two minutes, forty-one seconds.
Dominic entered before the promoter could invent an objection.
He looked at Nox.
Then at her.
“Everyone out.”
Nobody moved.
His voice lowered.
“Now.”
Chairs scraped.
Money vanished into pockets.
Leo started to argue until one of Dominic’s guards took his elbow.
Within minutes, only six people remained.
Sadi found her shoes beside the gate.
“Pay the staff.”
Dominic nodded toward his manager.
“Tonight.”
“The hospital.”
“Covered.”
“My third condition.”
“You can leave.”
She glanced at Nox.
His face had closed again.
Dominic noticed.
“What did he tell you?”
“That your marriage proposal needed work.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Make jokes?”
“Pretend you’re not terrified.”
The words landed too accurately.
Dominic removed his jacket and handed it to a guard.
“I know who you are, Sadie Calder.”
Her blood went cold.
“Your father taught my brother to box.”
“Then you know he’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“And my brother?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“Eli,” he said quietly.
Sadi took one step toward him.
Behind her, Nox spoke.
“Dominic. Check the cameras before you say another word.”
Above the empty bar, a small red light blinked.
Dominic looked up.
For the first time, Sadi saw a crack in his control.
He reached for his phone.
May you like
“Find my uncle,” he said.
“And nobody lets him leave town.”
