His mother never made it off the cafeteria floor alive.
He, Melanie, and Zane had watched her bleed to death. The ironic part was that she had tried to comfort the children during her last breaths. That was the kind of person his mother had been. She had always put the needs of others above her own.
Nicholas punched the mattress beside him. He should have been there to protect her. If he hadn’t stopped to talk to some girl he had a crush on before picking his mother up that day, he would have been fifteen minutes earlier. She would have never gotten in the middle of that fight, and she would have been alive today.
Nick felt the anger boiling up inside of him. He had hated himself since that day. Everyone believed the image he projected: the million dollar smile for the fans, the dedicated athlete, supportive friend, and loving brother and son. No one saw how fucked up he truly was.
He threw the covers off and got out of bed. He paced, raking his hands through his hair, trying to shake off the pain of the memories. He found himself walking to a drawer and opening it.
Inside was one of three letters that he, his father, and Melanie had discovered when they’d finally built up the strength to clean out their mother’s closet. His mother loved to write, and amazingly, she had written a letter to each of them if anything ever happened to her. He read it now for the thousandth time.
My darling Nicholas,
If you are reading this, then I am no longer with you.
I have watched you grow into a fighter. Not only in the ring, but in life.
Life will always throw challenges at us. Some, we may learn from, and some, we may never understand. Whatever may come, I know you will endure. Just understand, Nicholas, that sometimes in life, there are no winners; sometimes, simply surviving is winning.
I may not be with you physically, but I am watching over you, and I know I’m in your heart as you, Melanie, and your dad will always be in mine.
You are my bright, shining star, and you have your whole life ahead of you—live it well.
I love you so very much, son.
Mom
Nick stared at the letter a while longer then put it back in the drawer. He took responsibility for her death.
Nick thought back to the girl who’d held him up. She had been popular and pretty, and Nick had wanted to be the man who won her over. Even then, he had liked a challenge. In reality, she hadn’t been worth losing his mother over. He had learned a hard lesson: set priorities and stick with them.
He went down to his basement and walked to the heavy-bag hanging in the middle of the room. When the nightmares came, he felt like he was reliving his mother’s death all over. His body flooded with anger.
Nick started throwing hard punches at the bag, carefully hitting it so as not to reinjure his arm. He went through a series of punches and kicks until he finally exhausted himself. However, it wasn’t enough. His mother was still on his mind.
He looked at the clock. It was five in the morning. Whenever his workouts weren’t enough, he always had a woman available. This time, though, he only had an empty bed. The thought of why his bed was empty finally pulled him from his reverie over his mother. It wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured the night ending.
His decision of not seeing Ria again gave him a feeling of loss, which he quickly forced down. It had always been easy to end it with the other women, but for once, he did care about the woman’s feelings. He was not going to let her distract him, though. He was going to have to stay away from her because this was the closest he had ever been to developing true feelings for a woman, and he wasn’t going to allow it to happen. No woman except his sister was going to have a hold over him.
He picked up his phone, making the call that he knew would achieve getting Ria off his mind. “I’m on the way.”
By the time he got done fighting, he would be lucky to be walking, much less thinking of Ria and her sassy mouth on his dick.
Chapter 11
The long fighting session had helped ease some of the tension, and he was ready to start the day. He was on the way to Zane’s gym to meet Ty for a training session. He had spoken with Zane a few days ago about scheduling a fight for Ty, and they had agreed to let Ty choose the fighter he wanted to challenge.
As he pulled into the parking lot, he saw only Zane’s vehicle and glanced at the clock. He was almost an hour early, but he knew Ty would be up. The kid was a hard worker; he was always early and never slacked off.
Nick had been spending some additional time with Ty during their training sessions to try to get a better understanding of why he was so full of anger. A fighter always had to control his temper, or it would lead to mistakes and give their opponents power. Nick sensed there was something going on with the young man, but Ty wasn’t willing to talk. Nick never asked or pushed, simply wanting to be there when Ty finally opened up or needed his help.