Chapter 35. Collateral

The first thing Ethan noticed was the sound—the kind of low, electrical hum you only hear in cheap motels and hospitals.

The second was the blood dried under his fingernails.

He sat on the edge of the bed, head in his hands, watching the television across the room flicker between a boxing replay and a breaking news banner:

LEAGUE SCANDAL EXPANDS—FORMER CHAMPION CASSIAN VALE UNDER REVIEW.

FIGHTER LIA CHEN LINKED TO ILLEGAL BETTING NETWORK.

His sister’s face flashed for half a second—mouth set, eyes steady.

Then gone.

He’d seen that expression before, when she was ten and broke a kid’s nose for calling him a coward.

She’d looked the same way then: furious and certain she could fix everything.

He muttered to the empty room, “You shouldn’t be in this, Lia.”

The radiator hissed in answer.

He reached for the bottle on the nightstand, found it empty, and laughed once—quiet and without humor.

He’d prom