PART 3: THE SECRET BEHIND THE BLACK BELT
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
Not because of the pain in my throat.
Not because of the terrifying choke Derek had used against me.
But because of what Marcus had just said.
Derek had specifically requested that I be placed in his classes.
Eight months ago.
Before I even knew his name.
I stared at Marcus, waiting for him to explain.
“What are you talking about?” I whispered.
Marcus glanced nervously toward Rick.
“Sarah, there’s something you need to understand about this gym.”
“Marcus!” Rick snapped. “One more word and you’re fired!”
Cole stepped between them.
“Let him speak.”
Rick opened his mouth, then closed it.
There was something about my brother’s calm voice that made arguing seem pointless.
Marcus swallowed.
“When Sarah registered, Derek came into the office the next morning. He asked to see her membership information.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
Marcus looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quite understand.
“Because he recognized your last name.”
I frowned.
“My last name?”
Cole went completely still beside me.
Marcus continued.
“He asked Rick whether you were related to someone named Michael Bennett.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Michael Bennett.
Our father.
The man who had died five years earlier.
I felt Cole’s hand settle gently on my shoulder.
“What does our father have to do with Derek?” I asked.
Marcus looked toward Derek.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”
Derek suddenly laughed.
It was a nervous, ugly sound.
“This is ridiculous. You’re all making things up.”
But Cole wasn’t looking at him anymore.
He was staring at Rick.
And for the first time since entering the gym, my brother looked genuinely shocked.
“Rick Sullivan?” Cole asked quietly.
Rick’s expression changed.
“Do I know you?”
Cole studied his face.
Then he said something that made the entire room fall silent.
“You worked with my father.”
Rick’s jaw tightened.
“That was a long time ago.”
My eyes darted between them.
“What?”
Cole didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he turned toward me.
“Sarah, Dad ever tell you about the security company he worked for before he retired?”
I nodded slowly.
“Northstar Security. Why?”
Cole looked back at Rick.
“Because Rick wasn’t just his coworker. He was his business partner.”
I felt as though someone had punched me in the stomach.
Our father had been a quiet, hardworking man who rarely discussed business.
He had spent the final years of his life managing a small private security company before a sudden heart attack took him from us.
After his death, Cole handled most of the paperwork.
I was only twenty-one.
I hadn’t understood much about his finances.
But one thing I remembered clearly.
There had been an argument at his funeral.
A man in a dark suit had approached Cole near the parking lot.
They spoke for less than a minute.
Then Cole told him never to contact our family again.
I had never asked who that man was.
Until now.
“That was you,” I whispered, staring at Rick.
Rick looked away.
Cole nodded.
“Yeah, Sarah. It was.”
Derek stepped forward.
“Okay, enough of this family reunion. This has nothing to do with training.”
Cole turned toward him.
“Then why did you target my sister?”
Derek’s smile disappeared.
“I didn’t target anyone.”
“Eight months of singling her out. Ignoring her taps. Humiliating her in front of other students.”
Cole’s voice remained steady.
“And today you nearly killed her.”
Derek clenched his fists.
“You can’t prove anything.”
That’s when Emily raised her phone.
“Actually, I can.”
Every head turned.
She tapped the screen.
A video began playing.
I watched myself struggling beneath Derek.
My arms flailing.
My hand repeatedly striking the mat.
Then his shoulder.
Then the mat again.
The sound of my desperate tapping was unmistakable.
But Derek didn’t release me.
He tightened his grip.
Someone behind the camera whispered, “She’s tapping.”
Another voice said, “Derek, let her go.”
He didn’t.
Then my body went limp.
I covered my mouth.
Watching myself lose consciousness was somehow worse than experiencing it.
Because now I could see something I hadn’t noticed.
Derek had been smiling.
Even as I stopped moving.
Cole’s hand gently squeezed my shoulder.
“That’s enough,” he told Emily.
She stopped the recording.
Nobody spoke.
Even Rick looked shaken.
But Marcus wasn’t finished.
“There’s another video,” he said.
He held up the tablet.
“This one is from three weeks ago.”
Rick immediately moved toward him.
“Don’t you dare!”
Cole stepped into his path.
“Stay where you are.”
Marcus opened the recording.
The video showed Rick’s office.
Derek was sitting across from the desk.
I recognized the date in the corner.
It was the morning after I had complained about Derek’s aggressive sparring.
Rick’s voice came through the tablet speakers.
“She’s getting suspicious.”
Derek shrugged.
“So?”
“You promised me you wouldn’t make this obvious.”
Derek leaned back.
“Relax. She’s not going anywhere.”
Rick rubbed his forehead.
“If her brother finds out, we’re going to have a serious problem.”
Derek laughed.
“That skinny Army guy? Please.”
Then Rick said six words that made my blood turn cold.
“His father already ruined us once.”
The video ended.
I looked at Cole.
His face had gone pale.
“Why would they say that?” I whispered.
Cole didn’t answer.
Instead, he looked at Rick with an expression I’d never seen before.
“Tell her.”
Rick shook his head.
“You’re twisting everything.”
“Tell her what happened to Dad’s company.”
I stepped away from the wall.
Despite my dizziness, I needed answers.
“Cole, what happened?”
My brother took a slow breath.
“Five years ago, Dad discovered that money was disappearing from Northstar’s accounts.”
Rick’s eyes narrowed.
“Watch yourself.”
Cole ignored him.
“He found irregular payments, fake invoices, and contracts that didn’t exist.”
I stared at Rick.
“You’re saying he stole from Dad?”
Cole nodded.
“Dad was preparing to report everything when he died.”
A terrible silence settled over the room.
I remembered the weeks before our father’s death.
The late-night phone calls.
The way he had seemed unusually stressed.
The locked filing cabinet in his study.
At the time, I’d assumed it was simply work.
But now those memories felt different.
“After the funeral,” Cole continued, “Rick tried to convince me to sign away Dad’s remaining ownership interests.”
Rick folded his arms.
“That company was already finished.”
“Because you emptied its accounts.”
“Prove it.”
Cole’s expression didn’t change.
“I don’t have to prove anything here. The financial records exist.”
Rick’s face tightened.
Derek suddenly interrupted.
“So what? That was years ago. What’s it got to do with her?”
Cole turned toward him.
“That’s exactly what I want to know.”
Marcus looked down at his tablet.
“There’s more.”
Rick made a frustrated sound.
“Of course there is.”
Marcus hesitated.
Then he opened another folder.
“This isn’t just about Sarah.”
He turned the screen toward us.
There were dozens of video files.
Each labeled with a student’s name.
Some showed aggressive sparring.
Others showed students leaving the gym crying.
One showed a young man clutching his shoulder after Derek had refused to release an arm lock.
I recognized several faces.
People who had mysteriously stopped attending classes.
People Rick had described as “not tough enough for the sport.”
Marcus’s voice cracked.
“I started saving these because I knew someone was eventually going to get seriously hurt.”
Emily nodded.
“He’s done this to people for years.”
I looked at Derek.
For the first time, he wasn’t smiling.
He was watching the office door.
Planning something.
Cole noticed too.
“Don’t,” he said quietly.
Derek froze.
“Don’t what?”
“Whatever you’re thinking about doing.”
Rick suddenly reached into his pocket.
His phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
And his expression changed from anger to panic.
Cole noticed immediately.
“Who is it?”
Rick ignored him.
The phone rang again.
Then again.
Finally, Rick answered.
“What?”
A voice shouted loudly enough for several people to hear.
Rick turned away.
“No, I told you not to call me here!”
Cole’s eyes narrowed.
Rick listened for another moment.
Then whispered, “He found out.”
My heart started pounding.
Found out what?
Rick ended the call and looked directly at Cole.
“You need to leave.”
Cole didn’t move.
“Who was that?”
“Get your sister and leave my property.”
Marcus took a step backward.
Emily looked terrified.
I felt the room changing around us.
The anger was still there.
But now something worse had taken its place.
Fear.
Cole reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and called emergency services.
He reported my loss of consciousness, ongoing throat pain, and the assault, then gave the gym’s address.
Rick tried to interrupt.
Cole simply continued speaking.
When he finished, he looked at me.
“Sarah, sit down. Don’t strain your voice.”
I lowered myself onto a bench.
Derek muttered something beneath his breath.
Then Marcus spoke again.
“Cole, there’s one last thing.”
My brother turned.
Marcus walked toward him and lowered his voice.
“Two months ago, I found a folder in Rick’s office.”
“What kind of folder?”
“Financial documents. Old Northstar contracts. Bank statements.”
Cole’s expression sharpened.
“Where is it?”
Marcus glanced toward the office.
“That’s the problem. Rick moved it yesterday.”
Rick suddenly shouted, “SHUT UP!”
Everyone jumped.
But Marcus kept talking.
“I made copies.”
Rick’s face went completely white.
Cole stared at him.
“Copies of what?”
Marcus swallowed hard.
“Documents showing where the missing money went.”
I slowly stood again.
“And?”
Marcus looked at Derek.
Then he looked at me.
“Some of it paid for this gym.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
I stared at the polished mats, expensive equipment, and championship banners hanging along the walls.
All of it suddenly looked different.
Rick tried to speak.
But Cole raised one hand.
“Marcus, how much money?”
Marcus checked the screen.
“Just over two million dollars.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Two million dollars.
Our father had spent his life building that business.
And somehow, the man standing in front of us had turned his stolen money into a gym where his friend had spent months terrorizing me.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
Marcus scrolled down.
“There’s a transfer here from five years ago. It happened three days before your father died.”
Cole’s face hardened.
“To whom?”
Marcus hesitated.
Then slowly turned the tablet around.
I leaned forward.
The recipient’s name was clearly visible.
And the moment I read it, the entire world seemed to stop.
Because it wasn’t Rick Sullivan.
It wasn’t Derek.
It was someone I knew.
Someone who had sat beside me at my father’s funeral.
Someone who had hugged me while I cried.
I looked up at Cole, my voice trembling.
“Why is Aunt Linda’s name on this?”
For the first time all evening, my brother had no answer.
Then Marcus whispered something that made the silence even heavier.
“Because according to these records, Linda Bennett wasn’t just receiving money.”
He swallowed.
“She was the person authorizing the transfers.”
And just as I tried to process those words, Cole’s phone lit up.
An incoming message.
From Aunt Linda.
He opened it.
His expression changed instantly.
I leaned closer and read the words on the screen.
“Cole, whatever you’ve discovered at that gym, don’t tell Sarah. There’s something about your father’s death she was never supposed to know.”………
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4…
