Page 156 of Spark

I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows as I focused on calming my breathing. “I don’t understand. I did everything you asked,” I said.

He shook his head, and tore off the mitts. “Your body did. But you didn’t.”

I placed my hands on my hips and furrowed my brows, still trying to catch my breath but remained stoic. “Well, I–”

“We’re done for the day,” he said, completely interrupting me as he headed out of the cage. I watched him walk out of the gym and slam the door behind him.

Shaking my head, I grabbed my boxing gloves from the floor and headed out of the cage while removing my wraps. I didn’t know what to make of his reaction. What had I done wrong?

“Did I do something wrong?” I asked Clive and Owen as they took my gear from me.

Clive simply sighed while he set my stuff on the nearby bench, and Owen just shook his head.

“Why did you train with Scott?” Owen asked me.

I almost glared at him. The answer was obvious. “Because Darren told me to.”

“And if he hadn’t told you to, would you have wanted to?” Clive asked.

I shrugged. “Only if it would have made Darren happy.”

“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? You only do things that make Mr. Davis happy,” Owen said. “You need to do things that make you happy as well.”

I felt taken aback by that, the inappropriateness of the conversation suddenly weighing on me.

“I don’t think we should be having this conversation,” I said.

Clive rolled his eyes and began to usher me out of the gym. “Come on. You need a shower, little girl.”

I got halfway up the staircase when I suddenly realized I didn’t even care that Clive had called me little.

What the fuck had happened to me?

54

Comeback

* * *

Another month went by with barely any change in Jaden. She still wasn’t training on her own, only when I asked. Her muscle tone was disappearing, and she was losing weight in muscle mass. After finally forcing her to train with Scott, he’d never been so disappointed in his life. She was still able to complete every move and keep up, but her drive and power were completely absent. It was like she wasn’t even there inside. She was somewhere else.

I was ready to fucking strangle something.

Sid told me he thought she was struggling with PTSD, which explained her lack of emotion, her disdain for her old activities and habits, and her poor sleep and nightmares. The only time she ever smiled was when I was spending time with her, but it just felt wrong, fake, like she wasn’t really there, just a part of her.

Even now, with Jaden curled up against my side while we watched the Detroit Red Wings play the Toronto Maple Leaves, there was nothing from her. Zero emotion. It was killing me inside.

I had allowed this concealed misery to linger long enough. I needed to find something that would start the goddamn fire and bring Jaden back to life. I just had to find the one thing that would finally make her snap out of this shadow and rise to rule at my side like the fucking queen she was meant to be.

My phone started to ring just after the Red Wings scored their winning goal, and I answered, knowing I wouldn’t have to worry about Jaden listening in anymore. I was almost disappointed by that.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Man, do I have a surprise for you,” Scott said on the other line.

“What?” I asked.

“I found our snitch. The last and original snitch. Fucker’s been hiding under our nose the whole time.”

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