Chapter 56

Chapter 56
Damon

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the beeping. Slow, steady, rhythmic. The second thing was the smell... antiseptic, sharp, sterile. My throat was dry, and every muscle in my body felt like it had been run through fire.

For a few seconds, I couldn’t remember where I was or what had happened. The last thing in my memory was the crowd roaring, Nathan's man charging toward me, and then, nothing. Just darkness.

I blinked against the harsh white light until the room came into focus. The ceiling tiles. The IV stand. The faint hum of the monitor next to me. I was in a hospital. Again.

“Hey, easy,” a familiar voice said. I turned my head... too fast and winced. Alicia was sitting beside me, her hand resting over mine. Her eyes were red, like she hadn’t slept all night.

“You’re awake,” she whispered, her voice breaking just a little.

I tried to speak, but my throat was dry. She reached for a cup of water, helped me sit up, and held the straw for me.

“How long was I out?” I croaked.

“Almost a day,” she said softly. “You took a hard hit, Damon. You scared everyone.”

A day. I exhaled slowly, the realization settling in. “The game...”

“You were taken off the field,” she said quickly, her voice trembling. “They said you hit your head hard when you fell. The doctors wanted to keep you under observation.”

I nodded, staring at my bandaged arm. My whole body ached, but something deeper gnawed inside me, not physical pain, but that heavy dread that something more had happened.

“Did Nathan…?” I began.

Her lips tightened. “He’s fine. Walked away without a scratch.”

Of course he did. Nathan always did.

I clenched my jaw, staring at the wall. “Figures.”

For a while, neither of us said anything. The silence stretched, filled only by the steady rhythm of the monitor beside me. Alicia didn’t let go of my hand. Her thumb kept tracing small circles against my skin like she was trying to anchor both of us to the moment.

Finally, she said, “Marcus came by.”

My head snapped toward her. “What?”

She nodded, eyes still fixed on our joined hands. “He came to the waiting room last night. Said he wanted to explain. He didn’t stay long.”

I let out a harsh laugh. “Explain? After selling me out to Nathan?”

“Damon...”

“No, Alicia.” My voice was rough, sharper than I meant it to be. “He was supposed to have my back. We built everything together, the team, the deals, the trust. And he threw it all away.”

Her eyes met mine then, steady but full of sadness. “He said Nathan threatened his daughter. That he didn’t know what else to do.”

I fell silent. That hit harder than I expected. I knew Marcus had a little girl, but I never thought...

Still, betrayal was betrayal.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I reached for her hand again, squeezing it gently. “No, it’s not you. It’s just...everything feels like it’s falling apart. The team. The people I trusted. Even the game doesn’t feel the same anymore.”

She looked at me for a long moment before saying quietly, “Maybe that’s because the game stopped being just a game.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

She hesitated. “When your whole life becomes about proving something... to the fans, the press, your rivals... it eats away at the part of you that used to love it. Maybe this...” she gestured around the hospital room “...is life forcing you to slow down. To breathe.”

I let her words sink in. For a long time, I’d been chasing something I couldn’t name... perfection, maybe, or redemption. But now, lying here, weak and bruised, I wasn’t sure what winning even meant anymore.

“You sound like my therapist,” I said finally, trying to smile.

She laughed softly, the sound lightening the air between us. “Maybe I missed my calling.”

“You already work in a hospital,” I said. “Close enough.”

She shook her head but didn’t deny it. Her laugh faded, and I caught the flicker of worry back in her eyes. “They said you were lucky,” she murmured. “It could’ve been worse.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “But luck doesn’t last forever.”

Her gaze snapped to mine, sharp with emotion. “Don’t say that.”

I met her eyes, searching them for something solid, something real. “Alicia… I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. The pressure. The politics. The constant threats. It’s not just about me anymore.”

Her expression softened, and for the first time since I woke up, she smiled...a small, broken kind of smile that made my chest ache. “Then maybe it’s time to decide who you’re really doing it for.”

I wanted to tell her the truth, that everything I’d done, everything I’d fought for lately, had been for her. But the words stuck in my throat.

Instead, I said, “You’ve been here this whole time?”

She nodded. “Every minute. The nurses had to force me to eat something.”

I stared at her, the guilt heavy in my chest. “You shouldn’t have to keep watching me get hurt.”

Her voice trembled when she answered. “And you shouldn’t keep trying to carry everything alone.”

We sat in silence again. The clock ticked softly in the background. Outside the window, the sun was setting, throwing gold and crimson light across the hospital floor.

Then, just as I was about to say something... maybe something real, maybe something I’d been afraid to say for months... the door opened.

It was Marcus.

He looked nothing like the man I used to know. His eyes were hollow, his shoulders hunched as if the weight of what he’d done was finally breaking him.

“I didn’t think you’d want to see me,” he said quietly.

“I don’t,” I replied.

Alicia glanced between us, tension filling the room. “Maybe I should...”

“No,” I said quickly. “Stay.”

Marcus took a hesitant step closer. “I just wanted to tell you that Nathan’s not done. He’s planning something else... something bigger. You need to watch your back, Damon.”

I felt my stomach knot. “Why tell me now?”

“Because I can’t fix what I’ve done,” he said, voice shaking. “But I can try to stop what’s coming next.”

Before I could respond, a nurse entered, asking Marcus to step outside. He hesitated, then nodded, leaving with a quick glance at me... one that said more than any apology ever could.

When the door closed, Alicia turned back to me, eyes wide. “What did he mean by that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, though every part of me knew it wasn’t good. “But whatever it is, Nathan’s crossing a line this time.”

She looked pale, fear flickering across her face. “You think he’ll try something again?”

I reached for her hand. “I don’t think. I know.”

Her fingers tightened around mine. “Then we stop him.”

I met her gaze... fierce, steady, determined and for the first time since everything went wrong, I believed we could.

Still, deep down, a part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that this was only the beginning.

And as the monitor beside me beeped steadily in the quiet room, I realized that whatever Nathan had planned next, it wasn’t going to be on the field.

It was going to be personal.