Chapter 3 - AFTER THE CAMERAS LEFTBy midnight, the cameras were gone.
The crowd had disappeared.
The rain continued tapping against the warehouse windows.
Mia sat alone in the office, surrounded by paperwork.
The academy's debt had finally been cleared.
But the building still needed repairs.
The roof leaked.
The heaters struggled.
The electrical system was old.
And the neighborhood around them was changing.
Brandon entered carrying a bag of cement.
Mia looked up.
“You're supposed to be resting.”
“So are you.”
“I’m working.”
“So am I.”
She smiled faintly.
The old Brandon would have argued.
The new Brandon simply placed the cement down.
“I used to be the guy who broke things,” he said.
He wiped his forehead.
“It feels good being the guy who fixes them.”
Mia studied him.
“You've changed.”
He looked toward the picture of David Lawson on the wall.
“No.”
He paused.
“I finally stopped pretending I didn't need to.”
Mia's expression softened.
David's photograph hung quietly behind them.
Her husband had been gone for years.
Yet his presence remained everywhere.
In the mats.
In the students.
In the philosophy of the academy.
In the promise Mia had made when she first arrived.
She hadn't come to Chicago merely to save a building.
May you like
She had come to protect a dream.
And now someone else wanted that dream.
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