Chapter 4 - THE VIDEO ON LEO’S PHONE
The truth appeared on a Tuesday night while I repaired a leaking sink.
Leo left his phone on the kitchen counter. A message flashed from a group chat labeled WOLVES ONLY.
The preview showed a video.
I did not open my son’s private messages immediately. I called him into the kitchen and asked him to show me.
His face went pale.
The video showed Trent standing over a fourteen-year-old student named Owen Ruiz, who was sitting against the cage wall with one eye swollen shut.
“Tell the camera why you quit,” Trent said.
Owen whispered that his head hurt.
Trent laughed and turned the phone toward the other teenagers.
“This is what weakness looks like.”
The next clip showed Leo being forced to continue a drill after he asked to stop. His movements were slow. His balance was wrong.
I recognized the signs instantly.
“Were you dizzy?”
Leo nodded.
“How many times did you get hit before this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Trent call your mother?”
His eyes filled.
“He said if I mentioned Mom again, he’d make me sit with the little kids.”
I gripped the edge of the sink until my fingers hurt.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you already look tired all the time.”
That sentence did more damage than anything Trent said later.
My son had been hiding pain because he believed his father had no room left to carry it.
I withdrew Leo from the program that night.
Trent refused to cancel the contract.
He claimed Leo owed six months of fees and an additional equipment charge. Then he threatened to send the balance to collections under my plumbing company’s name because I had used a business card for the first payment.
I requested copies of every agreement.
May you like
He sent only an invoice.
So I began asking other parents questions.
