Lahat ng Kabanata ng Disgraced at the Gym: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

"Kenneth, didn't Cass say this gym belonged to our family? Who's this young man?"At that moment, my sixty-year-old father-in-law, Charlie Moore, rose awkwardly from the couch, his face a mix of confusion and worry.His calloused hands fidgeted with the hem of his jacket. The flush that had colored his cheeks moments earlier, from the excitement of watching the match, had drained to a sickly white now that this stranger had insulted him.Charlie was a die-hard boxing fan. In his younger days, he'd even trained with the state team, before a string of injuries forced him into early retirement so he could support my wife, Cassidy Moore, through school.We'd been married five years, and in that time Charlie had come to treat me like his own son. My own family ties had always been thin, and it was Charlie's steady presence over the years that had filled the gap my father never had. That was exactly why I'd believed Cassidy would make a good wife too, and why I'd said yes when she propos

"Ha ha ha ha! Oh my god, I'm dying, this is hilarious!"Tyson laughed so hard tears nearly spilled from his eyes. He clutched his stomach, pointing at Charlie's faded old jacket."You old relic, have you lost your mind trying to claim family you don't have?"Cass already told me her father's some overseas tycoon, settled abroad ages ago!"Take a good look in the mirror before you open your mouth. You couldn't scrape together twenty bucks between the two of you, and you're trying to pass yourself off as Cass's real father?"Dennis chimed in with a sneer of his own."Exactly! What kind of standing does Ms. Moore have that she'd end up with some dirt farmer for a father?"It really is true, every forest has its share of strange birds. Now they're running scams at the Titan gym."I watched their faces and felt the last bit of warmth in my chest go completely cold.'Cassidy, you played the heiress in front of this animal so hard that you actually disowned the father who raised you?

"Let go of him! Get away from me, all of you!"Cassidy shoved the towering boxer aside like a woman possessed and pulled Charlie's limp body into her arms, shaking so hard it looked like she was coming apart."Dad! Dad, wake up! It's me, Pumpkin! How are you even here?! Why is there so much blood?!"Tyson, startled by how frantic she looked, spoke up hesitantly."Cass, what... what did you just call him? Isn't he supposed to be some con artist? Why are you holding onto a beggar like that?!""Shut up!"Cassidy whipped around, her eyes bloodshot, and roared at Tyson and Dennis."Call an ambulance! He's my father! If anything happens to him, I'll make every single one of you pay with your lives!"Dennis flinched violently and fumbled his phone out to dial with shaking hands.Beside him, Tyson had gone pale, one hand clamped over his mouth, too afraid to make a sound.He never could have imagined that the half-dead old man he'd just ordered beaten was the actual father of his sug

The next morning, Charlie was finally wheeled out of the operating room.His life had been saved, but the damage to his brain was severe enough that he was still deep in a coma. They moved him to the ICU.Watching the old man through the glass, hooked up to a tangle of tubes, frail and helpless, the fire in my chest only burned hotter.That was when a flurry of footsteps echoed from the far end of the hallway.Cassidy came marching toward me, flanked by Tyson and a lawyer carrying a briefcase.After a night of careful planning, she'd apparently reclaimed her air of untouchable CEO poise."Kenneth." Cassidy stopped in front of me. There wasn't a trace of concern for her critically ill father in her eyes, only cold calculation."I've already talked to the doctors about my father's condition. I'll cover all the medical bills, so you don't need to worry about it. I came here today to settle things between us."She flicked her eyes toward the lawyer behind her, and he stepped forwar

After Cassidy and Tyson were taken away by the police, the hallway finally settled back into quiet.A week later, Charlie woke up.He'd survived, but the damage to his brain had left his movements slow and his speech halting.When the police came to the hospital to take his statement, tears of pain welled up in his clouded old eyes.I held his calloused hand and asked him gently. "Charlie... what do you want to do about Cassidy?"Charlie's lips trembled. It was a long while before he spoke."I've lived an honest life, my whole life. I have no daughter who's an animal like that. Kenneth, whatever the law says she deserves, that's what she gets. Let her rot in a cell and pay for what she's done."With Charlie's testimony and the ironclad cloud footage on top of it, the case against Cassidy and Tyson was sealed shut.Three months later, the court handed down its final verdict.Tyson was sentenced to seven years for intentional assault causing serious injury, with the court noting