It all started to make sense. Eli needed money for his mother’s care. Which I said out loud.
He nodded. “The insurance she had was bullshit. A new fucking bill shows up every other day. The cost of the medicines she’s on now, the rehab, all of it keeps mounting.”
“There’s no one else that can help?” Preston asked.
Eli shook his head. “It was just mom and me coming up. She worked at a nursing home my whole life. She made me promise not to put her in one of those places.” He looked between the two of us. “I’m a lot of things, but I keep my word when it comes to her. I can’t afford all of the care she needs, but I was able to find Sunny.”
He jutted his head toward the hall, and I assumed he meant the woman who’d answered the door.
“She’s a CNA, but she’s also in nursing school. She lets me pay her under the table to be here when I can’t. I got a job at a moving company, not too far from here. They pay in cash, but the job hours are sporadic.”
“Which is why you’ve missed practice,” I said.
He shrugged. “And I had to get my money from that fight. Not for me, but …”
“We get it,” Preston said, his voice and demeanor noticeably less angry than when we first arrived.
“What about those two fights you lost as an amateur?” I asked, still confused since they’d happened before his mother’s stroke. “You lost those on purpose.”
“Coach Wolcott came to me months before that first fight,” Eli started. “He knew I was working hard to get into the league and working nights to save money. I always wanted to get to a place where I could retire my mother. She had high blood pressure and often fainted at work. Her job was killing her.
“Coach said if I threw a couple of fights, he’d throw some money my way. I knew the shit was wrong, but I wanted the money.”
I sighed, feeling relieved to find out Eli’s secret. It dawned on me to ask him why the hell he hadn’t confided in us sooner, but I knew the answer. Pride.
Eli, much like Preston, myself, and most other men in our sport, was proud. Sometimes too proud to ask for help.
“Look, I know this isn’t what you all expected when I signed with you. But she deserves to be taken care of.”
I held up my hand. “You don’t have to explain shit.”
“We take mothers very seriously,” Preston added.
“My mother was a nurse,” I said, ignoring the lump in my throat. “I still know a few of her nurse friends who are retired and probably can help with your mom while you train.”
Eli shook his head. “I’m already stretched too thin. I don’t know if I’ll be able to pay them.”
I braced his shoulder. “You won’t have to. We’ve got you covered.”
Preston nodded in agreement.
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask,” Preston said. “And it’s not up for debate. We’ll see what we can do about getting those sponsors to pay out upfront. Your performance in the exhibition should give us some leeway to negotiate.”
“For real?” Eli’s eyebrows lifted. “You still think so?”
I nodded.
His shoulders sagged in relief.
“But,” I added, “you have to quit the underground fights.”
Eli’s eyes got big.
“It’s not up for debate,” Preston warned. “Those fights could cost you your career. And ours.”
He nodded.
