CHAPTER 2 : The Mind is a Cage

The therapy room smelled of old books and lavender. It was small, lined with shelves filled with psychology texts, case files, and notes that probably held the shattered minds of men like him.

Alexander sat in the leather chair, arms crossed, shoulders tense. He didn't belong here. This wasn't his world.

Eve Laurent sat across from him, her gaze steady, unshaken. "You don't want to be here," she said, flipping open a notebook.

"No," he admitted.

"Then why are you here?"

He exhaled slowly, his jaw tightening. "Judge said I had to be."

"And what do you think a judge knows about you?"

His lips twitched into a smirk. "Nothing."

"Then tell me something real."

Silence. He could walk out. Say nothing.

But for some reason, he stayed.

"I fight because it's all I know," he finally said. "I fight because I have to."

Eve tilted her head. "And if you didn't have to?"

He scoffed. "That's not an option."

"Why not?"

He clenched his fists, a muscle in his jaw ticking. "Because the past doesn't let go."

She studied him, unshaken. "Neither do the people who are afraid to face it."

His blood turned cold.

"The hardest fights aren't in the ring, Alexander. They're the ones you wage against yourself."

His chest tightened. Something in him wanted to lash out, to leave, to pretend none of this mattered. But another part of him—the part he hated—knew she was right.

For the first time in years, Alexander Voss had no comeback.