The video of the chair incident appeared online the following morning. Wade's editor had cut away the moment Byron's knee struck the floor and replaced it with a sound effect that suggested a harmless stumble. The caption invited viewers to laugh at an elderly security guard who supposedly believed the training floor was his private dining room. Within a day, people were imitating Colt's insult in the comments. Byron never saw most of those messages, but he knew the video existed because Celia looked embarrassed when she handed him the office keys.
"I reported it," she whispered. "I wrote down what happened, exactly how I saw it."
"Did Wade read it?"
"He sent it back and said there wasn't an injury report, so it wasn't an incident."
Byron nodded. It was a small movement, but Celia could see the answer settling heavily behind his eyes. She offered to copy the report before it disappeared from the system, and he told her to keep it somewhere safe. He did not ask her to risk her job for him. He had seen too many young employees learn that the truth had a price, and he could not afford to purchase it with someone else's livelihood.
Nora asked Byron whether he wanted to report the physical contact to someone outside the gym. He told her he would think about it. She did not enjoy the answer, but she accepted that the decision belonged to him. Instead, she began keeping a private record of what she had witnessed, starting with the chair and the sandwich. She included the time, the people present, the angle of the camera, and the version of the video that Wade published. She called the folder on her phone "insurance," half as a joke and half because she understood that a disputed event became harder to deny when it came with a date.
Colt noticed Byron's lack of reaction and treated it as permission. A week later, he tossed a sweat-soaked hand wrap toward the security desk during a live session. It struck Byron's shoulder and fell across the keyboard he used to check visitor passes. Colt told him to hold it until training ended, then turned to his phone as viewers filled the chat with laughing symbols. Byron placed the wrap in a sealed lost-property bag, recorded its description, and continued checking credentials. Colt returned twenty minutes later and became annoyed that his prop had turned into paperwork.
A few days afterward, Colt insisted that Byron stand behind a heavy training bag while he demonstrated powerful kicks for a sponsor. Nora was teaching in another room when the instruction came. Byron said the support stand was designed to hold the bag and that he had not been assigned to assist with training. Colt called Wade, who told Byron to do as the athlete requested because it would take only a minute. Byron reluctantly stood behind the bag, keeping his feet clear of the moving equipment.