Chapter: The End of the Game

Introducing the Book Remíza – The Bet on Life

Chapter: The End of the Game

As time went on, more charges followed—among them the sale and production of extremist material—which eventually resulted in a suspended sentence.

Yet behind all of it—behind every document, every interrogation, every court decision—stood her.

My girlfriend.

She watched everything unfold with a calmness and composure that surprised me, especially considering her own story and the life she had come from.

Because of that, my sense of guilt only grew stronger.

I realized that my past was dragging her into something she had never deserved.

And yet...

She stayed.

Without blame.

Without pressure.

Without questioning what had begun to grow between us.

In doing so, she built something inside me that was far greater than love.

Alongside love grew respect.

Admiration for a woman who was able to stand beside me even in circumstances that would have driven many people away.

It was through her that I came to understand that the true strength of a relationship is never revealed during the easy days...

...but in the moments that test everything.

While those court proceedings dragged on for nearly a year and a half before the verdict became final, I found myself standing dangerously close to another edge.

An edge beyond which my past would no longer remain just a memory...

...but would become an entirely new reality.

Because although I believed I was changing...

Believed I was moving forward...

Believed I had already left certain parts of my life behind...

The truth was that remnants of something unresolved still remained inside me.

They were simply waiting for the moment they would reveal themselves again.

I remember that day with painful clarity.

It was during the Ice Hockey World Championship.

Slovakia lost to Germany.

For most people, it was simply another defeat.

For me...

...it unleashed something far deeper.

A strange mixture of frustration.

Anger.

Disappointment.

It felt as though every emotion I had spent so long trying to suppress suddenly erupted all at once.

Hockey—and especially the Slovak national team—has always awakened emotions in me that, even today, I cannot fully control through reason alone.

Ironically, I had never once placed a bet involving the Slovak national team.

When I left the pub that evening, my mind was still consumed by the game.

By emotions I couldn't even properly describe.

On my way home, I crossed paths with a man.

His only misfortune was that he happened to have darker skin.

He became the trigger for something that was still alive inside me.

Without thinking...

Without considering the consequences...

I attacked him.

As though, in that moment, I was capable of seeing nothing except my own anger.

During the assault, I broke the little finger on my left hand.

As someone who is left-handed, it wasn't merely painful.

It became a daily reminder of that moment.

That single second...

...when I crossed a line I believed I had already left behind.

Looking back today, I know it was never about that man.

It was about me.

My frustration.

My unresolved pain.

The remnants of hatred I still carried inside myself, even though I kept convincing myself they no longer existed.

That moment became a mirror.

One that showed me the truth without mercy.

But the real turning point didn't happen during the fight.

It came afterward.

When I looked into my girlfriend's eyes.

At first, I lied to her.

I invented stories.

I told her I had injured my hand in an accident.

That I had hit a table.

I searched desperately for any explanation that would make me appear better than the truth.

Because I was afraid of what I would see in her eyes once she learned what had really happened.

But the truth always finds its way to the surface.

The harder I tried to keep the lie alive...

...the more it fell apart.

The details no longer matched.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Eventually, there was nowhere left to hide.

She understood what had really happened.

And when I looked into her eyes...

I didn't see anger.

I didn't see the kind of judgment I had expected.

What I saw...

...was disappointment.

Not because of the man I had attacked.

But because I had lied.

Because I had become someone who did something that no longer belonged to the person I was trying so hard to become.

That look was more powerful than any accusation could ever have been.

It marked the end of yet another chapter of my life.

Permanently.

Because in that moment, I realized there were things I simply could no longer allow myself to do...

...if I didn't want to lose what had begun to mean everything to me.

That was the day I made my decision.

I decided to stop fighting battles I could never control.

To stop reacting to the world in ways that only dragged me backward.

To stop trying to change things that were never within my power to change.

Because the truth is simple.

I cannot change the world.

But I can choose what I allow to grow inside me.

And that...

...is where everything changes.

After my conviction became final, I also began serving my sentence of community service.

Strangely enough, it soon became intertwined with another chapter of my life.

Two of my creditors had finally run out of patience.

Believing they could force me to repay my debts more quickly, they filed criminal complaints against me.

The outcome, however, was very different from what they had expected.

The court simply confirmed my repayment schedule and gave it an official legal framework.

It certainly brought more pressure.

But it also brought something I had been missing for a very long time—

Order.

For the first time, I had clear rules to follow.

Although they had been imposed upon me, they gave me something invaluable:

A system I could finally understand.

I even used it when dealing with my remaining creditors.

I now had official proof that certain debts had to be repaid first.

Little by little...

The chaos began turning into something manageable.

Ironically, the two creditors who had tried to pressure me through the courts were simply paid before everyone else.

And I came through the entire process with a relatively light sentence.

Looking back, I see it as yet another moment when life could have taken a much darker path...

...but was given the chance to go in a different direction.

It was during this period that my life slowly began to settle onto tracks no longer built on chance...

...but on conscious decisions.

I learned how to balance debt repayments with everyday life.

How to allow myself small moments of happiness without feeling guilty.

How to build a relationship that gave me both meaning and stability.

It wasn't easy.

And it certainly wasn't quick.

But it was real.

Owning a home of my own...

Finding lasting stability...

Still felt impossibly far away.

Almost like an abstract dream.

To be honest, I rarely thought about it.

I had learned to focus only on what was directly in front of me.

The steps I could actually take.

The days I could choose to live with purpose.

Yet somewhere in the background...

Quietly...

Without my even realizing it...

A moment was approaching that would change everything once again.

A decision.

A chain of events...

...leading toward a single turning point.

— JK —