Vince McMahon was aware that to become the business mogul he was and build up his little wrestling company into an empire, he'd had to sacrifice some things. He wasn't always the best husband, as his wife had found out when he confessed the sins of all his affairs to her. He wasn't always the best father, either, having missed some of his kids' big life moments because he was out on the road, trying to secure their financial futures so they would never have to struggle like he did when he was younger. The rewards had been great, obviously. His company was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He owned Monday and Thursday nights, and once a month, he owned Sundays, too. He had his competition, World Championship Wrestling, in his sights for acquisition.
There were times he felt guilty, but there were times that he knew he'd done the right things. As he sat in the boardroom of the pristine WWF Headquarters building and he watched his wife, son and daughter participate in a meeting about their family business, he bubbled over with pride. Sure, he'd missed some first steps and first dates, but it was worth it to have his kids right there with him, invested in everything that he had built. With Linda right next to him, he eyed his children who were seated across the table from him.
Shane, who looked like a twenty years younger version of himself, was animated, as always. His hands flew about wildly and his eyes got excited while he talked about the latest sales numbers and ratings spikes and everything that was working with the business. Vince had never been sure how into the company Shane would be, so he was pleasantly surprised when his son jumped in with both feet, not only from the business side but the creative side, too. In addition to his work behind the scenes, he clearly relished the experience of being "one of the boys," and Vince wasn't sure he'd ever seen Shane grin broader than when the wrestlers patted him on the back and congratulated him on his matches.
And then there was Stephanie. His girl. He never tried to make it obvious but it wasn't much of a secret that Stephanie was his favorite. He loved Shane, of course, being the firstborn son and all that. But there was something about Stephanie that just melted Vince to his core. Maybe it was that by the time she came along, he'd resigned himself to thinking they wouldn't have any more kids. Maybe it was the bubbly, bright-eyed baby and girl she was. Or maybe it was that now, as a young woman, her biggest goal was to make him proud of her.
Whatever the reason, she was the apple of his eye and having her at the boardroom table meant more to him than anything. Unlike Shane, she'd always shown an interest in the business. Even before she was old enough to understand what was going on, she was riveted by it all: the wrestlers, the traveling, the pomp and circumstance. Vince had thought she'd grow out of it, but she never did. Even when her well-to-do friends teased her about only being rich because her dad owned a company of a bunch of "steroid freaks," Stephanie never faltered. The older she got, the more she seemed to love it and despite his best efforts, he couldn't talk her into a more normal profession. Like being a doctor or a teacher or God forbid, meeting a good man and letting him take care of her. He'd almost gotten slapped for that one.
So there she was, his baby girl, right in the thick of things. She didn't talk much during the meetings, but she studiously took notes and listened. Vince still got a twinge in his heart every now and then, wondering if he should have pushed her harder to do something else or just flatly refused to allow her to work for him. After all, she was twenty-three years old and instead of going out with her friends on the weekends, she was always with him. On the road. Working. She was at every televised event, house show and autograph signing. And then when the work week ended, she was in the meetings and on the phone and generally working herself to death. Just like her old man.
Sitting there at the table, wearing glasses and a ponytail and no makeup, she barely looked old enough to buy beer. He decided that he was going to insist that she take a little time off, a weekend or two to reconnect with her girlfriends and be a normal twentysomething for once. He wanted her to go out and have fun and maybe meet a nice guy. Okay, definitely meet a nice guy. Chauvinistic or not, there was a part of him that worried that she'd be so caught up in the job that she would miss the chance to meet a partner, and he didn't want her to end up as an old spinster with nothing but her WWF stocks to keep her warm at night. He'd already gotten Shane married off, and Stephanie was next on his list.
It was during all this ruminating that he noticed something about his daughter. Every now and then, not enough to distract her but enough to catch his attention, her laser-like focus slipped and her eyes fell to her pager. She discreetly looked it, and then put it away. Someone who didn't know her well wouldn't have even spotted anything different. But Vince did know her well. He saw the tips of her ears turn red every time she looked at that pager. He saw the corners of her lips really fight hard to ward off a smile. He saw her lick her lips to try to disguise the smile, and then she was back to business.
He figured she was getting raunchy messages from her girlfriends about their late nights and long weekends, and he was even more resolved to get her to take some time off. She needed that release, away from sweaty wrestlers and number-crunching.
When the meeting ended and everyone stood up to recap and shake hands and confirm their plans, Vince's eyes went to Stephanie again. She grabbed her notebook and pens and gripped that pager like her life depended on it, and she slipped out of the room without saying anything to anyone. He figured it was as good a time as any to talk to her, so he excused himself and made his way to her office. Of course, it took him ten minutes to get there because everyone he passed wanted to have a conversation, but when he finally made it, he found Stephanie's door almost all the way closed. He was never much for knocking and was about to just push it open, when he heard Stephanie's voice. And something about the tone of it stopped him from barging in.
"You know I was in a meeting," she said lowly. The way she said it told him that she wasn't talking to any girlfriends. Her voice was too low, like she was trying to keep the conversation at a whisper. And Vince couldn't figure why talking to her friends would require whispering. His nosiness got the best of him and he cracked the door open just a touch, enough to see his daughter at her desk.
She was smiling but it was a different kind of smile than he was used to seeing from her. Her head was down a little, shielding half of her face from the door. Her dimples were dug deep into her cheeks and her ears were bright red again.
"No, you didn't distract me. I'm a professional. I'm capable of reading your completely inappropriate messages without giggling like a school girl."
Vince's eyebrows furrowed and he determined that she wasn't talking to girlfriends at all, but a man. He felt a strange mixture of relief and apprehension at that. Wasn't he just telling himself that she needed to meet a guy and settle down before she turned into a cat lady? But now that she was talking to a guy, he immediately felt defensive.
Better not be that God damn loser, he thought to himself as he pictured her last boyfriend, some burnout she met in college. The kid never graduated, never seemed to wash his greasy face, and probably intended on marrying her fortune so he could smoke weed and play video games all day. Vince was pretty sure that he and Shane had sent that moron packing, but seeing Steph on the phone made him wonder.
"What was I wearing in the meeting where my parents and brother and everyone important in the company were at? Nothing sexy, trust me." She laughed at whatever the mystery caller said, and then asked, "what are you wearing?"
The answer made her whole face turn red. She twirled the phone cord around her finger and grinned to herself.
"It was good," she said as they apparently moved on from what each other was wearing. "We're in a good spot, you know? The company's doing so well, and I love being here and doing this with my family." That made Vince smile. "Yeah," she continued. "And I think Daddy's really proud of me." That made Vince beam.
But that big megawatt smile dimmed a little when Stephanie chuckled and said, "I'm sorry. I mean that Vince is really proud of me." He wondered why she corrected herself like that, and then the conversation took on a whole different tenor when her face got serious and her voice dropped an octave and she said almost so lowly that he couldn't hear, "because you're my daddy now."
Vince's eyes got so big that they nearly fell out of his head. A million feelings and thoughts ran through his head but the only one he could discern was his overwhelming desire to kick the door in, snatch the phone from Stephanie and demand to know who the fuck was talking to his daughter like that and who the fuck he thought he was. He managed to restrain himself, just barely, but the questions didn't stop spinning in his head. He wanted to know not only who she was talking to, but how the hell she'd gotten comfortable enough with this guy to call him her…daddy. The thought made him want to vomit.
"I know," she said softly. "I miss you, too."
It slightly helped his mood to sense some kind of romantic involvement with this creep, but that only made him wonder how she'd managed to carry on a relationship that sounded at least mildly serious without him knowing. She didn't have time to date. He couldn't even remember the last time she wasn't with him!
"No, I think I'm staying here until we fly out for Raw." The caller must not have liked the answer. "I know, baby." Baby?! "We will, I promise. I just want to show Daddy…Vince…that I'm in this for the long haul, you know?" She waited for the answer, and then said, "I want to spend some time with you, too. What about next weekend?" Her eyes lit up when he responded and she smiled. "Okay, next weekend, it's just you and me. We can lay around in the bed all day and watch movies and just be normal for a little while." Her face got that look again when her caller spoke, and she said, "you can do whatever you want to me."
Vince's fists balled up and he felt like the veins in his neck might explode if the conversation didn't end immediately. He heard some commotion coming from the end of the hall and he jumped away from the door for fear of being caught. Stephanie must have heard it, too, because she quickly ended her phone call and pulled out her notebook like she had been working the whole time. Vince took a few steps back and then walked to the door again, like he hadn't been there the whole time, and he knocked. He stepped inside when Stephanie called out for him to come in, and she did her absolute best impersonation of someone who hadn't basically just had phone sex.
"Hey, honey," he said and tried not to let on that he knew a thing.
"Hey, Daddy."
Oh, how that word would never have the same meaning again. He almost cried.
"Uh, listen, Steph, you've been working really hard lately and I just want you to know that I've noticed and I'm proud of you."
She smiled genuinely at that.
"Thank you," she said.
"And I also want you to take next weekend off. No pushback, no arguments. You're a kid and you need to have some fun while you still can. Go out with your girlfriends or go to a club or something. I don't know. Maybe you'll meet someone."
He didn't think he was imagining the tension in the air when he said that, but she nodded quickly and smiled again. He wondered if she would come clean about her boy toy.
"Yeah, maybe I will."
Guess he's still a secret for now, he thought.
"Okay," he said. And then he didn't know what else to say. He'd never had that problem with Stephanie before, but he felt stiff and awkward, so he just nodded and turned around.
"Dad?" she asked. "Is everything okay?"
He wanted to tell her that it wasn't. He wanted to admit that as much as he wanted her to grow up, actually watching her grow up really, really sucked. He wanted to put her in a glass bottle and keep her as his little girl forever. But he'd gotten a very rude awakening with his eavesdropping, and he was suddenly way too aware that she wasn't a little girl anymore.
"Of course, Princess," he said with as big a smile as he could muster. "Everything's fine. I'll see you later, all right?"
She smiled in that way that he was used to, that happy one that he thought was reserved for him, and for that minute, everything was normal again. But, of course, it wasn't. He was distracted for the rest of the day, through his next couple of meetings and even when Linda was talking to him. He wondered if she knew. She and Stephanie were close and he knew that Steph confided certain things in her mother that she didn't tell him about. Things about boys. He eyed Linda suspiciously and seriously considered giving her the third degree, but then decided against it. Asking would only irritate Linda and she wasn't going to tell him anyway. When it came to keeping confidences, the woman was like Fort Knox.
He tried to put the thoughts out of his head but there they stayed. Thoughts of his baby girl letting some asshole "do whatever he wanted to her." Rage flared in his veins and he finally shut his notepad and pulled his glasses off his face. He needed some kind of answers, something that would give him a little peace of mind about who Stephanie was seeing. Maybe if he had a name or some clue about the guy, he could get over it. With the thought of asking Linda out the window, he thought about Shane. But Shane was bad as he was when it came to Stephanie so he highly doubted she'd told her brother anything, either.
Vince thought about just confronting Stephanie herself, but he nixed that, too. If she hadn't told him, it wasn't because she wasn't ready to tell him. And that was the part he couldn't figure out. He decided that her keeping the guy a secret was probably for one of two reasons. One, it wasn't that serious and he wasn't worth introducing. But her phone call sounded pretty serious to him. So that left the other option that she didn't think Vince would like the guy, which given his behavior with her past love interests, was probably not wrong. That didn't stop him from wanting to meddle, though. He tapped his pen on his desk while he racked his brain about how he could get a clue about the guy, but his thoughts were interrupted when his phone rang. The caller's name scrolled across his screen and he let the call go to voicemail. And then a fantastic idea hit him.
Stephanie's phone. She'd called her lover from her work phone, which meant there was a log of it that he could search. The idea had barely settled in his brain before he hopped out of his chair and almost ran down to her office. It was night time and she'd left with Linda a few hours before, so her office was empty. Vince crept inside like a thief and shut the door behind him. He turned her light on and then scooted behind her desk and reached for her phone. He scrolled through the options on the phone until he found a list of recently dialed numbers. They all looked vaguely familiar and he knew that most of them, probably all of them except one, were business-related. Instead of giving himself a headache trying to figure out which one was Stephanie's secret beau, he just scribbled down all the numbers for the whole day on a piece of paper and left.
When he got back to his office, he had one of his secretaries run all the numbers on the sheet to find out who they belonged to. She skittered off and he tried his best to focus on something else until she returned forty-five agonizing minutes later.
"Here's your list, Mr. McMahon," she said.
"Good, good. Thank you. Anything unusual on this list?" he asked.
"Unusual, sir?" She looked nervous that she might answer incorrectly. "No, not that I could see. They're all numbers for people in the company."
That made him curious.
"Thanks," he said. "That's all for tonight. Go on home."
She thanked him and hurried out, and Vince was left with his paper and confusion. He briefly scanned the list, which confirmed what the secretary had said. Every number dialed was someone related to the company in some way, and he wondered if maybe Stephanie had gotten hooked up with a company attorney or accountant or someone like that. Relief settled over him at the thought of it. It made sense that she'd find herself linked up to someone else in the business. That was really all she had time for. But the more he thought about it, the harder it was for him to come up with a viable candidate. All the attorneys were old and married. Some of the accountants and guys like that were single but, if he was being honest, they weren't very attractive. And Stephanie didn't go for ugly guys.
He put his glasses on and propped his feet on his desk and looked at the list much more closely. He went through every name, starting at the top, and crossed them out as he thought about them. Married. Old. Bad hairpiece. He kept striking names until he came to one that made him pause.
Paul Levesque.
Paul, also known as Triple H, also known as Stephanie's on-screen husband. There wasn't anything particularly unusual about Paul's name being on the list, considering that he did indeed work for the company and he and Stephanie were close. They were friends. Talking to him was nothing and shouldn't have raised any flags.
But it did. Mostly because Paul was the only one on the list who Vince would have considered eligible in any way. He tapped his pen some more and then made the walk back to Stephanie's office. He went through her call log again and matched the number that belonged to Paul.
She'd called him at 3:13.
The meeting had ended at 3:05.
No. Way.
There was no way in hell that Stephanie's secret lover was Paul. No way. Vince had told her specifically that she was never to date a wrestler and he had told Paul and every single guy in the back that his daughter was off limits. So off limits that if they even thought about approaching her, they might as well hand in their resignation. Sure, he'd noticed Paul's flirtation with Steph and her seeming openness to it, but he'd chalked it up to playfulness. Paul was that kind of guy. He'd flirt with a stop sign. And they were in the position of having to be affectionate with each other because of their storyline and Vince made allowances for it because the McMahon-Helmsley Era was a gold mine and he didn't want to mess up their chemistry.
But this…
"No," he said to himself. It wasn't possible. He tried to talk himself out of it, but there were no other phone calls even close to the time when he'd heard Stephanie on the phone. The call before the one to Paul happened at 12:34 and the closest one after wasn't until 4:02. He wouldn't believe it, though. He even tried to convince himself that maybe Stephanie had used her personal phone and not the work one and the call to Paul must have happened before he got to the door.
He went with that lie, even though he knew better, and he left Stephanie's office. He went back to his own office and sat in his chair and stared ahead because he needed a plan. He didn't know what he would do or how he would react if Stephanie and Paul really were together, or at least sleeping together. He figured his reaction wouldn't be nice. But he liked Paul a lot and he didn't want to go off the deep end before he had hard proof that one of his number one guys was banging his daughter right under his nose.
So, for the next several days, Vince watched Stephanie like a hawk. When they got to the arena for RAW on Monday, he made up excuses to keep her by his side at all times and not with her secret boyfriend. When they had their weekly before-show meeting with everyone involved in the episode, his eyes fixed on Paul as soon as the younger man walked into the room. Paul winked at Stephanie, and she blushed and turned away. It made Vince's stomach churn, but to be fair, he was pretty sure that they always acted like that. Paul would flirt and Stephanie would blush and the world kept spinning. He needed more proof if he was going to confront his daughter with his suspicions.
Throughout the night, he looked for signs that something was going on between them. And that was hard to do considering that they had to act married for most of the time and he really couldn't discern what was fake and what was real. They were constantly touching each other, whispering in the other's ear, staring intensely, but he needed more. He figured that if something really was going on between them and they were sneaking around, they were unlikely to flaunt it right in the open for everyone to see. The real nitty gritty happened when the lights went out and nobody was looking. He tested his theory as the whole McMahon family packed up the night and the fans filed out and the ring and everything else got broken down to be moved on to the next town on the following night.
"Steph, are you coming with us?" Vince asked as he, Linda, Stephanie and Paul hung around the dressing room and talked about the night. He was waiting for his daughter to make up some excuse to stay behind with Paul, so they could have their ill-gotten private time together. He was waiting for her cheeks to redden or some other sign that she was nervous or lying.
"Yeah, I'm ready." Stephanie turned to Paul and kissed his cheek. "See you tomorrow."
"Later, Princess."
And that was it. Stephanie left with her family without even looking over her shoulder at Paul. It was a bit anti-climatic and made Vince wonder if there was any way he could be wrong about the two of them. Once he got back to his hotel, he waited for Linda to fall asleep and then he crept out of his room and went right next door to Stephanie's. He expected her to either not answer because she was in Paul's room, or come to the door looking flustered and caught, probably because her lover was in there hiding with her.
But again, he was wrong. Stephanie did come to the door, and from the looks of it, she had been deep in sleep before he knocked. She was groggy and her eyes were unfocused and she was yawning as she looked at him.
"Dad?" she asked. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"
He felt like an ass and mumbled something about an idea he had but promised her that they could talk about it later, when she was more awake. She looked confused but accepted his lame attempt at covering his tracks, and he went back to his room, feeling foolish. All his attempts to catch her were failing, and the next night at the Smackdown taping yielded similar results. She and Paul flirted, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. She left with her family and stayed in her room all night. The same happened the next night at a house show.
When that show wrapped up, Vince truly began to wonder if he had made the whole thing up. He knew the phone call was real, but he was really doubting if Paul had been the man on the phone. There was no denying that she'd called him, but Vince hadn't been wearing his glasses when he was eavesdropping and he convinced himself that Stephanie's mysterious phone call must have happened on her own phone, not the work one.
After the house show on Wednesday, Vince didn't stick around to spy on his daughter. Linda had flown back to Connecticut the night before and he decided he might just drive ahead to the next town and sleep in a few minutes later than usual in the morning. He left Stephanie with Shane and didn't even see Paul on his way out. He climbed into his rental car and took off, intent on making the two-hour before he was too sleepy. His mind drifted to thoughts of the upcoming show, as well as next week's schedule, and he was an hour into the drive when a thought struck him. His eyes jerked to the passenger seat and then to the back of the car, and he groaned and smacked the steering wheel.
He'd left his briefcase at the arena. He pulled the car over and fished out his cell phone. He called Shane but didn't get an answer. He called Stephanie, but he couldn't get her either. He tried to reach anyone who might still be at the arena, but he came up short there, too. He finally got a hold of one of the prop guys, but he was on the road, too, and couldn't get it any faster than Vince could.
"Son of a bitch," he muttered to himself.
He turned the car around and drove back to the arena with a sour mood brewing in him the whole time. By the time he made it back, he was able to flag down a couple of stragglers who were still loading equipment into trucks and one of them let him inside. He rubbed his tired eyes and marched angrily back to his makeshift dressing room, where his briefcase was still perched in the corner. He grabbed it and muttered more curse words to himself. He rounded the corner of a hallway and started the walk back to the exit, but he stopped when he heard a voice that sounded like Paul's. He frowned and checked his watch. It well past one in the morning. He followed the sound of the voice all the way down the hallway and peeked around a corner, where he saw not only Paul, but Stephanie, too. The two of them were talking too low for him to make out their words, but he didn't need to hear them because their body language spoke volumes.
Stephanie's back rested against a closed door and she looked up at Paul while he talked. She had changed clothes and her hair was wet, like she'd showered. Paul's hair was wet, too, and Vince nearly popped a blood vessel thinking that the two of them had showered together. He watched his daughter as she smiled softly at her on-screen husband. Paul said something that made her chuckle, and then he caressed her chin between his fingers. He tucked some of her hair behind her ear and then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. Stephanie's eyes slipped closed and she smiled so contentedly that it was almost sweet.
Vince had hoped it would end there. He wanted to be able to tell himself that they were just very affectionate friends who liked to flirt on occasion. He was able to construe almost everything they did in that way for his own sanity. But there was no way he could convince himself that they were only friends when Paul pulled away a little and leaned down to brush his lips against Stephanie's. She was all too willing to accept his advance, and the next thing Vince knew, the two of them were kissing right there in the hallway. And not just kissing, either. They were making out. Stephanie's mouth opened so big that he thought her jaw might come unhinged. She brought her arms up and wrapped them around Paul's neck and they kissed deeply like that until Paul's hand slid to the doorknob behind Stephanie and he opened the door. They never broke apart as he slowly walked her back into the room, and the door shut behind them.
Vince didn't need a drawing to know what was happening in that room.
He stared at the spot where they had just been for a few minutes, until he was able to think coherently. Stephanie was sleeping with Paul. The number one guy on his roster was banging his little girl. He was angry, of course. They'd deliberately disobeyed him and were sneaking around behind his back. But there was a part of him that wasn't as angry as he expected, and that only irritated him more. He thought about bursting through the door and catching them red-handed, but he didn't. There were too many business implications with all this, and when it came to business, he never made impulsive decisions.
With the unwelcome image of the two of them in his mind, he got back into his car and drove to the next city. He didn't breathe a word about what he knew to anyone, especially not Stephanie and Paul. He kept it bottled up until Saturday night, when he was at home with his wife. She was the level-headed one in their relationship, and she was the one who could see the forest for the trees. So while he and Linda rested in their huge bed together, he dropped the bomb on her without any preamble.
"Stephanie and Paul are sleeping together," he announced.
Linda's blue eyes widened and she put down the paperwork she had been reading.
"What?" she asked.
"Our daughter is having sex with her on-screen husband, off-screen," he said, adding a little bite to the part about sex.
"Where is this coming from? How do you know this?"
"I caught them. The other night at the house show, they were making out in the hallway when they thought nobody was around. Then they went into a room and I can only imagine they did a whole lot more than kissing."
Linda was quiet for a moment, and then she asked, "are you sure about this, Vince?"
"Oh, I'm very sure."
"Have you said anything to Stephanie?"
"No." He looked down at his hands and twiddled his thumbs a little. "I didn't know what to say. I still don't. That's why I'm telling you."
"What is it that you're thinking about saying?"
"I'm thinking about handing Paul his walking papers and sending Stephanie down to the mailroom!" he groused.
Linda only rolled her eyes at his response, and she put her papers away and turned to her husband.
"Okay, let's talk about this," she said calmly. "There are two responses here. You could let them keep seeing each other, or you could make them stop."
"I want them to stop," he said immediately. "And that's exactly why I'm thinking about telling them they can keep dating."
"What? What sense does that make?"
"Because," he said with a flourish of his hands, "they're sneaking around and that's the thrill of it. They're doing it because they're not supposed to. Once I tell them that they can do it, the fun will wear off and it'll all blow over. The storyline's been going on for months at this point and it's probably time to break them up anyway. They'll date, get bored and move on with minimal damage."
Linda nodded slowly but she didn't look convinced.
"I'm not sure I understand the logic here, Vince," she said. "You let them date, in the hopes that they'll get bored with each other and move on?"
"Well, yeah," he said with a shrug. "It's just sex. Once the chemistry fizzles out, it's all over."
"I see."
He frowned. "What? You don't agree with that?"
"I'm not sure that I agree with your assessment that what Stephanie is doing with Paul is 'just sex.'"
"What are you talking about? Of course it is."
"And what if it's not?"
He narrowed his eyes at his wife.
"Why are you asking me this? Has Stephanie told you something?"
Linda held up her hands in defense and shook her head.
"Stephanie hasn't told me anything. This is the first I'm hearing of it."
"Then why do you seem to think they have feelings for each other?"
"Maybe because I have eyes, honey," she said, somewhat sarcastically. "I see the way they look at each other, the way they interact. They're great entertainers, yes, but Oscar-winning actors, they're not. You can't fake the chemistry that they have or the way they seem to gravitate towards each other, no matter where they are or who they're around. I know Steph, and my gut tells me that she's smitten with him. I don't know Paul that well, but I'd bet that the feeling is mutual."
"No," Vince said quickly. He shook his head and got off the bed to pace. He didn't like where Linda was going with her argument. "No, no, no, that's not it. It's sex. That's all."
"Okay, then look at the facts. Stephanie's greatest joy comes from making you proud of her. She wants you to respect her as a businesswoman and an asset to this company, and you might not respect her if you knew she was sleeping with a wrestler. And consider that by doing this, she's disobeying you. You can count on one hand the number of times she's done that in her whole life."
Vince kept shaking his head and pacing, mostly because he didn't like how much sense his wife was making.
"And what about Paul? This company is his life. He cherishes it over everything else. Don't you think he knows that's putting his career on the line by even thinking about being with Stephanie? Yet, he's doing it. These aren't the actions of people who are only with each other for sex. There's too much on the line for both of them."
"Lust clouds your mind," he said, pointing his finger at her. "Makes you have bad judgment."
"I'll have to defer to your expertise on that."
He stopped pacing and gave her a look. Low blow.
"So what are you saying?" he asked.
"I'm saying that if you don't want them to date or have sex or whatever they're doing, then end it. Confront them, tell them to stop and nip it in the bud. Don't play these mind games that you're so fond of because I'm telling you, if you let them be together, it will come back to bite you."
He didn't respond because he was afraid that she was right, like she usually was. He paced a little bit more, trying to let it all settle into his mind. When he decided that Linda's plan was probably best, he made up his mind to put an end to Stephanie's relationship with Paul before it went any further. When he woke up the next morning, he called his daughter so they could speak about it face to face.
"Hello?" she answered, clearly still asleep.
"Steph," he said cheerily. "I didn't wake you, did I?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"Oh, well I'll let you go back to sleep but I wanted to see if you'd like to have dinner with me tonight."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and Vince could have sworn he heard another voice in the mix. It was then that he remembered that Stephanie and Paul were probably together for their "alone time" weekend. He grinned a little deviously knowing that he was breaking that up.
"Dinner?" she asked, sounding a little more awake. "Is something going on?"
"Just want to have dinner with my daughter," he lied. "Is that all right with you?"
"Uh, yeah, of course. When?"
"How about seven? I can drive down there and meet you wherever you'd like. Your choice, my treat."
When she was quiet again, he figured he might have been laying it on a little thick. He wasn't really the type to just pop in for dinner and pay for it, too. He worried that he might be tipping his hand, but then Stephanie agreed.
"That sounds great, Dad," she said. "I'll call around and make reservation somewhere."
"All right, honey. I'll see you later."
They hung up and Vince spent the rest of the day trying to perfect what he would say. He ran a couple of ideas by Linda, whose only response was to remind him that Stephanie was his daughter, not an opponent. She had feelings he needed to consider and no matter what he said, he needed to be gentle when he said it. With that in mind, he got one of his drivers to chauffeur him down for the hour-long drive. He caught up on some paperwork on the way there and then took a big breath and pulled his glasses off when the car stopped in front of Stephanie's chosen restaurant.
He walked inside and made his way up to the second floor where the restaurant had reserved a secluded table for the two of them. His heart started beating a little faster and nerves started getting the best of him. He realized that he was not only nervous to bring up the whole subject of Paul, but he didn't want to hurt Steph. Even if it was best for business.
"Hi, Daddy," Stephanie with a bright smile.
She stood up to greet him and he couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked. Her hair was curled just so and even though her makeup was minimal, she glowed. She looked so damn happy, and if he was honest about it, it was probably because of Paul.
"Hello, sweetie," he said as he greeted her with a kiss.
They sat down across from each other at the small table and the waiter took their orders for wine and appetizers.
"So what's up, Dad?" Stephanie asked with an unsure laugh. "Is this really just about us getting together or is something going on that you didn't want to tell me about over the phone?"
"Can't a guy just want to spend some time with his kid without getting the third degree?" he asked.
She blushed a little and held up her hands in surrender.
"Yes, of course. Sorry. I'm not trying to be suspicious. We just haven't really done this a lot before."
"And I'd like to change that," he said, and it wasn't a lie. "The only time I spend with you guys is while we're at work. Dinner every now and then would be nice, wouldn't it?"
Her real smile was back full force, and she nodded.
"It would."
"Good. So tell me how everything's going with you."
It didn't take much prompting for Stephanie to peel off a list of things that she wanted to talk about. They were, of course, all work-related because that's really all she did. She gave him her thoughts about all the storylines they were in, the ratings, sales numbers, guys in the back…everything. He noticed, however, that she carefully avoided talking about Paul in any way. He let her do most of the talking and they were on to their second bottle of wine and finishing off the appetizers when he started to ease her into the topic he really wanted to discuss.
"And how are you, Steph?" he asked. "How are you enjoying your role on TV?"
Her face lit up even more, if that was possible, and she nodded excitedly.
"I love it," she said. "I really love it. It's fun and exciting and everything I ever wanted to do."
"And are you still enjoying working with Paul?"
Even in the dim lighting of their table, he could see how her cheeks flushed and she broke eye contact with him.
"Yeah," she said.
Time to push the pedal.
"He's treating you well?" he asked.
Her flush deepened all the way down to her chest.
"He treats me very well," she said.
He nodded, formulating his next question, and he waited until she was biting into some bread before he asked, "so how long have you been seeing him?"
Stephanie's eyes got so big that it looked like they might pop out of their sockets. She swallowed her bread very slowly and then blinked a lot.
"What?" she asked quietly.
Vince wiped his mouth with his napkin and folded his hands on the table. He looked dead in her eyes.
"How long have you been seeing Paul?"
She didn't say anything for several long moments, and he knew she was trying to come up with something that sounded believable.
"Dad, I'm not…"
"Stephanie," he interrupted. "Don't lie to me. I know you're seeing him. I saw you two in the hallway last week after one of the house shows. You were kissing him, and then you went into a room with him."
Every ounce of color drained from her face and she looked like she might vomit all over the table. Either that or cry.
"So I'll ask again," he said calmly. "How long have you been seeing him?"
She looked down at the napkin in her lap and said, "three months."
His eyes got big. "Three…"
Anger flickered inside him but he managed to control it. He didn't want to blow up on Stephanie about this. The best route was to be calm, nip it in the bud, and not hurt her. He could practically hear Linda saying those things in his ear.
"Three months," he said. "Were you ever gonna tell me about this?"
She looked up at him and said, "no."
Her answer surprised him, but at least it was honest.
"Why not?"
"Because I knew you would be mad and disappointed."
"You're right about that," he said. He leaned over the table so he could ask lowly, "what were you thinking, Steph? He works for me. This isn't good for business."
"I know," she said, and she looked like a little girl when she said it. "I know that, Daddy, and I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to disobey you or put you in a bad position. It just…kind of…happened. You know?"
He did know.
She rested her head against the back of the booth and sighed.
"Are you going to fire him?" she asked quietly.
He pretended to think about it and said, "I haven't decided yet."
"Are you going to fire me?"
"I haven't decided that yet, either. I should, though. I should kick both your asses to the curb."
She covered her face with her hands and sat that way for a while, even after their entrees had been delivered. Vince ate his food and studied his daughter at the same time. He couldn't make out what she was feeling or thinking and even though he knew he had planned to just put an ax to the affair and call it a day, something was holding him back. And when Stephanie finally uncovered her face, she quickly wiped her eyes and offered him an apologetic smile.
"I'm really sorry about this, Dad. I disappointed you and that's the last thing I wanted to do. I think I should go."
She started to get up but he reached out and grabbed her hand.
"Sit."
She hesitated but then she did sit. He looked at her for a moment and decided to put her out of her misery.
"You're not getting fired," he said. Her shoulders eased a little with that. "And neither is Paul." She visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "But you've got to give me some idea of what I'm dealing with here. Are you in love with him?"
Stephanie's eyes got big again.
"No," she said, but she didn't sound horribly convincing.
"Okay, then is this just a sex thing or something?"
Her face went beet red.
"Dad!"
"Oh, come on, Steph. If you're old enough to have an affair, then you're old enough to talk about it. Is this a sex thing or isn't it?"
She fumbled with her fingers on the table and shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "Maybe?"
"Maybe," he repeated. "And where does Joanie fit into all this? Are you sneaking around behind her back, too?"
"They are not together," Stephanie said immediately. And defensively, he noted.
"Oh no? Because as I recall, her checks are still being mailed to his house."
Her face morphed into a look of supreme aggravation, and he knew he'd hit a sore spot with her.
"It's complicated," she said simply.
"Not good enough."
The pained expression on her face told him that she would probably rather eat nails than try to explain exactly what she and Paul were doing while it seemed like he and Joanie were still together, at least in some sense.
"She's flaky," Stephanie said, and with a little bite to her tone. "She's got one foot in the WWF and one foot in Hollywood. Yeah, she still gets her mail at his place and her stuff is still there, but she's basically living in L.A. right now. They're not together."
Vince nodded slowly but wasn't buying a word of it. That sounded like a bill of goods that Paul sold Stephanie and she was trying to sell it to him. He could tell that she didn't believe it any more than he did, but she was going with it, anyway. And all of that spelled one thing to Vince: a mess. Everything about it was messy, and he was best served slamming the brakes on this once and for all.
But if there was one thing that was coming through loud and clear from his daughter, it was that she wanted Paul. Whether it was for sex or something more, she was possessive of him. And if she'd gone behind Vince's back to date him, he had no doubt that she'd go behind his back again if he forbade the relationship and he had a feeling it would get even messier.
Despite what he'd promised Linda, he found himself falling back onto his original plan. Something told him that if he let Stephanie and Paul date, it was going to end on its own. They'd either decide they didn't share anything other than sex, or he'd go back to Joanie, or Stephanie would wake up and realize that Joanie was clearly not truly out of the picture.
"All right," he said, and he went back to eating his steak.
Stephanie frowned. "All right, what?"
"All right, I'll let you keep seeing Paul."
Her mouth fell open.
"What?" she asked.
"You can keep seeing him, on the condition that you keep it discreet. I don't want anybody to know about this, other than me. And your mother."
She blanched.
"Mom knows?!"
"She does. And I don't want this to get any further than the four of us. That means no sneaking off in the arenas. That's what hotel rooms are for."
She reddened again, but then asked, "why are you doing this?"
He opted not to tell her his real reasoning.
"It's pretty clear to me that he makes you happy," he said. "And believe it or not, your happiness does factor into my decision-making. So I'm willing to let you explore this with him, quietly, if that's what you want."
Her smile was slowly returning to her face.
"That's what I want," she said.
"Then you have my blessing."
Her smile turned into a grin, and they were able to move off the topic of Paul for the rest of dinner. When they finished eating and Vince paid the check, he called his driver to take them to Stephanie's place. Vince got out and walked her to the front door of the building, and he kissed her cheek.
"Thank you, Daddy," she said softly.
"You tell Paul when you get up there that if he hurts you, he'll wish for me to kill him."
"I will," she said, still smiling.
He watched her walk inside and then he got back into his car and told her drive to take him home. Linda wasn't going to be happy with him. But he thought he was doing the right thing.
He hoped.
...
For those of you that follow me, I'm sure you're wondering wtf this is and where tf is "Dear Elena"?! I have that update about 75% complete but it's on my old computer and it's taking me forever to finish it. If you're wondering where this wrestling stuff came from, the truth is that Triple H/Steph was my original OTP (aside from Tommy and Kimberly from Power Rangers). These two were the first people I ever wrote fan fiction about over fifteen years ago. I kind of got back into their love story recently because of Stephanie writing a book. I don't have the time or energy to write a complete story about how they got together, and I have too many theories about it to commit to just one story. What I can/will do, though, is a series of one-shots like this at varying points in their relationship, if there's any interest. Anyway, I will have Dear Elena up just as soon as I can get my computer to work long enough to finish the update. McMahon-Helmsley Era fans unite!