Paul saw Stephanie turn to the right as she left her office therefore he knew that she was going back for another piece of Vince. He hurried after her and had nearly caught up to her as she crashed through the door into Vince's office and immediately exploded at him again, "If you think I'm working with that little slut you can think again! What the hell are you thinking?"
Vince yelled louder than Paul had ever heard him yell before which was remarkable, "Stephanie! Shut up!"
It must have shocked her because she had actually frozen. Paul decided to take this opportunity to get a word in edgewise, "Steph please stop screaming okay? You'll have a stroke or something. Just sit down and we can talk like adults."
Stephanie was obviously still boiling but she did sit down. Paul took his seat and finally so did Vince as she spoke quietly, "You're in a relationship with Nikki Bella?" Although she spoke quietly she was obviously still just as angry as before.
Vince tried to calm the situation by informing her, "We love each other." He failed and Stephanie was up again, "Way wrong answer!" She was about to storm out again but Paul had grabbed her arm. He also shouted now, "Stop this for Christ's sake!"
At the sound of her husband finally losing his cool Stephanie in turn finally seemed to make some attempt to calm down. She took several deep breaths and then sat back down.
"My god, what's wrong with this family?" Nobody answered Paul's question and a heavy silence descended on the office. Eventually Vince spoke, trying to sound calm, "We've all had a minute to cool off so can we talk without screaming or standing up?"
Stephanie looked at the floor and did not respond.
"Steph say something. Please?"
She did not look up but she sounded hurt now instead of angry, "How could you? I mean seriously, Nikki Bella?"
Vince felt his anger rising again but he still managed to speak calmly, "There we go, it's not that I'm in a relationship with someone is it? It's that it's Nikki."
Stephanie looked up now, staring coldly at her dad, "It's both of those things. I'll tell you now and you had better believe me. That bitch is never coming in my house and she's never touching my kids."
"Steph I'm not going to leave Nikki to suit you, so get that idea out of your head. If you come to my house then Nikki will be there. At least she will be soon when she moves in."
"Then we won't come," Stephanie insisted like a stubborn child.
Vince ignored that comment, "Also you will be working with Nikki when you start your new job Monday night."
Stephanie was about to say that in that case she quit but then she finally managed to gain some semblance of control, "Why? You know I will be miserable, you know she will be miserable, so why?"
"Nikki will only be miserable if you make her miserable. You will only be miserable if you make yourself miserable. Nikki doesn't have a problem with you, she told me that and I believe her. Like it or not Steph, we make each other happy."
"Not," was her simple, sulky reply.
Vince sighed and leaned back in his chair, "So that's it then? You won't make any effort to see this from anyone else's point of view apart from your own?"
"I can see it from my mom's point of view," Stephanie growled.
Vince decided his only option was to shock some sense into his daughter so he yelled at her, "Your mom's dead!"
Stephanie looked down and said nothing. After a moment Vince continued but now gently, "She's dead baby and we all miss her and we always will, especially me but do you want to talk about what she would have wanted? You think this is it? This is what she wanted, me and you at each other's throats and all of us being miserable?"
Stephanie managed to mumble, "No."
"Steph it will work out. You'll get to know her personally as you're working with her and..."
Stephanie got up one more but not explosively this time, "Don't dad, not now. I'm going home. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Yet again Paul found himself trailing his wife out of an office, wondering why it surprised him that he was going to end up being the one trying to pick up the pieces of this mess. That seemed to be his role now.