Chapter 10

The Authority's treatment of Roman only grew worse with each passing day. After he came back to work, Hunter put him in extremely taxing matches that pushed him to the limits of his already fragile health. It made Mel furious, and she had already gone off on Stephanie multiple times. Of course, that hadn't helped her relationship with the youngest McMahon, but she didn't really care. Her first priority was keeping Roman out of harm's way. If it came at the cost of her own career, then so be it.

About a week after Roman's return, Mel was stretching in the hallway outside her locker room before Raw, trying to work the kinks out of her tired muscles. She had her earbuds in and was jamming out to her favorite music, when suddenly a pair of immaculately clean black heels appeared right next to her stretched-out leg. Mel paused for a brief moment, knowing exactly who the shoe belonged to, and trying to compose herself. She slowly removed her earbuds and looked up, disgust flowing through her as soon as she laid eyes upon that face that she hated so much. "Stephanie."

Stephanie gave her a smile that was about as friendly as a hungry shark's, and she folded her arms over her tailored, professional-looking black blazer. "Melissa. Getting ready for your match, I see?"

Mel ground her teeth painfully together, trying not to reveal how irked she was. Everyone knew that she hated to be called by her full name of Melissa. The first day that she had arrived in the WWE, she had made sure to tell everyone to call her Mel or Melly. Stephanie had done it for the sole purpose of irritating her, and she didn't want to give the bitch the satisfaction of seeing that it had worked.

Keeping her face and voice neutral, Mel focused on stretching her leg before saying, "Yes, I am. Is there a reason that you bothered me, because I'd rather be alone while I get ready." The sharpness of her tone suggested that what she was really telling Stephanie was to fuck off.

There was no doubt that Stephanie picked up on that, but she was just as good as Mel at keeping a flat face. "See, I would have left you alone, but I have something that I need to tell you," the brunette woman said almost sweetly. "It's something very important."

Mel sighed, giving up on stretching and tucking her legs underneath her so she was sitting cross-legged. She looked up at Stephanie, tucking some of her straightened brown hair behind her ear. "Cut the bullshit, Stephanie. What do you want?"

A small flicker of annoyance passed over Stephanie's face for the briefest second, but then it was gone, to be replaced by that same predatory look. "Well, there's been a little change in plans."

Mel was immediately suspicious. There shouldn't be any changes, she had been feuding with Summer Rae for the past couple of weeks. The animosity between them was supposed to boil over during their tag match later in the evening. None of this made any sense.

"Changes?" Mel repeated, not even attempting to hide the suspicion in her voice. "What kind of changes?"

"Your tag match with Summer tonight? That's not happening anymore."

Mel just stared at her, so much anger bubbling up inside of her that she was sure she was about to explode. She pushed herself up off of the floor and straightened up so that she was looking Stephanie right in the eye. "So you're taking my match away? Fine, whatever. Take it. I'll just go back to the hotel and wait for my boyfriend to come back."

Mel spun in her heel, ready to march back into her locker to and change out of her gear. However, the sound of Stephanie's cold laughter made her stop and turn back around.

"Take your match away? Oh, no, no. I didn't take it away. I just adjusted it a bit." Stephanie gave her a sadistic smile, one that put the Big Red Monster, Kane, to shame.

"What are you talking about?" Mel demanded, curling her hands into fists by her sides.

"I decided that tag matches are boring," Stephanie said, waving a hand dismissively. "So I spiced it up a little. It's nothing big, just something to give it a little more flavor."

Mel had grown impatient, and she snapped, "Just tell me already!"

Stephanie gave her a toothy smile. "You're going to be participating in a one-on-eleven handicap match!"

Stephanie leaned in very close, her face only inches away from Mel's. She smiled that sick smile one more time.

"Guess who the one is?"

"You bitch!"

Mel lunged at Stephanie, intending to knock that goddamn smile off of her face. Unfortunately, Stephanie seemed to have been prepared for the whole thing, because she whipped a piece of paper out of her blazer pocket and held it out in front of her as if it were a shield. "Uh-uh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," she warned the petite Diva, waving the piece of paper. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's a fucking piece of paper, and it's not going to stop me from kicking your ass," Mel snarled, stalking forward like a lioness.

"Wrong. It's not just any piece of paper," Stephanie told her. "It's your precious boyfriend's contract. And if you come any closer..."

Stephanie withdrew a Bic lighter from her pocket as well, and as Mel watched she flipped it open and struck a flame. She slowly lowered the corner of the paper toward the dancing flame, which reached for it as if it wanted to embrace it.

Mel got the message loud and clear: Stand up for herself against the boss from hell and get her boyfriend fired, or go out there and take an asskicking and save his career.

"The choice is all yours," Stephanie crooned, lowering the paper closer to the flame. Mel saw the corner of it start to curl and blacken.

"I'll do it," she said quietly. Despite the fact that she had essentially just sold her soul to the devil, she could at least save what shreds of dignity she had left and not beg.

Stephanie smirked with satisfaction. "Good girl." She snapped the lighter shut and put it back in her pocket, and then she folded Roman's contract up and stuck that in there as well. "Good luck out there. Break a leg."

Stephanie cackled as she walked by, purposefully slamming her shoulder into Mel's, hard enough to cause her to stumble. She steadied herself with a hand against the cool brick wall and closed her eyes, trying to erase the pounding in her head.

The things I do for love.