A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and everything, everyone. I really appreciate it, and I'm glad you like the story. I really got into the groove this chapter, and I think I like how it turned out, so I hope you enjoy it! :)

"I'm going to kill him."

I bite my lip, "Rissa, that's not going to solve anything."

"I don't care, I'm going to kill him. I can get away with it, we have the money, I'll get the best lawyer money can buy. They'll make it look like it was justified because believe me, this is justified," Rissa sounds and looks so angry that I'm thinking I might have to actually physically restrain her.

"And what would that solve?" I ask her. I just wanted someone to talk to, and Marissa has always been someone who will listen and usually she's rational, but this has broken her. It's broken me, but not in the same way.

I haven't talked to Chris since our argument. I've barely even seen him. The only time was in passing at the show. He's avoiding me. I don't know if he's talked to Barbie, though I suspect he hasn't because I can't imagine she would point blank lie to his face after such a confrontation. Of course, I don't know what's going through her mind because she's pinning a child on a man who she knows isn't the father. She's already a liar so she very well could deny it, make me look like the bad guy, dig this chasm between me and Chris even deeper.

I don't even know what he's thinking about me right now. He probably will never want to talk to me again, which is bad because that baby isn't his. If he won't listen to me, who will he listen to? His mother? But I don't want to drag anyone else into this. It was difficult enough talking to Marissa about this, but I just couldn't keep this to myself. This news was life-changing, and it couldn't be kept to myself, not with something that will change Chris's life.

"It would make me feel better and it would make you feel better," Marissa tells me, and she's seething. I don't think I've ever seen her this angry. I'm not even sure what she's angriest about. Is it Barbie being a liar or how Chris treated me or just everything all at once?

"It wouldn't make me feel better," I say, "the only thing that will make me feel better is Chris believing me. It doesn't even have to be me that he believes, just believing anyone. I don't want him to go through his life thinking this child is his when it's not."

"I can't believe that little whore let us all believe that it was Chris's baby. We invited her over for family night!" Marissa is getting her ire drawn up again, and I squeeze her arm. "That's why we never invite anyone ever."

"Well, I wouldn't call her a whore, we don't have to resort to name-calling," I try to remain rational. Yelling, screaming, and cursing Barbie's name isn't going to help matters, and it doesn't even make me feel better.

The worst part of all this is that I kind of feel bad for Barbie. Now that I've had time to think over the situation, I really can't help but feel a little sorry for what she's going through. She had to be so scared to find out she was pregnant by a married man. I'm not condoning what she's done, not at all, nor do I agree that she should have done what she did, but I can at least see where she's coming from. She's young, she was alone, and she just wanted someone who could be there with her. Chris is that guy, Chris will always be that guy, and it left him an easy target.

"She's a home-wrecker, can we call her that?" Marissa asked. "I have a good mind to call Samanth and tell her what's going on. Wife code and all that, right?"

"I don't know what that is," I laugh mirthlessly. "I don't think telling Sam is the best way to go either, but I was thinking that maybe I could talk to Barbie? I mean, I know what's going on, and maybe I can get through to her."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Marissa asks, seemingly coming back down to Earth. "I mean, she could just lie to you or tell you something like it wasn't your business. Plus, and I hate to say this, but she's holding all the cards right now. Chris doesn't believe you, and if you go to her…it could get worse."

"Believe me, Rissa, things couldn't get worse."

"What do you mean by that?"

There's one part of the story I haven't exactly told my sister-in-law yet. I was trying to keep it to myself because the humiliation is still so raw in my head. I still can't believe I actually told Chris that I love him. I never wanted him to find out, at least not like this. I guess the stupid romantic in my head always thought it would be some grand moment when the time was right. That's the key right there, when the time was right. It wasn't supposed to be in the middle of an argument, and he wasn't supposed to accuse me of being a manipulator right after. And he wasn't supposed to run out on me, but he did that, and well, now I have to go on suffering while knowing he knows everything about my deepest, darkest secret.

"I kind of…told Chris that I love him," I confess, scrunching up my mouth afterwards like more words are going to randomly escape.

"You…what!" she exclaims, almost as floored by this as she was when I told her that Chris wasn't the father of Barbie's baby. Marissa leans back in her chair, her eyes wide and staring at me. "Oh my God, Stephanie, what…when…how did this happen?"

"Well, it wasn't supposed to, but it just kind of came out when we were arguing."

Marissa slaps her hand against her forehead. "Stephanie, what am I going to do with you? I'm guessing he didn't take it well since you two haven't been holed up in a bedroom for days on end…that's kind of how I pictured it when you two finally got your acts together. You would just go in your bedroom and make up for lost time."

"Yeah, nope," I shake my head, "he told me that's probably why I was lying, that I was just jealous of Barbie, and that's why I was telling him these lies."

"Okay, now I'm going to kill that little snot," Marissa said.

"Rissa!"

"I've known him almost as long as you have, and he's acting like an asshole, Stephanie, hell, I could know him for a month and still tell you that he's acting like the world's biggest douche," Marissa said, "why would you lie to him? If you love him, why would you lie to him?"

"I thought the same thing, but…"

"You need to talk to him," Marissa decides. "You need to talk to him, and you need to get him to see the truth."

"No, no, no," I shake my head. Getting humiliated once was quite enough, thank you. I'm not eager to get back into that fight. And I already know what Chris is going to do if I go see him again. He's going to think I'm there to apologize, but I've got nothing to apologize for. If he wants to talk to me, he's going to have to come find me.

"Yes, yes, yes, we can't let him go another day thinking Barbie is it for him, that that kid is his. You are meant to be with him and—"

"Rissa, please," I cover my face with my hands, "Chris made it abundantly clear by how he acted that he's not in love with me. I mean, there wasn't even any kind of reaction that could be construed as positive. There wasn't even a spark. If anything, he felt pity for me because I was in love with him."

"He's just reacting that way because he was in shock over what you said," Marissa is my biggest champion in my quest for Chris, well, maybe tied with Loretta, but Loretta cannot know about this, not from me, not this way. Chris has to believe it first. If I tell Loretta, he's going to think I'm ganging up on him, and he'll be even madder.

"You don't know that."

"Of course he is, he probably just wasn't expecting it, but that doesn't mean his feelings aren't there." Marissa sounds more desperate than I do, and that's saying something.

"Rissa, please, don't make this harder than it is. Fact remains, he knows. He knows, and what he chooses to do with that information is his own thing."

The doorbell rings and I look at Marissa. I'm not really expecting anyone, so this is weird. I walk down the stairs to the front door, wondering who it could be that's coming to visit. I'm just getting settled in my new place, and it's still a mess, boxes everywhere, and I'm in no mood to receive visitors. Shane and his friend helped me get my bed set up, and that's about all that's here besides a table and some chairs. Living with Chris meant we shared furniture so I have to go shopping for it, but after this whole debacle, I haven't been in the mood.

I open the door and I'm speechless, well, not completely, there is one word I manage to say, "Chris?"

"Hey," he says sheepishly, running his hand over the back of his neck, something he does when he's nervous. "I, uh, had this lying around, and I bought it before, so I figured I would drop it off." He thrusts a gift in my direction. I stare at it dubiously. "It's a housewarming gift."

"Oh, well, thank you," I take it from him, but I make no move to open it. If this were a few days ago, I would have torn it off in a rush to see what he got me. Then I would analyze the thought behind the gift.

"Steph, who is it?" Marissa lightly treads down the stairs until she's right behind me. I can almost feel her glaring. "Oh…it's you."

"Rissa."

"Chris," she returns, her voice filled with venom, and now I am picturing myself physically restraining her.

"Rissa, I've got this covered, you can go back upstairs," I turn to my sister-in-law. She looks at me, asking if it's wise that she leaves. She's also asking permission to slug him, which I cannot give her. I wish I could, I wish I could slug him, but that wouldn't solve anything, and I'm trying to be the mature one here.

"Fine," she says, but not before glaring at Chris something fierce. If her eyes were lasers, he would be a pile of ash on the floor. She goes slowly up the stairs, flipping Chris off when he can't see her. I give a snort of amusement before I turn back to Chris.

"I guess you talked to her about what happened," Chris sucks at his teeth a little.

"She's practically my sister," I say in response. He's known her forever, he knows how this works. That's the thing about all this, we all have our places, we all have our roles. Our families, and Rissa's family too, we've all known each other for so long, we all know each other so well that when some of us fight, we all know it.

"So…did you want to apologize?" he has the audacity to ask me. I blink a few times because I'm not sure I heard what I heard. That's not how this is supposed to go. Now, granted, I don't know how this is supposed to go, but it's not him here demanding an apology.

"What?" I ask with a scoff. "You expect me to apologize for what exactly?"

"For claiming that my kid isn't my kid," Chris tells me, and I just shake my head.

"I'm not going to apologize for telling you the truth," I say to him, my voice hard, "if anything, you should be here apologizing to me. I'm your friend, Chris, I'm your best friend, and if you think I'm shallow enough to lie about something like this for my own personal gain then you don't know me at all."

"You can't expect me to believe that you have no vested interest in what happens between me and Barbie," he argues, and this argument is so stupid. He's so stupid, and I really do want to punch him right now.

"Yes, I expect you to believe that because regardless of who you're with, regardless of what life throws at you, I have always been there for you, always been honest with you—"

"Oh, is that why you didn't tell me, in over 20 years that you were in love with me?"

"No, I didn't tell you because I knew you didn't feel the same way!" I yell at him, and I hate that it's all coming out this way, but I have to defend myself, and if this is the only way, it's the only way. "I did it because I didn't want to ruin our friendship, and I've always been fine just being friends with you, always! It didn't matter if you were with someone, I supported you because I was your friend! I was the only one who tried to welcome Barbie when it was obvious nobody else in our family was going to, so why would I lie about this!"

"Because you want me for yourself!"

"Yes, I do want you for myself, I've wanted you for myself for a very, very long time, but I'm not the type of person who would lie about someone's child! Chris, you've known me since I was three years old, you've known every part of me, you've always known—"

"I didn't know you were in love with me! So obviously I don't know what else you may hide!"

"She was talking to Randy Orton! On the phone, she was talking to him! She was telling him, begging him to take responsibility for her child because she wanted him to because she hated what she was doing to you! And you know what the first thing I did after I heard this was? My heart broke for you, I just sat there, I sat there because everything hurt for you! I know you wanted this baby, I saw how excited you were. No, it wasn't under the most ideal circumstances, but I was happy for you! I immediately went to tell you because I didn't want one more second of hurt for you, Chris Irvine! And yes, that is because I love you! So if that's how my love has affected things, so be it, yes, that's all my love has done for you."

"Stephanie…" His voice is changing now.

"I have loved you through everything we've been through, Chris, through every hardship. I have loved you on the days where you wanted to quit wrestling because you insisted on making it on your own. I loved you after you called me and told me you were held at gunpoint and I went to bed shaking that night, praying for the first time in ages that you would be safe. I loved you when you decided to go to WCW before you came into the WWE. I loved you Jessica, Chris, through Jessica who hated me, who told me I should move out. I've loved you through everything, and give me one instance, Chris, give me one instance where I haven't been there for you, where I haven't tried to be the best friend you've ever had."

"Steph…" It's softer now, almost sorry.

"So how dare you," I'm starting to cry because I can't help it. I wipe at my eyes angrily because I don't' want to cry in front of him. Crying in front of him makes me look weak. But maybe I am weak. I don't want to fight with him, I hate fighting with him, especially over my love, a love he's only acknowledged as a burden. "How dare you come to my home demanding an apology! You know what, whatever, believe Barbie, believe whoever the hell you want. You obviously aren't a friend to me if you think me so horrible as to want your child not to be yours. Because that's what you think, Chris. You think I'm petty enough to lie to you about a child, about your child. So get out! Just get out! And don't ever try to contact me again!"

I shove the gift back in his arms and slam the door in his face.