CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ABBY

She woke up to the sound of her father's ringtone. Turner stirred beside her. He smiled at her and said, "Hey, Beautiful."

She kissed him before grabbing her phone. "Hey, Dad. What's up?" She asked.

"Abigail, tell me this is fake," her father said urgently.

"Um... I'm a little lost here, Dad. Tell you what's fake?" It wasn't a good sign that her father was calling her Abigail. He pretty much never did that.

"Oh God. You don't even know, do you?"

"Dad, back up. What the hell is going on?"

"Abby... There's a video floating around on the Internet. I didn't watch it, of course, but there are some terrible people out there who were cruel enough to send me screenshots..."

"Of what?" She was completely confused.

"Of you, Abby. With Turner."

His tone said what his words did not. Suddenly, Abby was filled with rage. "Dad, I would never do something that stupid!" She said. "I swear I had no idea... But I'm going to get to the bottom of it right now. I love you, but I'm going to have to call you back." Abby hung up her phone. She immediately jumped on Twitter. Sure enough, there were video links and very intimate screenshots of the previous night all over the site.

"You son of a bitch!" Abby screamed at Turner. "How dare you?" She threw his clothes at him.

"What? Abby, slow down. What happened?" Turner asked. He started to get dressed automatically.

"You filmed it!"

"Filmed what?"

"Us. Last night. And now it's all over the Internet! And people are sending screenshots to my father! Do you understand what that's doing to him?"

Turner's eyes went wide. "Abby, I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Then how the hell did it end up online, Turner? Because I sure as hell didn't film it and no one else was here!"

Turner stared at her. "Abby, I know I'm a scumbag, okay? I admit I have alternative morals... And yeah, I've done a lot of illegal shit, but I would never do that! Especially not to you!"

She showed him the video as proof. Turner studied it. "Admiring your work?" Abby asked harshly.

"Trying to figure this out... The bed's right here... The camera had to be over that way..." He motioned toward the desk.

"With the chocolates and that stupid teddy bear you sent me? Take it all back and get the hell out of my house, you fucking asshole!"

Turner froze. "Abby... I didn't send you a teddy bear."

She hesitated. "What?" She asked.

"I sent you chocolates. That's all I sent you." He walked over to the bear and pulled out his pocket knife.

"What are you doing?" Abby asked. She wasn't yelling anymore, but she was shaking and unsure of what to think.

"Getting to the bottom of this," he said. He proceeded to stab the bear in the face and cut out its eye. That's when Abby realized what had really happened.

"Turner... Oh my God..." She whispered.

"Call the cops, Abby. Someone's been watching us," he said.

"Turner... I'm so sorry... I shouldn't have assumed-"

"Stop. You don't need to apologize. I'd have thought the same thing in your place." He kissed her. "Go. Call the cops and we'll see if they can find the bastard who did this to you."

"To us," Abby corrected him. "You got violated here, too."

"Yeah, but they can't send screenshots to my dad. You're in a worse situation here. Besides, people judge girls a lot harsher with this sort of thing than they judge guys."

"There's nothing to judge! It's not like we willingly made a sex tape... Fuck this. I'm not letting this destroy our lives."

"What are you going to do?"

"After I call the cops? I'm calling Aiden, and we're doing a shoot, and I'm sending it to every media outlet I can think of. We're going to put this fire out,"

"How? It's already all over the Internet."

"It's blowing up because it's a scandal... But we were the victims of a crime and we didn't do anything wrong. Once people know that, they'll feel like assholes for spreading this around. It'll die down. Sure, a few random scumbags will cling to it, but there won't be any fuel to feed the fire."

"You're good at damage control."

"I'm best friends with Carrie Heyman. I had to learn to cover up scandals and put a different spin on them pretty early in life." She walked away to call the police. Turner followed her, probably just in case the bear was still recording. Abby knew she could get this under control, but only if she acted quickly.

FELICIA

She was sitting in her room in Tommy and Trisa's house thinking entirely too much. Her head hurt, and so did her heart. Felicia sighed and tried to pick up a book to distract herself. It didn't work. Her eyes roamed to the dresser. In the top drawer, beneath her neatly folded underwear and perfectly rolled socks, sat a box cutter blade carefully hidden in a hard plastic case that helped keep it clean.

She opened the drawer and pulled out the case. She struggled with herself for a few minutes, but she finally opened it and pulled out the blade. She carefully made three cuts, each perfectly parallel to each other, and stared at them, feeling nothing.

You can't keep doing this, she told herself. It's got to stop. She walked down the hall toward the bathroom and ran straight into Tommy. She jumped in surprise as she bumped into him.

"You okay, sweetheart?" Tommy asked.

Felicia was ready to lie, but suddenly, she knew she couldn't. She'd literally had a mental breakdown at her mother's funeral in front of everyone. Enough was enough, and she knew she needed to stop.

"No," Felicia admitted. "Tommy, I… I need…" She shook her head and carefully rolled up her sleeves, revealing her newest injuries.

Tommy's eyes went wide. He immediately stepped into the bathroom and pulled out some supplies to disinfect the wound and clean her up. "Felicia..." He said. "Why?"

"I had to," Felicia said softly. "I needed to get it out…"

After he wrapped her wounds with gauze, Tommy rolled her sleeve up further. Upon seeing the alarmingly high number of new and faded scars all over her arm, he looked at her other arm, too. She let him. She couldn't keep hiding this.

"Okay. First of all, tell me the truth. Are you suicidal right now?" Tommy asked.

"No," Felicia said honestly. "I could never leave Phil. He needs me."

He nodded. "The twin bond is strong. I believe you… But you can't keep hurting yourself, Felicia. You need to talk to someone."

"I've never been very good at opening up… My whole life's been about keeping secrets, Tommy."

"I know… But that's not the case anymore."

"People have tried to convince me to see a therapist, but… I never did. I just don't know how to let myself do it."

"I'm not going to try to convince you, Felicia. You're going to see someone. Normally, I'd never try to take away your choice, but you need help. I took you in because I wanted to help you, and I'll be damned if I'm going to leave you in this state." He hesitated. "I'm sorry if that was too harsh… And I can't actually force you to get help, but… But after everything…"

She saw the pain in his eyes. Tommy had tried so hard to help her mother. She knew that. She also knew that her mother had refused to accept his help due to the warped loyalty her father had demanded from his family. "No," Felicia said. "I… I'll do it. Just like Phil doesn't want to turn into our father… I don't want to turn into our mom. I don't know where to start, Tommy… But I'll let you help me."

He hugged her. "You're going to be okay, Felicia. I promise. I can talk to Paul. Carrie seems to be doing really well with the new therapist she's seeing. Maybe she can help you, too."

"Okay," Felicia said. She rolled her sleeves back down. "Are you mad?"

"No, sweetheart. Why would I be? I'm just worried about you."

She nodded. "Thank you, Tommy… For everything."

"We're family, Felicia. You don't need to thank me." He gently squeezed her shoulder. "I'm going to call Paul. We'll set this up as soon as possible. Are you okay to be alone for a few? Do you need me to get Trisa?"

"I'm okay now," Felicia promised. "But… But here." She ducked into her room and pulled out the blade. "If you keep it, you know I'm not hurting myself with it."

"That's a good step, Felicia. I'm proud of you." Tommy took the blade and hugged her again. "I'm right down the hall if you need me. I'll let you know what happens after I talk to Paul."

Felicia nodded and let him walk away. She was terrified, but she knew there was no turning back now. She was going to see a therapist, and either it would help, or it wouldn't. At least she'd finally know one way or the other.

LUKE

He hadn't expected to see a naked Turner as soon as he opened up Twitter. He'd expected to see a naked Abby even less. That was more of his friends than he'd ever imagined he'd be exposed to. He looked away quickly out of respect, but he couldn't unsee it.

"Shit," he mumbled.

"What's wrong?" Chris asked.

"Remember how you told me your dad said more stuff was coming?"

"What is it?"

"Not PG, that's for sure..."

"Luke, just tell me."

"Someone leaked a sex tape of Turner and Abby... And I highly doubt either of them knew it was being made."

"What? Holy shit!"

"Man, this guy's good. How'd he get a camera into her room?" Luke wondered alone. "We need to shove a kendo stick where the sun don't shine and see how he likes being violated!"

"Do you think they know yet?"

"Abby lives on social media. I'm sure she knows by now."

"This is too much... There has to be something we can do."

"Sellie says he hasn't left any proof so far. There was no paper trail with the guy who went after Carrie..." He paused, trying not to think about the man he'd possibly killed. "No pay-offs to any bank account, no suspicious cash deposits... They must have kept it all under the table. No one knows who sent the photos of Artie to the dirt sheets. Your hospital records were hacked into but they don't know who did it. Whoever he is, he's tech savvy. And now, he managed to record Abby and Turner without either one of them knowing it. Unless they can trace it and figure out where the video was sent, they won't catch him off of that either."

"He'll screw up. People like that always do... And then, we'll nail him."

"If it's really Triple H, he'll get out of it somehow."

"He arranged to have a girl raped. Even if nothing else sticks, that's conspiracy to commit a crime."

"I hope you're right, but he gets out of everything. He's a McMahon by marriage."

"We have Sellie on our side."

Luke became slightly more optimistic. "You're right. Sellie doesn't know how to lose. We just need to find proof and he's done for."

"Do you think this tape will hurt ECW?" Chris asked.

"It's ECW. There have been leaked sex tapes before. No one cared. Hell, Tammy's done straight-up porn and it didn't keep her from getting bookings. If anything, it increased her meet and greet sales."

"For the wrong reasons... I don't want that to happen to Abby."

"It's Abby, Chris. She's got this. The fans will be eating out of her hands as soon as she comes up with something to say." Luke was positive he was right about that. If anyone could turn this around, it was Abby. He just wished he knew what perverted creep had gotten to her. Triple H was almost definitely the one behind all of this, but there was no way he'd have gotten close enough to Abby to plant that camera, so whose strings was he pulling?

CRAIG

He woke up feeling miserable. That was normal for him lately, and he hated it. Craig had always been pretty upbeat. Sure, he was a little awkward at times, and he was in love with a girl he'd never be able to have, but he managed to stay happy in spite of this. Now, however, he spent most of his time wishing he could just go to sleep and not wake up.

Everything had fallen apart. It was one thing after the other, and it had all started with him being a complete and total moron. Markie was tolerating him in public, but she still wanted nothing to do with him. Almost everyone else was so caught up in the excessive drama, they seemed to have forgotten all about him. He was there, but he wasn't really there.

He needed an escape so badly. He thought about going to church. His father had taught him that God fixed everything… But God hadn't made this mess; Craig had. And even if God forgave him, Markie probably never would. With a sigh, Craig walked to the nearest church anyway. Maybe going to confession and just talking to someone would help him…

Talking to a priest about the fact that you decided to sleep with a girl you're not even really into just to hurt the girl you claim to love? Yeah, that'll go over well, he thought. He shook his head and didn't step inside. Instead, he kept walking, feeling more alone than ever.

He ended up by the water. He looked out at it. The view was beautiful, but it didn't comfort him. Nothing did anymore. He'd never been this unhappy in his life.

He didn't know what else to do, so he picked up his phone. Who could he call? Would anyone actually talk to him? He settled on dialing Artie, then thought better of it. Artie was dealing with more than enough stress right now. He couldn't lay all of this on him. Almost anyone else would probably just judge him. Carrie wouldn't, but considering everything that had happened, he wasn't going to try to talk to her about this. She had too much on her plate, too. She certainly didn't need his angst on top of everything else.

He sat down on top of the hill overlooking the water and sighed. After a few minutes spent further lost in thought, he realized his cheeks were wet. He wiped away the tears with the back of his hand, but more fell. He'd never hurt on this level before, but he'd certainly seen others hit that point. Markie had been there when they first met, and she still ended up there exactly twice a year. Artie had spent years in this place, and Craig had nearly lost him because of it.

Maybe he was on to something, Craig thought. Life can't hurt if you're not alive to experience it.

He shook his head. Artie's suicide attempt had been the scariest thing Craig had ever faced. It haunted him that if he hadn't randomly decided to call him, he'd have lost his best friend that day. Craig knew he couldn't do that to someone else. Sure, everyone pretty much hated him, but he couldn't do that to his father. He knew suicide wasn't the right choice, even if it seemed exceptionally appealing right now.

"Suck it up, Craig," he told himself. "You made this mess… Now fix it. You can't just run away." He took a deep breath and stood. Somehow, he walked away and headed back to his hotel room. He wasn't sure why he hadn't just gone back home to Florida with his father after Melissa's funeral, but the truth was, if he was still here, he needed to stop crying and start fixing things.

KIM

She was wrapped in Jack's arms when her phone rang. She almost ignored it because she knew it would piss him off if she picked it up, but she couldn't bring herself to.

"Sorry," she said with an embarrassed smile before she picked it up. "Hey, Evan. What's up?" She asked.

"We've got trouble, Kim," Evan said.

She tensed. "What's going on?" She asked.

"It's Abby and Turner. Someone uploaded… Well, a sex tape of them," he said awkwardly.

"Oh my God! Are you serious? Abby would never make a sex tape!"

"She didn't. They found a camera in a teddy bear someone left on her doorstep as a 'gift' last night."

Kim's jaw dropped. "Someone actually sent a nanny cam to her?"

"Yeah. Carrie called her as soon as she saw the tweets… Abby's pretty upset, but she's handling it. She called the cops and she's going to run damage control as soon as she can."

"Of course she's upset! This is insane!"

"The thing that really got to her is her dad's the one who told her… People tweeted pictures to him."

Kim was horrified. "People are sick! How could they think that was okay?"

"I don't even know. Anyway, I called Sellie for them. She's going to work with the police and see if they can put all of the pieces together and maybe find the scumbag who keeps coming after us. Just… Be careful, Kim. Until this all blows over and we catch the guy, don't let your guard drop. Okay?"

"I'm pretty scandal-free, but I'll definitely watch my back. Thanks, Evan."

"No problem."

When Kim hung up, Jack looked at her curiously. "Okay, did I hear that right?" He asked. "What's going on?"

"Some sick pervert filmed Abby and Turner doing… Well, you can guess… And now it's all over the Internet," Kim explained.

"Oh wow… Are they alright? They must be so freaked out."

"I don't know about Turner, but Abby is. She'll figure out a way to spin this, though. That's what Abby does."

"How could anyone possibly put a positive spin on this?"

"You don't know her like I do, Jack. She'll pull it off."

Jack looked skeptical. "I just can't believe someone would do that to them… It's awful."

"It is. Look, I need to call Briana. She should hear this from me before she just comes across it. Evan just called to warn me to be careful in case anyone tries anything like that on me." Suddenly, Kim was especially relieved she'd refused to have sex with Jack. She'd have died if someone put out a tape of her doing those things. She didn't even know what she'd do if someone sent nude photos of her to her father. She couldn't imagine how Abby must be feeling.

"Kim? Are you okay?" Jack asked.

"Yeah… Just… It's scary, Jack. Someone's coming after us… All of us. And it's not just little things… Artie being kicked out of the closet resulted in him being kicked out of his house. Chris, who wouldn't hurt a fly, had his mental health broadcast to the entire world."

"Yeah, well, at least he seems to have embraced that," Jack said. "I mean, I was really surprised he pulled that off. He's a strong guy to survive all of that and then be able to handle having it put out there. How did he managed to turn that around?"

"Chris is stronger than people think… And we're ECW, Jack. When someone tries to break us, we just go crazy and get stronger and fight back."

"I'm starting to realize that. You guys are amazing. I don't know how you do it!" He seemed genuinely impressed.

"We're still scared, though… Well, I am, at least." She didn't mention what had happened to Carrie, but she couldn't get it out of her mind. What if someone sent someone after her? She didn't think she could survive that. She was stunned that Carrie had. "They actually sent her a nanny cam… Who does that?"

"Someone desperate." He paused, watching her as she shuddered. "You'll be okay, Kim. I promise. I'll protect you."

"How? We don't know who this guy is… We don't know what he'll do next… He could be anyone. He could be anywhere."

"Honey, just breathe, okay? I'd never let anyone hurt you." He kissed her. "I love you, Kim." He seemed almost sad.

"I love you, too," she told him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just hate seeing you so upset. I mean, I knew that your friends meant a lot to you, but I see how much this is hurting you… You have such a big heart. You're not like anyone I've ever met. You feel everything so deeply… It hurts me to see you hurting."

"You're sweet. I'll be okay, Jack. I'm just kind of freaked out right now."

"Understandably… But they'll pull through this, Kim. They're ECW, right?" He grinned at her.

"Right," she said, returning his grin. "And E-C-Dub can't be stopped!" She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. This would be okay. They'd get through it. They just needed to stick together.

ABBY

They'd spent a while with the police. Now, Abby was ready to do the shoot with Turner by her side. The police were still in the house trying to trace the video, but they were having a lot of difficulty. Whoever had set it up to broadcast to them was some sort of hacker, and they'd covered their tracks well.

Aiden gave her the cue to let her know the camera was recording. "Hi," she said. "My name is Abby Styles, and as usual, I've got something to say. This morning, a video was uploaded to the Internet by a currently unknown person or persons that I'm sure you've all seen by now. Before you start calling me a slut or talking about how stupid I was to film it in the first place, I'm here to set the record straight. That video was made without my knowledge or consent. This isn't some case of someone making a sex tape and then acting so shocked when it leaked… This is so much more than that."

She paused, then continued. "Turner Knighton is my boyfriend. We are both consenting adults and we're in a committed relationship. Yes, we had sex. That's what people do when they're in love. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Are you all going to tell me that you don't have sex with your significant others?"

"Neither one of us had any awareness that this was being filmed," Turner said. "Abby and I were just the next in line among the new ECW roster to get hit with trouble recently. We're not going to go into detail because this is an ongoing police investigation, but someone is coming after us. They're trying to destroy us on a personal level before we can get our promotion up and running. Abby and I have decided not to let this destroy us, however. I'll let Abby explain exactly where we stand."

"First of all, you're probably thinking, 'Well, how could they be filmed without their knowledge?' I'm going to explain that now," Abby began. "Yesterday was my birthday. I received two gifts. One was from Turner. The other had no card and I assumed it was also from him." Aiden cut to a shot of the teddy bear. "That teddy bear looks harmless enough, but the reason it's eye has been cut out is because someone installed a nanny cam in it. That camera filmed everything that happened in my bedroom. So, basically, under the guise of a birthday present, someone sent a camera to film my every move. Happy birthday to me! Not only is that illegal, it's creepy as all hell. You can see the wires for yourself, and you can see the police all over my house right now trying to figure this out, so obviously, we're telling you the truth about this. Besides, if I'm known for anything, it's my over-the-top theatrics. Don't you think if I knew I was being filmed, I'd have put on a better show?"

Again, Abby paused. Aiden brought the camera back to her and she continued. "Okay, so I know all of you are sitting at home making fun of this latest scandal or jerking off to it or whatever it is that you're doing… But I just want you to think about something. The next time you decide to try to mock us or to get off, imagine that this video is of you and your significant other, and someone violated you by filming it without your permission. Imagine they posted it online and the entire world has now seen you having sex with the person you love. Now, imagine that you're a parent, and you're sitting at home and all of a sudden, someone sends you pornographic photos of your daughter… Or your sister… Or your mother… How would you feel? So, to the assholes tweeting these images to my father, just know that your cruelty has been noted and I hope you never have to feel what you've made him feel. I also hope you never understand what it is to be violated and have that violation shared with millions of people around the world in a matter of minutes. When you're judging us or when you're getting off, just remember, Turner and I are the victims of a crime and we did nothing wrong here, but you're enjoying the evidence. So if you still feel like doing that, go for it. I guarantee it's the only time you'll ever see me naked. But if you're actually decent human beings who realize this could just as easily have happened to you or someone you know, I implore you to remove the video from your feed. Stand with us. Demand justice for what is happening so this doesn't happen to anyone else. And please, for the love of God, stop tweeting screenshots to my father. No parent should have to see their child in that way. Thank you."

Aiden turned the camera off. He looked at her. "It's perfect," he said. He sat down on his laptop and immediately started to upload the video. He attached it to a tweet and put in simply "Abby Styles Official Shoot." He added several hashtags including, FreeECW, Justice4Knyles, IStandWithKnyles, AbbyStylesSexTape, and AbbyStylesMrKnight.

"That should cover everything they might be searching for to find or discuss the video," Aiden said.

"Knyles?" Turner asked.

"Knighton and Styles… Couple names are huge. It'll catch on like wild fire."

Sure enough, within ten minutes, it had been retweeted an insane number of times and Abby and Turner were trending on Twitter, but no longer under the sex tape tags. Now, millions of people tweeted out their support. Most were genuinely horrified by what had been done to them. In under an hour, several people actually tweeted Abby and Turner apologizing and removed the things they'd previously posted. Abby noticed several of the tweets that had been sent to her father had also been deleted.

"I told you we'd be fine," Abby said to Turner. "I'm really sorry about earlier…"

"It's okay. I told you, you had the rational response. Anyone would have thought I did it," Turner said. "I'm just glad this is working."

"When I speak, people shut up and listen. It's a Styles thing." She rested her head on his shoulder, exhausted, then looked at Aiden. "Thank you so much," she said. "You're a life saver, and possibly a career saver."

"No problem, Abby. What happened to you disgusts me, but at least I was able to help," Aiden said. He gave her a hug, then hugged Turner as well before leaving.

"We're going to keep working on this," one of the officers told them. "I promise you, we'll keep at it until we find out who did this. Until then, please don't accept any strange gifts or bring anything into your house without checking it thoroughly."

"Believe me, I learned my lesson," Abby said.

He nodded and the police left, taking the teddy bear with them. With a sigh, Abby looked at Turner. "Well, I'd say we've earned some food, especially since we skipped breakfast. Lunch?" She asked.

"Absolutely," Turner said. Abby threw herself into cooking and tried not to dwell on the fact that her father had seen her in the worst way possible. She didn't care so much that the rest of the world had. It happened. It couldn't be undone, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Sure, it was awful, but the fans were fickle. They'd forget all about it as soon as the next big scandal happened. Her father, however, would have to live with what he'd seen forever. For the first time in her life, Abby worried her father might be disappointed in her.

"I'll be back," she said as the food cooked. She grabbed her phone and called her father. "Dad… I'm really sorry about all of this, but I think I've got it under control now… I fixed it. Are you…? Are you mad at me?"

"What? No, honey, of course I'm not mad!" Her father said. "You had no idea this was being done to you. It's not your fault in the slightest, and as much as I'm upset that I had to see all of that, you're an adult. If you want to have sex with your boyfriend, that's your right… I just… I'd prefer not to know about it in the future." He laughed awkwardly.

Abby was relieved. He wasn't angry or disappointed in her. Everything was going to be alright as long as she still had her father on her side. "I ran damage control…"

"I saw. I'm incredibly proud of you, Abby. You did a great job in the face of the hardest thing you've ever had to deal with."

"I'm a Styles. Talking is what we do."

"Listen… Bring Turner by for dinner later. I think I should get to know him better. I noticed you two were spending a lot of time together, but you didn't actually tell me you were dating."

"With everything else that's been happening, it didn't seem like the right time."

"Well, it's time now. Come by around seven. I'll make your favorite."

Abby smiled. "Thanks, Dad… I love you."

"I love you, too."

They hung up and Abby resumed cooking feeling much calmer. "We have a dinner invite if you're up for it," she told Turner. "My dad wants to get to know you better."

"Should I be concerned?" Turner asked.

"Possibly," she said with a laugh. "Just be honest with him and you'll be fine… And don't worry. Nothing shocks my dad. You can literally say anything to him."

"Okay," Turner agreed.

Abby smiled. She knew things would be okay now. She just had to keep moving forward. Her father was behind them. The fans were behind them. They'd get through this and everyone would move on very soon.