Dominos
Chapter 28
Disclaimer: This is fictional. I own Courtney. That's pretty much it.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews: Chi1078, prettycrazytriplehfan, Sonib89, maketimetotime, Claire Moxley, and last but certainly not least, DenyingTheTruth. You guys are awesome. I apologize for the delay in the update. I've been working on this, a new Dean Ambrose story that wouldn't leave me head until I started writing it, and the OOC sequel, which is coming along nicely and may be posted today...or sometime soon. Anyways, I really appreciate the love I get from you guys. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and hopefully, it won't be too long until the next one :) Love you guys! XoXoXo
"Stephanie…what are you doing here?" Paul asked, stepping into the house and shutting the door behind himself.
"I…I know you're hiding something from me, and I know that Courtney has something to do with it," she replied, her husband taking a seat next to his wife on the loveseat. She found herself to be more nervous than she thought she would be confronting this.
"Why didn't you just ask me about it?" he questioned her.
"Because I knew that you'd play it off like it was nothing."
"I wouldn't have done that. I would have told you what you wanted to know."
"You're so full of shit," Courtney mumbled.
Paul gave her a look. "Excuse me?"
"You wouldn't have said a word," she said, her voice louder.
"I would have," he insisted.
"Really, Paul?" Courtney firmly spoke, her voice warning him. "Seriously, just…start being honest with Stephanie, please. Don't make me do it for you. Because I will, and I won't feel bad when it pisses you off."
"Alright," he relented, knowing that she meant exactly what she said. Stephanie deserved to hear this from her husband's mouth anyway. "Stephanie, I love you so much. We've been married for ten years already, and I'm so happy that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you. You are my entire world, and I have loved you for so long and only love you more each day." He paused for a moment. "But there's something I've been keeping from you for a long time. When I was seventeen, I started dating a woman named Beth. I was in love with her. And when I was going to leave New Hampshire to make it as a wrestler, I asked her to come with me. At that point, I was nineteen, and she was eighteen. She told me…" He took a deep breath. "She told me that she was pregnant. And I told her…" Paul paused again, looking at Courtney regretfully. "I told her not to have the baby. So, she broke up with me. And I left and never spoke to her after that. I found out a year ago that Beth died. My family knew her, and I had asked if they'd spoken to her at all. That's when my sister told me she had died years before. I also found out that she had a daughter."
Stephanie's mouth fell open upon the realization of what was going on, and she looked at Courtney whose eyes were once again brimming with tears. "Oh my God. You're his daughter, aren't you?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Courtney nodded. "I'm sorry."
She turned to her husband. "That's why you started acting weird. You were looking for her. How did you find her?"
"Well, my sister had told me her name was Courtney. I used Facebook to find out that she was living in New York. But Courtney deleted her profile pretty soon after that. So, I had to use the little information I had to track her down. I found out where she worked. I got Shawn, we flew to New York, and he got her out of…the place where she was working. And she's pretty much been telling me to go fuck myself ever since. So…I bought her this house. I gave her a job. She moved here…and…that's pretty much that."
"You should have told me, Paul," Stephanie told him, though no one could tell if she was angry or upset or okay with the revelation. It was probably a combination of some sort.
"I know…I was just…I didn't know…"
"So…what's the story with you, then?" Stephanie asked Courtney.
"Trust me, you really don't want to know that."
"Well, you're not just an employee anymore. You're my stepdaughter. So, I do want to know," she replied.
Courtney took a deep breath, knowing that Stephanie did deserve to know the truth. She just didn't feel like talking about it again. Her entire day thus far had been her rehashing the past she had tried to hide for so long. "My mom died when I was seventeen. By eighteen, I had modelled nude and become a stripper to help me pay the bills. I moved to California, became an escort who refused to sleep with her clients. Then, I kind of…uh…didn't have a choice with a particular client, so I quit. I went back to stripping. I was putting myself through college. One of my professors caught me at work. He gave me the option of failing his class and being outed as a stripper to everyone. I wasn't exactly proud, so I chose the other option, which meant I'd get an 'A'…but I had to sleep with him. After the semester, I dropped out of college and moved to Vegas. I stripped there and developed a lovely drug habit. I ruined two years of my life, before a close friend of mine overdosed and died, and I moved myself to New York and went to rehab. After that, I went back to stripping, since at that point, it was all I knew how to do. And one day, Shawn Michaels walked in and pulled me out. I haven't had to do any of that since…so…that's the story, I guess."
Stephanie just stared at Courtney for a few moments, in disbelief. "Is all of that true?" she asked, unable to believe that her stepdaughter had such a difficult life.
"It's the abridged version, but, I mean…it's the truth," Courtney replied, avoiding Stephanie's eyes.
"Courtney, I'm so sorry…" she spoke, unsure of what to say in this situation.
"I made some really bad decisions," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Yeah, bad decisions you wouldn't have had to make if I hadn't left you," Paul said. He was feeling a lot of guilt for everything that she had been through. Hearing the whole story, most of which he didn't know until now, hurt him. All he had known was that she was a stripper. He had heard some bits and pieces when she was talking to Stu, but now, he knew everything.
"Listen, Paul, you did what you had to do at the time," she said with a shrug. "Sometimes we do things, and when we look back, maybe we made the wrong decision. Trust me, that's been most of my life."
"No. I was being selfish," he replied.
"Sometimes, I would blame you, but I did what I thought was best at the time for me. And I made some really shitty decisions. That's my own fault. Not yours," she said, with a shrug. At this point, she didn't want Paul blaming himself for what she went through. Courtney was passed that. She didn't want to place blame or dwell on it.
"I'm sorry for accusing you of sleeping with him," Stephanie apologized. She felt like an idiot for thinking that, especially knowing the truth. "I just…I didn't know." She sent a glare in her husband's direction. Not to mention, her husband had a daughter that she didn't know about, which was disconcerting on its own.
"Stephanie, I hope you know that I'm not here to ruin your family or extort Paul or anything crazy like that. Quite frankly, I didn't want him to find me. I've known that he was my father for a really long time. I never said anything because…honestly, I didn't want anything to do with him," Courtney admitted. "I just…I wanted to pretend that I didn't have any family left because…I mean…if your father left you, would you really want to admit that to anyone?"
"I understand. I don't blame you. And I didn't think that you were trying to do anything to hurt anyone by being here."
Stu felt badly that the woman he loved was sitting here, dealing with all of this stuff from her past. He wanted to take all of her pain away and make her feel like she was loved and taken care of…like she would never be hurt again. He just wanted to protect her.
"I'm really sorry. I know that it doesn't mean anything, but I really am sorry for what I did," Paul said, his eyes focused on his daughter. He looked so sad and so guilty. He hated himself for having not been a part of Courtney's life for the last twenty-five years. He despised himself for what his eldest daughter went through because he wasn't around. He blamed himself completely for having not done anything to help her while she was in these awful situations and being violated by these disgusting men that he should have been protecting her from.
"Paul, it's okay," Courtney told him.
"No! No, it's not okay!" he exploded, standing up from the couch. He put his hands on his hips and faced away from the three other people in the room.
"Paul…" Stephanie spoke.
He shook his head but didn't speak.
Courtney stood up and walked over to him. She placed a hand on his arm. "Paul, it's really alright. I'm okay," she said, her voice soft. He still wouldn't speak. She moved in front of him. Then, she understood why Paul wasn't speaking. Paul's eyes were red, and he was clearly trying as hard as he possibly could to not cry. But once he looked at her, he lost it.
Paul pulled Courtney into his arms and held her tightly. He began crying. "I should have protected you. It was my job, and I didn't do it," he spoke. Courtney froze. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't believe this was the tall, muscled man, the WWE Superstar known to the world as the Game…the Cerebral Assassin. And he was sobbing.
"Paul, it's—"
"No. This is my fault, Courtney. And I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I…I…I thought about you. I wondered if you were a boy or a girl…if you were okay…what you looked like. And…and when I found out that you were a girl and were named Courtney, I wanted to find you. When I found your Facebook page…I just…I knew…I knew that it was you. You're the spitting image of your mother," he explained. "And when…when I found out…where you worked…I knew that I'd fucked up so badly. I hate myself. You did those things to be able to pay your bills. I could have paid them…like a father is supposed to. The moment I saw you, I knew that I could never let you work at one of those places ever again. I had to take care of you."
"Paul…calm down. It's really okay," she spoke, wrapping her arms around him.
"It isn't okay," he insisted. "It really isn't."
"But look at me. I'm here. I'm alright. I made the best of the situation. And you're here now. You're trying to make it right. So, don't get all upset like this. It's fine. It is perfectly fine. I just don't want to be so upset."
"I'll do anything I can to help you. I'll do anything for you. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you for so long, but I want to…I dunno. I want to do right by you now. I'll never be able to make up for what you went through. But I swear to God, I'll never abandon you again."
"I know."
Paul kissed the top of Courtney's head. "You have no idea how much I love you. I know you probably don't believe me. And I'm an asshole and wasn't around for you. But you're my daughter. I love you. I'll never let anything happen to you ever again."
Courtney actually felt badly for Paul. She could feel his sincerity in each word he spoke. And while she knew that he had turned his back on her before, she really believed that he would never do that to her again.
Stephanie felt a multitude of emotions. She felt awful for what Courtney had been through. And even just on a human level, not considering the fact that this was her husband's daughter. She felt awful for accusing her of sleeping with Paul weeks ago. She wanted to fix her part in this situation. She wanted to be a good stepmother to Courtney. No one should have to deal with what this poor girl went through.
Stephanie was also really upset with Paul. She wished that he had been honest with her from the beginning, instead of hiding this. She was upset with him for having turned his back on his unborn daughter. She was upset that he had waited twenty-four years to finally start looking for her. Stephanie wanted to ream her husband out. But at the same time, she felt for him a bit. He was clearly was upset about what he had done. He had obviously been torturing himself over all of this. And she knew that for the last year, he had been acting a little differently. He had seemed off. As if he was stressed out about something. Clearly, Paul had beaten himself up plenty, and she was confident that he would continue to do so.
Paul and Courtney pulled apart. She gave him a genuine smile. "We'll work this out over time," she assured him. He nodded.
"You're so beautiful, Courtney. You're perfect. And I'm going to be the father to you that I should have been for all of these years. I want to be a part of your life," he said fawning over her, wishing that he had never left her.
Courtney nodded, her eyes filling with tears again. She hated being so emotional. But…at least, she felt, this was a good reason to be. "Like I said, we'll figure this out, Paul. Just sit down and relax, calm down."
He acquiesced and sat back down next to Stephanie, who wrapped an arm around her husband's shoulders. Courtney sat back down next to Stu. He gave her a smile and snaked his arm around her waist. He kissed the side of her head affectionately. She leaned her body against his. "You okay?" he asked.
Courtney nodded. "I am."
"I'm sorry for being a dick to you before," Paul apologized looking at Stu. "I guess I'm overcompensating for not being there for Courtney before. But obviously, you've been taking care of her. And I need to be appreciative of that."
"It's fine. Don't worry. I'm sorry. I wasn't very respectful of you earlier. I was getting defensive of Court, and you're her father."
Paul shook his head. "It wasn't like I did a very good job of taking care of her. I do appreciate that you've been there for her."
"Paul, I may be an arrogant bastard most of the time, but I do love Courtney very much. And we've had a really interesting history, but I want to be able to take care of her and treat her right," he assured him.
"I can see that," Paul said. "Thank you."
"In fact, I hope that you'll consider eventually allowing me to date Courtney," he said, giving a nod to Paul.
Courtney raised an eyebrow at Stu. "Haven't we been dating all of this time?" she questioned him.
"Yeah…but I mean…officially. You know…like being…your boyfriend," Stu spoke, feeling a little nervous.
"And you're asking my father for permission? Are you gonna give him a goat and two chickens, too?" she asked, furrowing her brow.
"What?! No! Don't be ridiculous. I'm just trying to be respectful and start this out properly. Not purchase you," Stu refuted. "Besides, I'd have to throw in at least two dairy cows. You're more valuable than just a goat and two chickens."
Courtney couldn't keep her straight face and longer and let out a laugh. "Sometimes, you're just too much."
He smiled. "Listen, if I can make you smile or laugh, I believe that I'm successful."
Paul felt a lot better watching Courtney and Stu interact. He clearly cared about her very much, and she cared about him. If he made her happy, Paul certainly didn't want to interfere in that. He wanted her to be with someone who made her happy, like Stu clearly did. And while he was still mentally being protective of her, he was happy that she was happy.
"Stu, I would be more than happy to allow you to date her…but it's really her permission that you're gonna need…not that I think you would have much of a problem getting that," he said. "I just want her to be happy."
Stu smiled. "I just want to make her happy."
Stephanie smiled at the two. "I hope one day soon that you'll want to meet your sisters. There's three of them," she told Courtney.
"You would be okay with that?" she asked.
"I'd be more than okay with that. I hope you'd want to," she said. "Besides, they'll be really happy when I tell them that they have a big sister."
Courtney smiled. "I would really like that."
"Good because I would, too," Stephanie told her.
