Linda left the house and honestly had no idea where to go, she was going to try a couple of hotels and motels first and then go from there. On the way to the first hotel her phone beeped, pulling in to the parking lot she checked her phone hoping that it was good news from Patricia.
I spoke to Steph's Secretary, she's not there & she hasn't seen her today, I said she said she might drop by the office to pick it up before her flight. I also tried calling Steph & she didn't pick up
That was not the answer that she had been hoping for but now she knew and just had to continue with her search.
Thanks. I'm checking hotels, motels etc and then I don't know where I'll go but I will find her.
She checked all of the hotels and motels in the local area and there was no sign of her daughter so now Linda was back to the drawing board of where to go to find her.
The sound of the waves gently lapping at the shore was drawing Stephanie in so moving closer she stood at the edge looking down. It was weird but despite all of the progress she made with Paul this weekend, well really it was just despite the fact that they kissed, she found herself back in the same position that she had been in on Friday, she found herself wondering if ending it all would be the better option for everybody.
"Stephanie, don't do it!" It was only as a last resort that Linda decided to try the cliff top, she was basically reduced to checking any open spaces and this was her first choice because of the ease at being able to commit suicide. When she saw her daughter stood at the railing she panicked, all of her fears came to a head in that one moment and she was terrified.
Slowly turning around she was convinced that she heard her Mom's voice but part of her thought that she was going mad and simply imagining it because there was no way that her Mom would be here as nobody knew that she was here. Much to her surprise her Mom was stood there in front of her, "What? How?"
Pulling her daughter in to a tight embrace she was so relieved that she was okay. "Let's go and sit down." Not so subtly leading her away from the railings she pulled her along to go and sit down on one of the benches, "Why aren't you at Raw?"
"Why are you even here? Were you looking for me or something?" She was too confused to even answer any questions.
So relieved that she had her daughter safe in front of her she almost forgot that she needed to let Patricia and Paul Snr know that she was okay, "Hang on, I just need to text somebody."
I've found her, she's safe. I'll update you after.
Once she had sent the text she could answer her daughter's questions, there was no way to answer them other than honestly though. "I'm here because I was looking for you. Paul sent a text to his parents asking who was sick as you weren't going to make it to Raw and as they thought that you had gone to Raw and hadn't heard anything from you and couldn't get hold of you they were panicked and as I know the area a lot better than they do I said that I would come and look for you. You have no idea how much of a fright you have given people."
"I didn't mean to, I just couldn't face Paul." So that wasn't entirely the whole truth but her Mom didn't need to know everything, she had enough on her plate as it was.
"So you weren't here thinking about ending it all?" She knew that she shouldn't ask the question but if her daughter was that deep in depression she needed to know.
"He told you? He told her? I can't believe he did that." Part of her was insulted, part was angry and part of her just didn't know how to feel she had trusted him, she couldn't believe that he had told on her, how many people had he told though?
The fact that she hadn't moved was actually a good sign and she would celebrate it if she wasn't so worried that her daughter was about to cut her in-laws out of her life. "Three of us know, me, Patricia and Senior. I was only told as they thought that I should have all of the facts and know all of their fears as I was the one that was actively looking for you. Don't hold it against them, it was only shared because they care and were worried about you and to be honest I don't blame them for being worried about you because I am worried too. Do you want to talk about why you skipped Raw? How about why you made Pat and Senior believe that you were going to Raw?"
"I was going to Raw! When I left the house I had every intention of going to Raw but after dropping the girls off at school I just couldn't do it." Staring down at the floor she couldn't face her Mom and admit the truth to her as she was going to be so ashamed of her, "I kissed Paul yesterday, I don't know why I did it but I started it. I was so confused last night that I called him at two this morning and we spoke and I agreed to have lunch with him today but I couldn't do it, I couldn't face him and give him that hope when my head is so messed up that I don't know what I want any more."
Linda reached across the small gap between herself and Stephanie and squeezed her arm gently, "It's okay you know, he'll understand that you weren't up to going to lunch." The fact that Stephanie was avoiding answering whether she was there to end it all made Linda nervous and she had to get her out of there, "Shall we go back to yours as it will be a hell of a lot warmer than here?"
She couldn't go back to hers, not with Patricia and Senior still there, she couldn't face them right now. "I'm okay, I'm not cold. If you're too cold you can go because I'll be okay here."
"We could go for coffee or back to mine if you would prefer not to go home yet?"
"I'm not going to get peace and quiet am I?"
"Not here you won't, you'll catch pneumonia. Please Steph can you come somewhere else, for me?" If she had to blackmail her to get her to move she would, she would do anything so that she was certain that her daughter was safe and wasn't going to do anything stupid. "It'll get better you know, this feeling is only temporary and you just have to fight through it."
"Everybody keeps telling me that it is temporary, if it is so temporary why is it not getting any better?"
"I said temporary, I didn't say that it would be fixed overnight. Stop looking for it to be fixed and start living day by day; it is all that you can do for your sake and for the sake of the girls. They know you're sad you know."
"They don't, they have no idea what is going on." The girls couldn't know what was going on, she was trying so hard to shield them from how bad she was feeling and she wasn't sure how she was going to deal with them knowing how bad things really were.
Linda knew that her daughter was in a dark place but tip-toeing softly around her feelings really wasn't getting them anywhere. "Oh they know, believe me they know how sad you are. When Vince was icing cupcakes with the girls on Friday, I would like to know how they managed to convince him to do that as not once in his life has he set foot near any baking, Vaughn asked him why he was working you so hard because you are always so sad and that question was quickly followed by Murphy scolding her sister for blaming 'Pop Pop' when it wasn't his fault, apparently Mommy is so sad because Daddy's not there any more which resulted in Aurora muttering that she hated that her Dad didn't love any of you any more."
"I thought that she had forgiven him and knew that he loved her."
"I think deep down she does but you know how much like a Mother she is to everybody so I think she just realises how sad you are and is acting like she hates him when she doesn't. You need to find a way to be happy, I don't mean deciding on your marriage, I just mean being happy as a person. Don't let a marriage or lack of marriage define you, don't let Paul define your happiness, be your own person and be happy in yourself. Where did my confident, independent daughter go? Don't let one man's mistakes take that away from you."
Her Mom was right, she really needed to stop letting Paul's mistake take away from the person that she was, she had been happy before him, she was happy with him and she could be happy again whether that was with him or alone. Most of all she needed to find that happiness and confidence for her daughters, she needed to give them a strong role model to look up to so they knew that it was okay to be happy alone and they didn't need a man to define them. "I am going to go and check in to a hotel for the night, the girls aren't expecting me back until after school tomorrow so I think that I'll just take some time out to think."
She really didn't want her to be alone, using the word think was always code for something else and she hated the idea of leaving her and her actually doing something stupid.
"I'll text you every single hour if you want. I just need to be alone to do some thinking after what you have said; I can't keep bringing the girls down because they are young and should be carefree and happy."
"You're not bringing them down; they just know that you aren't happy."
Shrugging her shoulders she still needed time and space to process it all. "I would still like to be alone for a while."
It felt wrong but she wasn't going to win this argument, "Okay fine, if it will make you happy. Where are you going to stay?"
She hadn't thought that far ahead, "I'm not sure; I'll tell you when I find somewhere." Hugging her Mom she pulled away and stood up, "Thank you for this and I'm sorry for interrupting your work. I'll talk to you later." Stephanie turned around to walk away; she had some serious thinking to do.
Sat watching her daughter walk away she wasn't sure if that had gone well or not but she needed to keep Patricia and Paul Senior updated anyway.
Stephanie has gone to find a hotel room for tonight and will be back tomorrow. I don't know how it went or how much I got through to her but I tried.
Lost in her own little world staring out of the window of her hotel room Stephanie was brought back to reality with a jolt by the beep of her phone. Realising that she hadn't actually checked in with her Mom she figured that it was her checking in on her to make sure that she hadn't done anything stupid but as she opened her phone she realised it was a group text between Paul's parents, herself and her husband himself.
Is anybody going to this? I wondered if you are if we could stay to go to it also please? We've never had the chance to go to a school thing before.
The flyer said that it was some sort of family games day to raise money for charity so it wasn't exactly something they could miss but if his parents stayed for it then really Paul should go too and if Paul went then they would have to put on a united front and pretend like nothing had happened. All of the potential scenarios were beginning to give her a headache so she threw her phone across the room and on to the bed just to get it away from her.
Paul was sat in the production meeting and he was supposed to be focussing on what Vince was saying but instead he was staring at his phone wondering whether he should text his wife or not? The lack of sleep really wasn't helping with his focus so it was much easier to just stare at his phone than it was listening to Vince. When the phone vibrated and he saw the text from his parents it made him even more eager to check his phone every two minutes to see if Stephanie responded and what she actually said.
The scraping of chairs signalled the end of the meeting so Paul followed suit and pushed his own chair back standing up ready to leave. "Where do you think you're going Paul?"
"Somewhere, anywhere? I'm guessing that is a no now though? What can I do for you Vince?"
Nothing escaped Vince when he was conducting a meeting so seeing his own son-in-law not paying attention was not a good look for him. "What has got your focus that wasn't the meeting?" He didn't want to tell his son-in-law what had happened today if he didn't actually know.
"I didn't sleep last night, well I got maybe an hour if you're lucky before Stephanie called me and then I didn't sleep again after and then Steph didn't turn up to come to Raw and nobody has responded to my text asking who is sick so yes, I am a little distracted Vince and there is nothing you can say that will change those facts I am afraid."
Why had his daughter called Paul in the middle of the night? Did that have anything to do with her not being at Raw? The only message he had received from his wife was that Stephanie was okay and she'd explain when he got home, "What happened in the middle of the night?"
"Nothing specifically happened in the middle of the night; she wanted to discuss the fact that she kissed me yesterday. I hate how fucked up I have made her. I keep thinking that it will get better but then something happens that makes me doubt if that is even possible. Sorry, I shouldn't say that as you probably don't want it to get better, I understand why you would hate me."
"I don't hate you as a person, I have never hated you as a person but I do strongly dislike what you did to my daughter and the impact that your actions have had on her. All I want at this point is for her to be happy again in whatever way that comes. I will support her if she chooses to stay with you and I will support her if she chooses to divorce you, just as long as she is happy."
By the looks of it they would all be waiting a while to see what her decision was but that was her prerogative. "I should go and get things ready for the show, I'm sorry for not focussing and I promise it won't happen again."
"It's okay Paul, I understand and I know you won't do it again." He watched the younger man walk away before he pulled out his phone to frantically text his wife.
Did you know that Steph called Paul in the middle of the night? Is that why she went MIA?
After sending the text he had a thousand things that he had to do before the show so he started by checking on the set.
It had been a few hours since she had received the text from Paul's parents, she hadn't eaten and she hadn't moved from her chair but she found herself drawn back to her phone, moving across the room she climbed on to the bed crossing her legs. Unsure of what exactly the school event was she zoomed in on the picture and found that it was a family fun day with lots of games and fun things to do to raise money a local charity. On the one hand this was probably the best thing for them to come to but on the other hand it was the worst and it had the worst timing but she couldn't tell them 'no' just because she was afraid so now she had two texts to send.
If you won't get bored of our company and want to stay until the weekend then you are welcome to come. I am sure the girls would love to show you around the school.
The next person that argued with him over the orders he was carrying out he was likely to pedigree, he did not get enough sleep to deal with drama Queens so finding the first empty locker room he slipped inside and locked the door to just give himself five minutes breathing room so that he didn't do anything that would incur the wrath of Vince McMahon. Raw was actually underway and he should be sat at the guerrilla with Vince but he was hiding out, hopefully Vince wouldn't notice though.
It felt like time had flown by because when he looked at his watched he realised that he had been hiding out for ten minutes and that meant there was a good chance that Vince would have noticed. Taking a deep breath he prepared himself for the inevitable third degree, his hand was on the door handle ready to turn it when his phone beeped, maybe he could just take a moment to check it in case it was something really important.
If you think you can fake being in love with me and being a devoted husband for a few hours then you're welcome to come to the school thing on Saturday otherwise I'll make your excuses. Let me know what you decide.
Was his wife just giving him an opportunity for them to act like nothing was wrong and be a happily married couple? If she thought that he was going to turn that down then she didn't know him very well at all. Not wanting to appear too eager he didn't reply to her text just yet, he had to think how to word it first anyway. He wanted to believe that this was a good sign but today proved that there was no such thing as a good sign so he was going to have to just take it one day at a time.