A/N: Hey, guys. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting, but I've been fairly busy and haven't had as much free time to write. I had this chapter ready yesterday, and I almost posted it, but I decided to hold off until today so I could post an update to mark exactly one year of my being an author on this site! It has been an amazing year, and I want to thank all of you so much for being so good to me. You've truly made my year, and all the feedback and support is encouraging me to stick around for years to come. So thanks again, and enjoy the chapter! You all are incredible readers, and I'm so glad to have you backing me. ;)

"That was weird," Stephanie said, frowning as she made sure her phone disconnected from the call. She was out for a pizza dinner with her entire crew, save for Carter, who hadn't been feeling well. He stayed home to fend for himself, but Stephanie left him with a promise to bring fresh food back, in the hopes he would build up enough of an appetite by the time she returned to enjoy it. Graham was watching over Caylie, feeding her small bites of food as she sat in Amanda's lap, and Chris had his arm draped across the back of Stephanie's chair, watching as a deep worry line spread across her entire brow. She felt Chris's eyes on her and looked up. "I'm not sure exactly what to make of that."

"What?" Chris asked.

"Carter just called to ask how much longer we might be," she said. "I thought maybe he was waiting on me to bring him some food and that's why he was asking, but there were voices in the background that I didn't recognize. I asked him who the people were, and he made up some excuse about having to do something for Freddy and hung up."

"He's got people in your house?" Chris said. "Did you tell him it was okay to have people over?"

"I didn't say it wasn't okay, but I would have preferred if he asked me before inviting people in when I'm not there," she said, placing her phone on the table and shaking the suspicion off. "He's a good kid, though, and I'm sure he misses his friends and wants to see them. He probably saw the empty house as an opportunity to visit with them without interruption, so he buzzed them in the gate when they showed up."

"But I thought he was sick," he responded. "If he's too sick to come out to dinner, he would be too sick to hang with friends, right?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, and with that, concluded all conversation involving Carter. Chris could tell she was done worrying about the situation brewing, and he wanted to be done, too, but something didn't feel right. He could admit warming up to Carter in recent weeks, as had Graham, but there was something unsettling that gnawed at his gut and told him they needed to head back home. For Stephanie's own good and to keep from upsetting her, Chris pushed the instinctual feelings away.

"This place has pretty good food," Chris noted. Amanda glanced up and nodded, agreeing with his assessment. "We should start coming here more often."

"We will," Stephanie promised, fiddling absently with the buttons on her cell phone.

With a final stop at an ice cream shop during their drive home, Stephanie pulled into her driveway, shifting the car into park and shutting the engine off. Amanda got out with Caylie, and Graham hopped out of the backseat, waiting near Chris's door so they could walk inside together. Amanda was first up the walkway and stopped short, causing a slight collision as Chris unwittingly walked straight into the back of her. He recoiled from the shock of an unseen body being in front of him, placing a hand on her shoulder. He opened his mouth to apologize but fell short, eyes focusing in on what had stunned Amanda to a halt in the first place.

The front door had been left wide open, the living room light spilling out onto the front porch. From where he stood, Chris could see a note taped to the door, and he maneuvered around Amanda, rushing to the paper and snatching it off. His body was seized by fury, teeth chomping down so hard on his tongue he feared he would draw his own blood. In messy scrawl, a final message from Carter had been issued to explain his sudden departure, and it was a reality Chris had feared since the night the young man had approached Stephanie's vehicle. He took a few steps and ducked his head into the house to scan the immediate area, noticing right away that furniture was missing, and that, paired with the note, set him off.

"That bastard," Chris growled, clenching his fists. "I'm going to rip that asshole limb from fucking limb!"

"Chris, watch your language. The kids are here," Stephanie scolded, coming up alongside him and peeking into the house to see what he was so angered by.

Her heart was pierced by an invisible dagger when she saw the empty space where household electronics had once resided: an HD television set, a DVD player, a case of movies on Blu-Ray and DVD. Chris was left helpless, watching Stephanie as she gulped and strode to the center of the living room, spinning in a slow circle as she assessed the hit her home had taken. Amanda slipped inside with Caylie, and Graham rounded out the group, following them inside the house. The security gate had been left ajar as well, which had alarmed Stephanie when they first pulled up, but she had attributed it to Carter's carelessness in not making sure to close it after his friends left.

It made sense that he might have allowed some friends inside and forgotten to close it, but, now, the full picture was becoming crystal clear. A wooden jar, decorated with painted-on flowers, was knocked over and resting in the center of the coffee table. Chris recognized it as a jar Stephanie kept her extra cash in, until she was able to get to the bank and deposit the money. She picked up the jar and slipped her hand in, feeling around inside, but her findings turned up empty and she tossed the jar back down without a second thought. Stephanie licked her lips, time slowing down as everyone waited to make sure she would hold herself together when she finally came to the same realization they had all arrived at a minute earlier.

Money and material possessions meant nothing in Stephanie's world, as difficult as that may have been for some to believe. They could all be replaced, some as early as the next day, but the one thing she could never repair after such immense betrayal was her broken heart. She would heal and forgive as time passed, but her mind would never forget the injustices. Chris stood frozen, note in hand, and before he thought to destroy the message and prevent another wave of heartache for Stephanie, she looked over and snatched it away from him, reading the messy, penciled-in handwriting:

Thanks for the cool swag! Too good to pass up.

- C

A healthy dose of tears sprang to her eyes and she stumbled away, headed for the staircase, note still clutched in her right hand. Chris stepped forward to console her, but she recoiled from his touch. He tried again, pleading with her to stop. "It's okay, baby. We'll deal with this together. Come here."

She shook her head, a few tears flooding over and spilling onto her cheeks. Graham, alarmed by her grief, began crying as well, concluding that something really bad must have happened if Stephanie's normally unbreakable resolve had been obliterated. Chris took his eyes off of Stephanie long enough to kneel down beside Graham, and she shot up the stairs like a bullet, taking two at a time. Amanda tried to follow after her, but the echo of Stephanie's bedroom door slamming shut rang out before Amanda could make it even halfway up the stairs.

The sudden noise startled Caylie, who joined in on the crying outbreak, and Chris dropped to his knees, pulling Graham into his arms and struggling to keep his own emotions in check. Half of him was legitimately pained for Stephanie and Graham having to witness a senseless attack on one's kindness, but his other half — the much more aggressive half — wanted to strangle Carter with his bare hands. Anyone who hurt Stephanie was hurting him, and he wouldn't stop until he got justice for her. As he sat stroking Graham's hair, his eyes flashed with grim determination. He had a job to do; a job that started and ended with finding Carter.

Stephanie locked herself in her bedroom for a while, but by the time Chris calmed Graham and got him situated and in bed, Amanda had broken through the emotional barricade and found her way inside. He smiled at the sight of them as he ducked his head in the room, Amanda perched on the edge of Stephanie's bed, telling simple jokes to make her smile as they each enjoyed separate mugs of hot, chamomile tea. Chris intended to let them talk, but he couldn't slip on by without saying a single word, so he went inside, coming up on the side of the bed and leaning in for a kiss from Stephanie. Her hand came to rest on his cheek as she kissed him back, and he took her free hand when he pulled away, bringing her palm to his mouth and pressing a kiss to the heel of her hand.

"I want to talk to you later, okay?" he insisted.

"I can leave, if you need me to," Amanda offered, already beginning to stand, but Chris placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"No, no, I want you to talk and have girl time," Chris said, addressing Amanda. "Steph probably needs this. She's been spending far too much time with me and Graham, and we're just a couple of knucklehead guys."

"I can never spend too much time with my boys," she said, but he laughed, kissing her cheek.

"I'm only kidding. You girls talk and I'll come back in to check on you later," he said, dotting Stephanie's nose with his fingertip. "I'm sorry this happened, babe, but I'll do my best to make it right. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know, and you didn't deserve any of what you got tonight, so I'm just really sorry I couldn't protect you from this, and I want you to know that."

"Thanks for telling me that, sweetie," Stephanie said, managing a brief smile. "You're the best."

"You're even better," he answered, winking. "Have a good talk. I'll pull up on the door for you."

"Okay," Stephanie said.

"Thanks, Chris," Amanda added, and he left her with a smile and nod, closing the door softly behind him. When he was gone, Amanda turned back to Stephanie, smiling as her eyes danced with curiosity. She had things she wanted to know, and her basic line of questioning began and ended with Stephanie's newest relationship. "So, I probably shouldn't be asking about this, but I'm just so curious, and you never talk about it, so the only way I'll find out is if I ask."

"You want to know how Chris and I came about?" Stephanie supplied.

"Actually, yeah," she laughed. "He's so sweet to you, and you seem really good together."

"We are good together."

"Sure looks like it. Did you guys get together before that little incident a while back with Ross?" Amanda asked, crawling farther onto Stephanie's bed. She crossed her legs and tucked some hair behind her ear, like they were having their own private sleepover. The cozy atmosphere brought back memories of her teen years and attending friends' parties overnight. "I was really worried for you that night, because I could tell something had gone down with you and Chris, and I thought Ross might blow a gasket or do something crazy."

"Believe it or not, Chris and I hadn't been together at all before that day," she replied. Amanda's eyes widened, and she nodded. "Seriously, we hadn't. He brought me roses that day at work and told me he loved me, then he kissed me. We talked about what to do and decided we were going to break it off with the people we were dating, so we came back here and got cozy together, because we figured it didn't really matter by that point anyway. We already had plans to move on from our relationships."

"So, you were already going to break up with Ross, and he was going to break up with Melissa?"

"Exactly," Stephanie said, pausing for a sip of tea. She blew on the steamy liquid and drank a sip down, lowering her mug to her lap. "I had plans in the works to meet up with Ross in person the very next day so I could let him down easy, but he walked in on us and freaked out, which was understandable, in hindsight. He thought I was lying about it being my first time kissing Chris, and I get why he doesn't believe me, I mean, I wouldn't even believe me if the shoe were on the other foot, but it's true."

"I believe you," Amanda said. "You wouldn't lie about something like that. You've been looking me in the eye this entire time, and I know you're telling the truth."

"Thanks for believing me," Stephanie said. "Things progressed from there, and Chris and I gave each other a try. We sat Graham down to tell him what was going on, and he was fine with it all, so that pretty much brings us to where we are today."

"You're in love with him?"

"Completely," Stephanie replied, without hesitation. "One-hundred percent in love with him."

"Do you think you'll marry him?"

Stephanie beckoned her in with a wave of her index finger, and Amanda leaned forward. She whispered, "I can't say for certain what my future will be, but I have every intention to marry him someday."

"Aw, that's such a sweet story," Amanda said, pouting as she combed her fingers through her hair and checked her progress in the adjacent mirror. They quieted for a moment, then Amanda sighed, spilling her guts when Stephanie sent her a questioning gaze. "I hope I can find love like that. I keep thinking I will, but I'm always bogged down with school and work, and when I'm not at one of those two places, I'm taking care of Caylie. I feel like a lot of guys my age wouldn't even consider being with me, because I have a kid, and they see that as damaged goods or something. Guys don't want to take care of another person's kid."

"That's not true at all," Stephanie said, shaking her head. "I can speak from personal experience when I tell you that I love Graham dearly, and it's very possible to love a child who isn't yours biologically. There will be a man out there who will love you and Caylie, and you know how you can tell when you finally find the right one?"

"How?" Amanda asked, eyebrow quirking thoughtfully.

"When he makes you love yourself just as much as you love him; when you feel like a better person simply by being around him."

"Does Chris do that for you?"

Stephanie sipped on her tea again, slipping her hands around the mug and relaxing as the contents warmed her skin. She smiled as she reflected on Amanda's question, finally offering an answer. "As a matter of fact, he does."

"I want that someday."

"You'll have it. I promise."

Eyebrows raised and whispers were exchanged the next day at the office, when Chris was called off of an important business task to report directly to Vince McMahon's office. He had been beckoned by Olivia, who hadn't managed to look him in the eye a single time that morning, nor had she been able to on any day since the falling out between Ross and Stephanie. Fences would eventually be mended, but there were more important matters on the horizon, so Chris kept his head down, politely thanking her just before he stepped into the lobby elevator and pressed the button for Stephanie's floor. His instructions had been to report directly to Vince with no detours, but he wasn't going without consulting Stephanie first.

The soles of his dress shoes clicked against the polished floor as he strolled along, and he straightened his suit jacket and tie along the way, both nervous habits. He came across a glass panel mounted on the wall — enclosing a replica championship belt — and paused, using the sight of his reflection to groom himself accordingly. He made it to Stephanie's office door less than half a minute later and knocked succinctly, twice in a row, waiting for her to call out to him, as she usually did. When that call never came, curiosity got the best of him, and he turned the doorknob and poked his head inside, finding the room empty.

"Where are you, Steph?" he mumbled, to nobody in particular.

Chris shut the door, wondering why she had left her desk and not bothered to lock the door behind her. He continued down the hallway, clearing his throat and nodding politely to a maintenance worker as he strolled by, feeling the nervous energy as it crept up inside of him. On his way to the elevator, which would raise him another two floors to Vince's office, he passed a conference room surrounded by a glass window, looking inside and spying a meeting in progress, Stephanie standing at the front of the room and pointing out data of interest on a graphing chart. She detected his presence right away, taking pause as her eyes glided right over the heads of her employees and through the glass.

Chris puckered his lips, sending her a kiss from afar, and her eyes lit, but she made no further acknowledgment and returned to her presentation. He refused to take his eyes off Stephanie, the sight of her only evading his focus when the elevator doors slid closed in front of him. He reached Vince's office space, coming to a complete stop and shoving both hands in his pockets. He had to mentally prepare himself before entering the dwelling of the head of the McMahon wrestling empire. It was the first time he had been called to Vince's office, and he couldn't imagine what they had to discuss, but if he was getting his walking papers, it would almost be a relief that he didn't have to stress about his job being in jeopardy any longer.

Finally working up the nerve to enter, he knocked twice, just like he always did at Stephanie's door, and Vince called out in his booming voice for Chris to step inside. Chris moved in swiftly, closing the door behind him and taking in the spacious enormity of the place, where Vince conducted business each and every day. There were encased, replica championship belts lining the walls and magazines on display, featuring the biggest and toughest athletes of past years. It was a wrestling fan's playpen, and he was standing in the center of it, jaw dropped like a child opening their presents on Christmas morning. Vince scooted back in his rolling chair and stood, holding his hand out.

"Chris, good to see you again," he said.

"It's good to see you, too," Chris said, walking over and shaking his hand. Vince motioned for him to have a seat, and he did, running his hands self-consciously over the sleeves of his suit jacket when Vince looked down at it.

"Very nice suit; good quality," Vince complimented. "Armani?"

"Dior, actually," Chris corrected.

"Very nice," he repeated, folding his hands on his desk, the intensity of his gaze bearing down on Chris. He studied the aloof paper stacks on the table, trying to spot anything that might pertain to him, but they all seemed to be various files from routine paperwork, so he tried to calm the pounding of his heart and wait for whatever might come next. "Why do you think I called you in here today?"

"Uh, I wish I knew, but I can't really say for sure."

"There's nothing I would need to talk to you about?"

"I don't think so," Chris frowned, flipping through his memories like the pages of a thick book as he tried to come up with any reason Vince might not be happy with him. He couldn't recall any incidents which would be cause for concern, so he shrugged, shaking his head. "If I did something wrong, then I apologize, but I'm not coming up with anything here."

"Nothing happened last night when you returned home from dinner with my daughter?" Vince asked, all traces of humor gone. "No breach of her home that I would need to know about?"

"Oh, that," Chris said, unconsciously shrinking down in his seat. He had spent the previous night cheering Stephanie up after Amanda left her room and went to bed for the night, but the task had proved daunting. The money could be replaced, as could the stolen personal property, but Stephanie had lost a piece of herself — a trusting, noble piece — that she could never reclaim. "That asshole, punk kid she let into her house stole some of her stuff and left her a mocking note, and he's lucky he and his friends were already gone when we got back, or I would have beat the shit out of them. Stephanie was heartbroken."

"She called me earlier today, wanting to vent about what happened, but she wouldn't give me too many details because it was starting to upset her, so I called you in because you know the details, obviously. You're her boyfriend and you're living with her, so you must know what's going on."

"I do. What do you want to know?" Chris asked.

"First of all, what was taken?"

"It looked like he took one of her big HD TV's, a DVD player, just a bunch of electronics and things like that. We did another sweep of the house last night before bed and realized that some of her jewelry from the case in her bedroom was missing, and they took a couple of laptops out. She had some cash in a wooden container thing, and that was gone, too. Steph said it was only about five thousand dollars, which obviously isn't going to hurt her financially, but her heart is hurt. I just worry about her. I worry so damn much that I don't know what to do with myself."

"Where can I find this kid and his cronies?" Vince asked, his skin taking on a healthy shade of scarlet, a silent expression of his rage. Without waiting for Chris to answer, he tossed himself into rant mode. "You know, I tell her all the time that things like this can happen, but does she ever listen to me? Of course not! I told her she can't keep bringing strangers into her home, but she goes and does it anyway, and look what happens. Maybe this will teach her a lesson. I'm not happy that she's hurt, but this might be the boost she needed to realize that she can't trust people the way she has been."

"Stephanie has one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen," Chris responded. "I should know; she's helped me and Graham more than anyone else ever has. I love who she is, and I wouldn't want to change a thing, but I agree that she needs to be more aware about who she's letting into her house. I got a bad feeling about Carter right away, but Steph kept going on about how great he was, and I went along with her, because he hadn't done anything that was outright unacceptable, up until last night. I wanted to lay him out flat for hurting her. She was even crying a bit at one point, and my heart can't take that; not when it's her. She deserves happiness more than anyone does."

"She does."

"I swear to you that I would be miserable every single day for the rest of my life, if it meant that she and my son could be happy forever. They deserve that, and I don't ever want to see the pain on Stephanie's face that I saw last night," Chris said, shuddering at the memory. "She can replace the stuff that was taken, but she's emotionally scarred, and that kills me more than anything. I don't want her to lose her spirit. That's what makes her beautiful."

Vince — just as he had during dinner at his house — appeared taken aback. He picked up a capped pen and tapped it against his desk, staring inquisitively at Chris. "You really love my daughter, don't you?"

"Aside from my son and dad, I love her more than anyone."

"I've never heard any man talk about her the way you do."

"She's a complete sweetheart, and I don't know how anyone can meet her and not see that," Chris pointed out, scratching the back of his head. "That's another thing that really bothers me about Carter. I don't understand how he could do something like this and not feel any remorse after all that Stephanie has done for him. She gave him a place to stay, clothes to wear, food to eat, lent an ear when he needed to talk, and he threw all of that right back in her face. I'm disgusted, and he had better hope and pray I don't see him again, because he'll be confined to a wheelchair for life by the time I get done with him."

"Not if I get to him first," Vince growled, mumbling under his breath, "bastard kid."

"I want her to heal without losing her grace and humility. Yes, Carter hurt her and it'll take time to get over that, but I want Steph to know that it's okay to trust people again, and it's okay to reach out if she thinks someone needs her help," Chris said. "I want her to be carefree again and realize that for every bad apple she comes across, there will be another person waiting in the wings, with a heart just as pure and loving as hers. I wish I could say that she shouldn't ever let anybody into her house again, but if she hadn't done that, Graham and I would still be living out of a car in Winnipeg, so reaching out can be a good thing sometimes. I still want her to give love and to accept love from other people, but not to the detriment of herself. It's a balance and a give and take, so if she needs a break from helping people, I get that, but I hope she stays who she is forever, because the world needs her. The world deserves to know Stephanie McMahon, and I'm proud to have a place in her life."

"Well put," Vince said, folding his arms across his abdomen and leaning back in his seat. "I couldn't have possibly said it any better. You sure have a way with words, Chris. It seems to be sincere and coming from a good place, but, wow, you can convince anyone of anything. Back to this, though, did she file a police report?"

"I encouraged her to make one last night, even offered to call the cops myself, but she didn't feel comfortable with it," he said. "She wants to let it go, and since Carter doesn't have any keys to her house or the code to her security gate, she doesn't have to really take any extra security measures. She just needs to lock up every night like she always does."

"He had no keys and no code?"

"Nope. He had gotten a job, supposedly, and Steph let him use one of her cars to drive to work, if that's even where he was really going, but she never gave him a key to the house. He had to buzz himself in at the gate to be let back in the driveway, and he had to knock on the door or ring the bell to get us to open it. She's protective of her house in that way. Hell, I don't even have a key to her house yet, and I'm dating her," he laughed. "I usually just knock when I need to get in, but she did give me the access code to the gate, so there's that. She at least trusts me with that information."

A knock came at the door before Vince could respond to Chris, and he answered. "Who is it?"

"Stephanie," came a mousy reply from the opposite side of the door. Vince called for her to come in, and she slipped inside, shutting the door and appearing at Chris's side immediately. She glanced down at him, then Vince, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "I saw Chris headed this way while I was in my meeting, so I made a wild guess that you might have called him up here. Are you guys plotting without me?"

"Of course not," Vince said, eyeballing Chris and choosing his words carefully. "We adore you too much to go behind your back."

Stephanie smiled, flipping some hair over her shoulder. "I know you guys do."

"Do me a favor, sweetheart, and consider pressing charges against this guy," Vince requested. "He stole enough for you to build a case against him, and you've got Chris and Amanda as witnesses to what this jackass did. He can't get away with this, and I know everything he took can be replaced, but it's the principle of the matter."

Stephanie eyed them both, biting her bottom lip during a thoughtful silence. A moment later, she placed her hands on her hips, feeling empowered. "I'll think about it, Dad. I really will."