So now they waited. The truth was out there for the entire world to read and they just had to wait for the fallout from it. It made Stephanie nervous for Ferris going to school, but the truth was going to come out anyways, and with Chris living such a high-profile life it would've probably come out in the worst possible way, with Ferris getting dragged into the spotlight and Chris and Stephanie getting drug through the mud. That was the one situation that he wanted to avoid, and he would take all measures to avoid it.
"Stephanie?"
Stephanie looked up from the files sitting on her desk and saw her father at the door, the magazine in his hand. She sighed. Obviously her mother had not taken liberties to tell her father of the situation and this was probably how he had found out. She gestured towards the chairs in front of her desk and her father took a seat in the one closest to him, putting the magazine on the table where it was open to that specific article.
"Hi, Dad," Stephanie said solemnly and it was not really a friendly greeting, but one where she knew she was in trouble. One he knew well from her teenage years.
"Care to explain?" he asked.
"Not really," she admitted. "How did you find the magazine?"
"Well, it wasn't that difficult with everyone in the building reading it, not to mention me getting countless e-mails about it from colleagues. You really went large-scale this time, didn't you, Princess?"
"It wasn't my idea, Dad," she explained. "Chris's agent just wanted to get it out there so the backlash wouldn't be as bad."
"So what happened?"
"It's a long story, Dad. It's all true though, she's Chris's daughter. She knows, she's known for a little while now and she's getting used to the idea. She even started calling Chris dad, which he loves."
"So you didn't know earlier?"
"I had no idea, it was a lapse in judgment. If Chris had never come back into my life, I probably wouldn't have known at all. I would've just believed she was Hunter's daughter for the rest of my life. Something with Chris just triggered it and I remembered."
"Oh, I see," Vince said. "Are you prepared for what this may do?"
"You're never prepared for scandal," Stephanie said. "You just kind of have to go with the flow though. I just want everything to be okay for Ferris. I could care less about any looks that I get, I just want everything to be okay for her."
"I'm sure you'll figure out a way. I would've liked to have known about this before it hit a major publication though," he told her. He was being especially nice to her because he knew what this was probably like for her. She was his daughter and despite her past mistakes, she would always be his daughter and he loved her, mistakes and all.
"I'm sorry, I thought Mom would've told you," Stephanie said.
"Oh, well, maybe she didn't think that she had to," Vince said. "How is Chris dealing with all of this? I'm assuming that he's okay with everything since I don't see that you two have broken up."
"No, we're fine, better than ever actually," Stephanie said. "Except for the situation with Hunter, that's been really difficult for all of us. I got a call from my lawyer earlier and until this whole thing gets resolved, I have to share joint custody with Hunter. He asked for it and it was granted for now. I just hate the idea of her going with him when she doesn't know what's going on."
"Oh, you'll figure it out," Vince told her. "You're a McMahon. You've got a good man by you too."
"Yeah, he is good," Stephanie said.
"I'll let you get back to work making me more money," Vince winked at her. He picked up the magazine and walked out of the office, leaving her alone.
She thought to what she had told her father. She didn't want Keagan going over to Hunter's. He didn't even have a house and she'd be damned if she sent her daughter all the way to California. She also didn't know how this other woman of Hunter's would treat her daughter. Shayna didn't seem like a horrible person, but she knew next to nothing about her and now she was forced to hand her daughter over to him and that woman.
"Knock, knock."
Stephanie looked up and saw her brother, "So did you come to talk to me about the big secret too?"
"No, but now that you brought it up, wow…"
"I know, I put myself into a bad situation and now everything is out in the open and I've left myself open for major criticism from any and all media outlets because Chris is really famous. So now I'm going to have to watch out for the paparazzi everywhere I go."
"Well, I was actually going to say that it's a good thing because Hunter is an asshole and I was kind of hoping by some chance that Keagan was Chris's too," Shane smirked.
Stephanie laughed. It was good to have as good a brother who didn't judge. "No, there's no chance of that being the case, though at this point, I really wish it was."
"Damn," Shane said. "Here I thought you could finally, finally be rid of him forever."
"Don't I wish. I mean, he wants to take Keags away from me."
"He what!" Shane exclaimed. "How dare he!"
"Quiet down," she told him. "Chris and I are working on making sure that doesn't happen. He even has his big-shot lawyers on it and they've found some evidence against Hunter, so it's looking good for our side. It's just going to take a while to resolve and in the meantime, I have to share custody of Keagan, which is the part that really bothers me."
"You have to share custody with that asshole?"
"Yeah," she sighed. "He's coming to pick her up on Friday actually. I don't want to let her go, but what can I do? It's court-mandated and I can't just hold her off from him, it'll look like I'm kidnapping my own daughter."
"I wish I could take her and then you know, throw everyone off the scent and give her back," Shane said. "So how is Chris with the news about Ferris? Is he really happy or is he just pretending to be happy?"
"He's really happy. Ferris is starting to call him daddy and everything, and it's making him so happy. He loves it. I think he's always wanted kids, he's just never had time to actually have them with his busy schedule, but now he does, and he's happy."
"And are there going to be more in his future?" Shane wondered, raising his eyebrow.
"Are you asking if I'm pregnant right now?" she asked.
"No, but are you?"
"No," she told him. "I'm not pregnant, but you know, I probably will be in the future, and that's all I'm telling you right now about that, but Chris and I have discussed more children, and we'd both like more."
"Marriage?"
"Shane, stop, I don't know, he hasn't asked if that's what you're implying," she told him.
"Okay, okay, I got it, well, I just wanted to say congratulations," Shane said, "and you're really sure that Chris isn't Keagan's father?"
"I'm sure."
Later that evening, Stephanie was sitting with Keagan in her bed after she had tucked her in for the evening. Chris was downstairs with Ferris watching television. Stephanie hadn't yet told Keagan that she was going to have to go with Hunter this weekend. Keagan sunk her head into her pillow as Stephanie faced her.
"Sweets, I just wanted to let you know that this weekend, you're going to go spend some time with your daddy," Stephanie told her.
"With Ferris?"
"No, it's just going to be you."
"Why? Ferris always comes with me," Keagan told her. "She comes with me when we go see Grandma and Grandpa and she came when we went to see Daddy before."
"Well, remember, Daddy isn't Ferris's daddy, Chris is Ferris's daddy, so she's probably not going to go see Daddy anymore," Stephanie said, knowing that probably sounded very confusing to such a young child.
"Oh, so I have to go alone?" she asked. Stephanie nodded. "Can't you come?"
"No, sweets, I can't."
"Can Chris?" she asked, exploring all her options.
"No, he can't come either, you just have to go by yourself, but it's only for the weekend and I'm sure that you're going to have a blast with Daddy and Shayna. You like Daddy, don't you? Don't you want to spend time with him?"
Stephanie was trying to make it sound enticing to her, but it didn't even sound like she was doing a good job. "I guess," Keagan said. "I like Daddy."
"Yeah, see, so it won't be so bad."
"I don't want to be alone though," she pouted. "I don't want to be by myself, I won't have anyone to play with."
"You can play with Daddy, you'll have fun."
She sighed, "Okay, Mommy."
"Now get some sleep, sweets," Stephanie said, kissing Keagan on the forehead.
"Night, Mommy."
She left the room and leaned back against the door. She didn't want to turn over her little girl. She knew she was being selfish in a way, but she had been the one constant in Keagan's life and now someone wanted her to share and she guessed she must've missed that day of Kindergarten because she didn't want to share her daughter with anyone, especially not the child's father, and especially, especially not Shayna. She wasn't worried that Keagan would like Shayna, but she worried that Shayna would try her hardest to steal her away. No, that was stupid.
She thought back to what Shane had said earlier. She almost wished that Keagan could be Chris's daughter. It would make things so much easier. If she had known all along that Ferris was Chris's daughter, maybe they would've been together ever since. Maybe Hunter would just be a minor blip on her radar and she'd have complete happiness. Chris made her so happy now that she couldn't even imagine being with anyone else. She lamented the fact that this could've been something that had always been.
Stephanie went downstairs and went and sat next to Chris, cuddling up to him. These could've been the arms that would always have been wrapped around her protectively. She felt so safe with him and she liked to think that he felt that same way about her. He wrapped his arm around her and she tucked her head under his chin. "How did it go?" he whispered in her ear. She thought about it for a second, just because she thought it had gone okay, but she wasn't okay with what she had to do.
"It was okay," she whispered back. Ferris was falling asleep in Chris's lap so she wasn't even paying attention to what was going on. Stephanie was happy though that Ferris was adjusting so well to everything that was changing around her. "She doesn't want to be alone, she said she'll have nobody to play with when she's with him. She asked if all of us could come too."
"It'll be over soon, don't worry. Once the court sees all the stuff we have against him, it'll be open and shut and we can just move forward without worrying anymore about him. Maybe I can even adopt Keagan or something."
"Really?"
"Well, before I came around, Hunter didn't want part of her life, once the court tells him he can't have her full-time, he'll probably take off again."
"I don't want to think about it."
He kissed her head, "Okay, we won't."
"And you really believe we'll keep her."
"Absolutely. Hey, Steph?"
"Yeah?" He paused for a while and she thought that maybe he had forgotten what he was going to say and was back to watching whatever it was they were walking on television. She felt him take a steadying breath and she held him tighter around the waist.
"What would you think about marrying me?"
