Chapter 24
Nicoya sighed heavily as she finally felt her cheeks stop burning, smiling over at her daughter, who was being a perfect angel. She'd gotten half of the scripts done and Alyssa had been busy coloring, keeping herself entertained. She took a break and stood up from the chair, walking over to sit on the couch by her, and looked at what she was doing. "What are you coloring, sweetheart?" She asked softly, kissing the top of her head.
Alyssa held up the picture of a motorcycle she had drawn in crayon and was now filling it in. "Mark's bike." She said proudly, showing off her artwork. "Like it Mommy?"
"It's beautiful, sweetheart" Nicoya stated, looking over it, and couldn't believe how artistic her daughter was. She never ceased to amaze her and smiled, kissing her forehead again, and took a purple crayon out, beginning to draw with her. Her crayon took on a mind of its own, drawing skulls on the motorcycle along with a graveyard. Nicoya was very artistic and had a natural ability, which was where Alyssa got hers from, and leaned her head against her daughter's as they drew and colored together.
Steve knocked on the door, poking his head in, and smiled when he seen it was just them, hoping Nicoya wasn't still angry. "Just got off the phone with my friend." He told her, hoping she cottoned on. His friend was another word for lawyer. "Whatcha ladies doin'?"
"Coloring, Uncle Steve." Alyssa studied him, her eyebrow raised in question. "Hey, I got some paints. Can I do your head?"
"Huh?"
Nicoya raised an eyebrow at her brother, catching on to what he meant, and cleared her throat as she kissed her daughter's head. "Keep coloring, honey. Momma's gotta talk to Uncle Steve for a moment." She then stood up form the couch and walked out into the hallway with him, closing the door behind her, and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "What's the verdict?"
"He's gonna take yer case of course." Steve told her, looking surprised that she would even ask. "He said from what it sounds like, John ain't gonna have a snowball's chance in Hell. He'd like you to fax him a copy of that protection order though, as well as any other documents you have about the entire thing, pictures. He'll start buildin' a defense fer ya incase that slime wad does try somethin'." He explained, hoping his sister was happy with that, and smiled when her eyes shined.
"Alright, I have everything on my laptop saved. That's how I got the protection order was through email from the courts and I had to print it out." Nicoya explained, raking a hand through her hair, and sighed heavily, not believing the mess John was causing. She kissed her brother's cheek, thanking him, and got the information she needed before walking back inside to start faxing it. The scripts could wait. She had to do this now before John decided to pull something, which she knew he would. He was that predictable.
"Mom, you're not working." Alyssa commented, looking surprised and mildly startled as she walked over to stand beside her mother, peering at the laptop. "Whatcha doing?"
"I'm emailing Uncle Steve's friend some things for him." She half lied, smiling down at her daughter, and continued printing out the documents so she could fax them over. She had a fax machine in her office so as soon as they printed out, she was doing it immediately. "Don't worry, Aly. Nothing is wrong, honey, but momma just needs to take care of this before starting the scripts again." She kissed her forehead reassuringly.
"Okay…I was just curious because you hardly EVER stop working." Alyssa still sounded mildly disturbed. This was a bit…different for her to see. "Hey, can I go see Mark? I haven't gotten to see him tonight, but that once and then he ran on outta here like a chicken."
Nicoya giggled softly at her daughter, remembering that, and nodded. "Yeah, go see your hero." She smirked when Alyssa groaned, laughing more, and watched as her daughter walked out of her office. She knew John wouldn't try anything, especially when Steve and Mark were lurking around. He wasn't THAT stupid to try something when Mark's dressing room was next to her office.
~One Week Later~
John stared at the door before him, wondering if she should knock or pick the lock. It was after the show and he knew Nicoya was here. Mark and Steve had taken Alyssa, HIS FUCKING DAUGHTER, out for a late night dinner. How did he know all this? He kept his damned eyes and ears open. Knowing Nicoya, she was either in the tub soaking with some Tequila Rose or a glass of wine or just getting out of the tub. He decided to knock and moved so he was out of her line of vision.
Nicoya ran a hand through her hair, just stepping out of the Jacuzzi, and was wearing a dark pink nightgown that went down to her knees. She had her black silk robe on and her hair was damp from the shower she just got out of. She couldn't stand to go to bed with chlorine filled hair. Not her cup of tea. Mark and Steve had taken her daughter out for a late night dinner, after Alyssa insisted that she refused to eat room service, and wanted some place with a table. She sighed when she heard a knock on the door and knew Steve didn't have a key card and Mark probably forgot his. She opened it and frowned, not seeing anyone there, and sighed as she shook her head, shutting it and turned around, heading for the bed.
John caught the door with the tip of his toe, smirking and sliding in, letting the door close behind him. He leaned against it, arms folded across his chest and studied Nicoya's back with a predatory gleam in his blue eyes. "Thanks, by the way, for letting me know you jumped the gun and got a lawyer, Coya." He said from behind, smirking when she jumped and spun around to face him.
"Get out right now!" She shouted at him, her midnight blue eyes widened, not believing she'd been stupid enough to answer the door without looking through the peephole first. That was a bad habit on her part as she pointed to the door. "I mean it, John! You have no right being in here! It's none of your business if I got a lawyer or not! Now get out!"
"I'm here, Coya because I wanted to talk to you about Alyssa." John said, not moving an inch, not fazed by her in the slightest. "I could care less if you got a lawyer, pray he's better then mine. I want to see MY daughter, you know, the one you kept HIDDEN from me for eight fucking years."
"Trust me, I have no doubt in my mind or heart that my lawyer is better than yours. Matter of fact, I faxed him over the protection order I have against you for MY daughter. She's not your daughter, you're not even on her birth certificate, John. I sent him the pictures of what you did to me, everything. How bad you used to beat me up. Everything is in his folder so, like my brother said, you have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning this one." Nicoya stated in a vicious, heartless tone of voice, crossing her arms in front of her chest, and raised an eyebrow. "You'll never see Alyssa because she wants nothing to do with you, especially after I told her how you used to treat her mother."
"Well if I'm not on the birth certificate, not legally her father, how the Hell you planning on keeping me away from her then, hmmm?" John asked sweetly, taunting her with his blue eyes. "Sounds like you can keep ME away from YOU, but not Alyssa. Prove I'm a threat to her, after this entire time, darling. There IS a second chance statute. Hope you enjoy facing me in court, Coya. We're going to have a really, REALLY good time." He took a step towards her, his eyes flashing dangerously.
Nicoya took a step back when he took that step forward, staring right into his blue eyes that were positively devious, and cleared her throat. "You still don't get it, John. You still don't get the reason why I kept her hidden from you after all these years. Are you THAT dense in the head? Look at you! You're this emotional rollercoaster who used to hit me whenever I wouldn't do something right or give you what you wanted! Do you HONESTLY believe that you can win in court after I tell them all the shit you did to me and have proof with pictures to back it up? You don't have a chance in this, John, so just walk away while you still can. I don't want anything from you. I never did, except your heart, but you were too busy sticking your dick up poontang pies left and right to notice. I was going to tell you about her every time we got back together. I was giving you SIX months and you couldn't even make it to the third without striking me." She sounded disgusted, but never moved and never took her eyes away from him.
"Can I help it if you were a bitch?" John asked flatly, uncrossing his arms in front of his chest. "And FYI sweetness, you need to double check your shit. YOU say I'm unstable, the psych exam I had to take last week when I went to press my case over OUR daughter, says I'm in perfect mental health. The unstable bit, well that's-" He was over against her in a heartbeat, pinning her to the wall, her arms over her head, her legs blocked by his and a hand over her mouth. "Our little secret now isn't it?"
Tears were already shining in her midnight blue eyes as she stared back at the monster she used to love. That she'd been with on and off for eight years and blinked, feeling them slide down her cheeks. She managed to rip his hand away from her mouth and stared at him coldly. "Just remember, anything you do to me now WILL reflect on you in court, John." She stated in a low, even tone of voice, refusing to show fear, even though it shone in her eyes.
John's blue eyes sparkled with malicious intent, a smirk curving his cruel lips. Anyone who could see him now would never believe this was John Cena from the WWE. This was a stark raving madman who was dangerous. "Here's the catch, Coya: YOU have to be CONSCIOUS to tell them who did it." He held onto her wrists with one hand, tight enough so he knew he was hurting her, and grabbed her hair with the other, wrenching her head back. "This would all be a lot easier if you'd just let me see her, Nicoya." He said flatly. "As it is-" He banged her head back against the wall. "You're not going to be seeing anything for awhile."
Nicoya cried out in pain as he banged her head repeatedly against the wall, finally feeling her body slumping down it, and felt him release her wrists. He'd only done it a few times and she was trying to shake the cobwebs from her brain, but it was too fuzzy. "STOP IT, JOHN!" She screamed out at him when he grabbed her by the back of her hair, pulling her up, and groaned when he shoved her into the dresser, causing everything to fall to the floor and smash.
"What was that, Coya? You want more?" John asked conversationally. "I always knew you were a fucked up bitch…Here." He easily pulled her to her feet, smirking down at her wickedly. "You're bleeding baby, like blood huh? Well, I can give you blood." He grabbed the back of her nightgown and her head, pulling her back before sending her flying over the couch and into the entertainment center. Watching impassively as it all crashed down around and on her, walking over to survey the damage. "You still awake, love?"
Blood was pooling from her forehead, having been sliced by several sharp corners of the entertainment center, and closed her eyes. She knew she was defeated and trembled before stopping. "Alyssa…I…love…you…" She finally allowed the darkness to claim her body after struggling to whisper those four words, her body going limp, and lay prone on the floor beneath the entire entertainment center.
"Aww how sweet." John muttered, rolling his eyes in disgust. "Well I'll be SURE to give her the message!" He giggled evilly, actually sounding deranged. John studied his handiwork before his eyes lit up as an idea popped into his sick mind. HE stepped around the mess carefully, not about to leave any trace of himself there, and picked up her hand. "Messy, messy, messy…" He sighed, raising her hand to her blood face before looking around. "Perfect!" John smirked, spotting a piece of paper nearby and pulled it over. "Alyssa I Love You." He muttered as he used her bloody fingers to scrawl that message out on it. "Beautiful." John smirked down at her one more time before slipping out of the room.
The hotel room was trashed. Looking like a tornado ripped through it. Nicoya's hand was sticking out of the entertainment center, the note in her hand. Though anyone would half the brain would know John did this to her. She laid there prone, her pulse weak along with her heartbeat as the blood pooled around her head from her forehead. Her arms and legs were scrapped up, tricklets of blood getting on the white carpeting below.
"Hey Mom, we brought you something to eat, it's-MOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!" Alyssa screamed, dropping the bag of food she was holding, her eyes almost popped out of her skull at the scene before her. "MARK!"
Mark burst through the door, followed by Steve and instantly assessed the scene before him, panicking though he took command when he seen Steve was about to be sick. "Take Alyssa to your room now!" He ordered, picking her up and handing her to her uncle. "Momma will be fine, angel, I promise." He assured her, cupping her chin in his hand for a minute before pushing Steve out of the room. He quickly called for an ambulance before dropping down beside her, not touching her. "Nico…please be okay, darlin'." He whispered, blinking back tears.
The ambulance was there in record time, EMT's bursting out of the back, and rushing up to the room. They plowed through the door, shoving Mark out of the way, and actually stopped to stare at the damage before them. It was a good thing there was no television in the entertainment center or else she could've been crushed to death. Piece by piece, as carefully as possible, the EMT's lifted the carnage off of her, until there was nothing left. They carefully rolled her body on the gurney before strapping her down, lifting her up on the stretcher. The note dropped out of her hand and landed on the floor at Mark's feet as they carted her out of there, announcing she had a weak pulse.
Mark frowned, crouching down to stare at the note. Though he didn't touch it. His eyes narrowed when he read it, knowing damned well this wasn't Nicoya's work. For one, the woman wasn't suicidal. Depressed occasionally maybe. Suicidal, Hell no. Secondly, there was no way in Hell she could've done all of this damage by herself. He gritted his teeth, moving aside when the police strolled in and answered their questions, pointing out the note before demanding an actual detective be sent up. Once he got his wish, he went to collect Alyssa and Steve to go to the hospital, praying Nicoya was still alive when they arrived.