CHAPTER SIX

LILY

I could have reacted to this news in a bunch of different ways. I could have Fangirled or cried or gotten angry. Instead, I reacted with my favorite standby: Sarcasm. "Thanks, Mom," I said aloud, "for letting me know that I'm actually, fully an orphan. That was awesome of you, because, you know, I might have wondered." I laughed. This was insane. There was no way I was Dusty's daughter. For fuck's sake, I'd known the man! He'd mentored me like every other "kid" at NXT and that was amazing, but there was no way in hell he was my dad. I mean, that was nuts! Clearly, Mom's mental faculties hadn't been what they should have been in the end.

I shook my head. It was impossible.

So get a DNA test and prove she made it up or hallucinated, something told me. My mother had never lied to me. She'd kept things from me, but she hadn't actually lied. So either she was nuts, or…

"It's true," I thought aloud. "Or… It could be true, anyway."

Well, this certainly complicated things. What was I supposed to do? My mother was dead, and apparently, so was my father. Did anyone really need to know the truth now? Then again, if he was my father, I had siblings… Siblings I worked with. One of which had rescued me from my nervous breakdown very recently. If this was true, Cody was my brother.

I decided I could live with that. I liked Cody. I did not, however, like the idea of possibly ruining his life by telling him his daddy might have cheated on his mommy with my mother, who was a bit of a wrestling groupie… Did that make my mom a ring rat? I hated myself for even having that thought. Mom had understood the business and loved it. She wasn't watching it for the hot guys, she was watching it because she enjoyed the actual wrestling. She wasn't a ring rat, but somehow, she'd ended up pregnant with the child of one of the most famous guys in the business...

Then, there was Goldust. The idea of Goldust being my older brother freaked me out a little. His character was… bizarre, and I didn't know the guy in person at all. I'd seen him in passing but I was pretty sure we'd never even spoken. What would happen if I told him that my mother had left a dying declaration that I was his kid sister?

I wished I had a friend I could call or someone I could snuggle, but what I did have was a liquor cabinet I could raid.

"Well, I'm alone, right?" I asked aloud. "So what happened the last time I drank can't happen here. Fuck it. My mom died and left a note blowing my world apart. I think I'm entitled to a drink or seven."

I started pouring myself drinks after that, and lost track of things somewhere along the way. I didn't have to do anything for a few hours, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to sleep by myself in this house knowing she was gone, so I drank until I was exhausted enough to pass out in her chair and I tried to pretend that nothing was wrong with that.

CODY

I woke up still feeling like something was wrong. I worked my ass off in the gym to try and get it out of my system, but I couldn't shake it. Dustin watched me with concern.

"You're pushing yourself too hard," he commented. "Slow down."

"I just… I think I'm losing it, Dus," I admitted. "I feel like something's wrong and my mind won't stop racing, and Stardust won't shut the hell up."

Another person might have questioned that last bit, but my brother was Goldust. He just laughed. "Yeah, that'll happen sometimes," he said as he did. I guess if anyone could understand, it was him. "Just take a deep breath and try to relax, Cody. Everything's okay. It's just your nerves."

Dustin knew I had some anxiety problems as a kid. It still acted up every so often, and I seemed to be in a major flare lately. I was waiting for him to pull out a Xanax, but then I remembered that my brother had been clean and sober for a few years and wasn't carrying around any pills.

"Right… I just need to focus on something else."

He nodded. "Exactly."

Right, because it's that simple, I thought. Maybe Dustin didn't get it after all.

I threw myself deeper into my workout. I started kickboxing, beating the hell out of the poor, defenseless punching bag and feeling slightly better. I focused entirely on that until Dustin grabbed my hand and pulled me back.

"Cody!" He snapped at me. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

I looked at him in confusion. Then I realized my hand hurt. A lot. "Ouch…" I said.

"That's an understatement… You could have broken your damn hand, hitting like that!" He was examining it, as if he could sense tiny broken fragments of bone through my flesh. Finally, he let my hand go. "Get that examined. Make sure you didn't do anything serious."

"I'm fine," I insisted.

"Don't even try it. You're getting checked out, Cody."

I had no choice, because he dragged me to the trainers himself. They checked what they could and suggested I get an x-ray, so I did that, too. The results were simple: I'd bruised my hand but there was no serious damage and I could wrestle without an issue.

Part of me was tempted to stick my tongue out at my brother, but I decided that might be slightly childish. Instead, I went back to my room for a bit to try and calm myself down. I was hoping Brandi would be there, but she'd left a note saying she was doing a last-minute photo shoot and she'd see me later. I curled up on our bed and decided to start doodling.

When I looked down afterward, the doodles were dark and depressing. Whatever was going on in my subconscious, it wasn't good. I sighed. Maybe I needed to talk to someone professional. This was starting to worry me. I decided if it kept up, I'd try to get some help. It was better to be safe than sorry. I had my fair share of demons trying to depress me or stress me out, and I knew I couldn't risk it getting out of control.

Just don't tell them about me! Stardust taunted. They might lock you away for life! Then I'll be free to take over forever in search of the cosmic key!

I knew Stardust was just in my head, but that didn't mean these conversations didn't occasionally freak me the hell out. "Yeah," I said aloud. "Professional help might be a good idea."

LILY

The sun rose. I cried my fucking eyes out as the rays woke me up. Now that I was back home, the sun rising and my mother not being here to see it made everything feel so incredibly wrong.

I went through the motions because that's what I was supposed to do. The days began blurring together. The wake was the following day, and the day after that was the funeral and burial. To be honest, I remembered nothing afterward. I played my part. I accepted condolences. I listened to my mother's closest friends tell stories about her. The woman Paul had doing all the hard work for me offered to write the eulogy for me. I asked her if she worked for Creative. When she promised me that she didn't, I decided to give her a chance. What she wrote was lovely, but I barely got through the first paragraph before I decided to just talk. If there's one thing I'd learned to do, it was promo. This was just another promo.

I stayed home for one final day before deciding I'd had enough. I had played my part. I had buried my mother, the only parent I'd ever known. Now I needed answers. I needed to know if Virgil Runnels was really my father. I needed to know if Cody and Goldust were my brothers. I needed to know if maybe, just maybe, I still had family out there after all.

The question was, how the hell was I supposed to find that out? A DNA test required a sample from my father or at least someone with his genetics… A sibling.

So, with my mother barely dead and gone, I went in search of the men who may or may not be my siblings. I spotted them sitting in the hotel restaurant after I got back to town.

"Um… Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Lily!" Cody said in surprise. He immediately stood and hugged me. Your brother is hugging you, I thought.

But I don't have a brother, I thought back. I'm an only child.

"I heard about your mother… I'm so sorry. I know how hard that sort of loss is," Cody continued.

I stared at him. He did know. He'd loved his father, and here I was, about to ruin his memories of him by telling him the truth… Maybe?

"Cody… We need to talk," I said. This felt like a scab I needed to rip off. I might lose my nerve if I didn't do it right now.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"My mom left me a note… A note that told me who my father was…" Next, on All My Wrestlers, Lily tells Cody his father cheated on his mother with hers! I thought. How had my life become a bad daytime soap opera?

"Um… Wow, that's major! How can I help?" Cody asked.

Poor, unsuspecting Cody is about to have his entire world shattered by evil Lily and her terrible news, my inner narrator continued. Let's watch the fun!

"It's… Um… She said it was…" I sighed. How the fuck was I supposed to tell him this? "She said my father was your father!" I blurted out. There, that did it. Mission accomplished and all that.

He blinked at me in shock. It was Goldust who responded. He stood up and declared, "That's impossible!"

"I… I know it's insane, but my mom had no reason to lie," I insisted.

"You're wrong. She probably wanted you to have a chance at the family money or something."

I was offended. "Dude, I don't want your money," I said quickly. "I just want to know the truth."

"He didn't mean that," Cody insisted.

"I think he did," I said as I looked at Goldust. He was glaring at me like I was the scum of the earth. "This was a mistake. Forget I said anything."

"Lily, wait!" Cody said. He stood and took my arm gently. "Look, if you are a long-lost sibling, Dad would want us to know. He would never want us to turn our backs on you. And if you're not, a DNA test will prove that. Simple. So I don't see why we shouldn't help you with that."

I looked at him. He seemed to genuinely want to help. "Thank you," I said.

"Let's find a place to run the test right now, okay? And whatever happens, it's fine. I'm here for you."

I could tell he meant it. I nodded. "Okay. Let's go get some answers."

Goldust was still glaring. "Come with us," Cody said. "Two samples from half-brothers would be better proof than just me."

Goldust looked like he wanted to refuse, but I could tell Cody's logic made sense to him. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "But only to prove that she's a liar. I won't have her destroying our father's name!"

It was nice to know where I stood with him. Anger flashed on Cody's face as he looked at him, but it was gone when he looked at me. "Then it's settled. Let's go."