Okay... so I haven't posted anything on here in a long time. Since starting university, I've just been swarmed with school work, assignments, and tests. I thought I would finally be able to update some stories during the Christmas break, but I mostly spent my break at my job. :(

But anyways, here it is- chapter 12 of Starting Over! I'm really excited, though I think most if not all of my excitement is due to the fact that I haven't posted anything in such a long time. I'm really happy with how it turned out, though it might be boring to some because a lot of it talks about the past.

I own nothing related to the WWE.

Anyways, please read & enjoy! :D

Starting Over

Chapter Twelve

"I'm telling you, Oscar I don't want her anywhere near our kids!"

"Angie, she's not doing anything wrong. She's completely harmless to them. I don't know why you don't see what I see. Ellie's a great person," said Oscar. He sighed heavily in frustration, knowing that his patience was running quite low.

"I don't care, Oscar!" snapped his ex-wife. "She's so young! You and I know she's not ready to be a mother."

"If Elizabeth didn't want to be a step-mother to Dominik and Aalyah, I don't think we would have started dating at all," responded Oscar.

Angie sighed, knowing that she was fighting an already lost battle. Oscar had called her to tell her how the divorce had affected their kids, and how they didn't like Angie's new boyfriend. As much as she loved and cared about her kids and their happiness, Angie wasn't listening to any of it. She could only link all of this to one person- Elizabeth Carmichael, Oscar's girlfriend.

"Does she love you?" asked Angie suddenly.

"She does love me very much," replied Oscar, "and I love her very much. But why do you ask? Why do you care?"

Angie was silent. She didn't know why she had asked that question. Now that that was out of the open, she felt quite stupid asking. Of course Elizabeth loved Oscar deeply. The man was too goddamn fragile after everything to just date the first young, slutty girl who was willing to sleep with him. He would've been careful on who to date. But there was something about Elizabeth that made Angie slightly uncomfortable. A light bulb suddenly went off in her head.

"Look, I need to go now. Goodbye," said Angie before hanging up abruptly.

Angie went onto her laptop and typed Elizabeth Carmichael WWE into the Google search engine. The first search result that popped up was her Wikipedia page. Every single Superstar and Diva had a Wikipedia page created by some crazy obsessive fan or fans who probably stalked that particular Superstar or Diva for a year or two to get all of their personal information to create a decent Wikipedia page.

The info on it might be wrong, but it's better than nothing, thought Angie as she clicked on the link and waited for the site to redirect and load. The first line of the article immediately caught her off guard.

Elizabeth Mariella Carmichael (born Mariella Elizabeth Ortiz), was born on February 25th, 1991…

"Oh my God," gasped Angie in shock. This woman that Oscar was in love with, who spent time with her kids- was not who she said she was. The bad feeling that Angie had wasn't just a bad feeling anymore- it was real. But why would someone go through the trouble of legally changing their name? As Angie scanned the Wikipedia article, she saw nothing that gave a reason for that. That concerned Angie greatly.

Is she a criminal? A spy? Whatever the reason is, she's hiding something, thought Angie as she picked up the phone to call Oscar.

Ellie sat on the couch watching an old episode of Criminal Minds. She and Oscar were home from being on the road, and they had a few months off. Oscar had left to run some errands- at least that's what he told her anyways- and Dominik and Aalyah wouldn't be here until the weekend.

The door suddenly opened and slammed shut, startling her. She shut off the TV and stood up.

"Hello?"

There was no response. The living room was cut off from the entrance of the house, so she couldn't see what was going on. Ellie slowly crept near the hallway.

"Who's there?" she called out.

Again, there was no response. But this time, she could hear someone moving around upstairs.

"Who's here? What are you doing here?" she asked in a more agitated voice.

Ellie could hear someone walking around upstairs. She looked out the window and saw that the car that Oscar took- his black Toyota truck- was in the driveway. Calming down a little bit, she made her way upstairs.

"Oscar, what's going on?" she asked at the top of the stairs. But nothing could have prepared her for seeing the hurt look in Oscar's eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ellie, trying to think of what he meant.

Oscar showed her a Wikipedia article that mentioned her former legal name. Ellie's breath got caught in her throat.

"Why? Why didn't you tell me?" repeated Oscar.

Ellie walked into their room and sat on their bed. She began to speak.

"As I told you, I was born in Bogota, Colombia. I was raised there with my parents until I was eight years old before being adopted by a family from Canada. I then moved to Toronto, Ontario and held dual citizenship in Colombia and Canada.

"The reason I was adopted was because my parents both died when I was a child. My father was shot and killed by a Colombian guerrilla group called the FARC- I know this because I saw it with my four-year-old eyes. My mom died from a drug overdose when I was seven. I was the one who discovered her dead body and had to walk a couple miles to the local police station to get help because we didn't have a telephone. I don't know what drug she OD'd on… I never did find out. Since I had no family members who either could or would take care of me, I ended up having to live in an orphanage. I was there for a year before I was adopted.

"My life in Canada was wonderful. I was an only child once again, but I had parents again, so I didn't care. My foster's parents last name was Jameson, so my own last name was changed to Jameson from Ortiz. But what I experienced in Colombia scarred me horribly. I didn't go to therapy or counselling because I wanted to try and have a normal life. But I really should have because I was a way too serious, way too sad child who could never feel like a child.

"When I was fourteen, I developed bulimia because I was trying to get into the wrestling business and thought that skinny was the way to go. Bulimia lead to a cocaine addiction, cocaine led to depression, the depression led to cutting myself, and the cutting led to attempting suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. Luckily, I failed. I went into rehab and got clean. I became healthy overall, and I was happy once again.

"But everything was shattered once again when I was eighteen. I was at a graduation party with a large group of friends at my then boyfriend's house. I had gotten a ride from a girlfriend to the party that night, and by the end of the night, we both were pretty drunk. I called my mom at around two in the morning, and asked if she could pick me up. She agreed, and said that my dad would be there when she picked me up. I hadn't seen my dad all day because he was at work all day as a security guard, so I was excited to see him and my mother! But what should have been a ten minute long drive changed when they were hit by a drunk driver while coming to pick me up. By four o'clock in the morning, a police officer came to my boyfriend's place and took me down to the station. A female officer sat me down and explained to me what had happened. I sobered up quickly, and I cried for weeks after.

"I promptly moved to New Haven, Connecticut for Yale and threw myself into my schoolwork and wrestling. I've already told you about the serial killer incident, so I won't get into that again. Besides that, my time in university was uneventful, other than the fact that I obtained U.S citizenship, and therefore hold tri-citizenship.

"As for why I changed my name? I just wanted to erase myself from what I had gone through from losing two families. I'm not ashamed of my past- it just hurt to associate myself with either family in my name. So I switched my first and middle name around, and I changed my last name to Carmichael to erase the tie of my foster family from me. Again, it wasn't about embarrassment- it was about trying to start fresh with a clean slate. I thought- and still think- that that was the best decision I ever made.

"I wasn't trying to hide this all from you… really. The reason I never talked about my past to anyone is because it brings back a lot of painful memories, and it's still hard for me to talk about. No one else knows why I changed my name besides you and me. All of the other Superstars and Divas don't know about my past at all- not even the serial killer story. This is the first time I've ever been able to tell anyone my whole life story.

"I'm sorry if you feel like I've been lying to you, or if I've been trying to hide my past from you. I just don't like talking about myself, period. I understand if you feel angry, hurt, or even betrayed. But please, understand that I wasn't trying to hurt you."

By this time, Ellie had tears falling from her purple eyes and onto her face and clothes. She soon began to sob loudly, her whole life now playing like a movie in her head. This was exactly why she never talked about her past to anyone- it was just too painful for her to even think about. She sat down at the top of the stairs, put her head in her hands, and cried harder.

"This is why I never talk about myself," she stammered through her tears and sobs. "I feel so goddamn weak. I'm not a weak person... I'm not! I didn't deserve to lose so many loved ones so young. I'm a decent human being, I try to be nice… and this is what happens to me. If you ever wonder why I have days where I feel like I don't deserve to be happy… well, now you know."

Ellie suddenly stood up and ran into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. She managed to lock the door before Oscar could open it. Ellie cried even harder as she heard Oscar banging on the door.

"Ellie, please let me in. Please. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted to know the truth. Please let me in," Oscar begged.

Ellie managed to calm down long enough to unlock the door and move away from the door to sitting on the bathroom counter.

"It's open," she called out as she wiped her tears off her face.

Oscar opened the door and cautiously approached his upset girlfriend. He hugged her tightly, which caused Ellie to silently cry again.

"I'm so, so sorry Ellie," he whispered in her ear. He kissed her cheek gently and looked at her.

"Don't be," she replied softly, "I should've been honest with you from the get go."

"But it wasn't right for me to come in and act angry. I should have waited for your explanation before deciding whether to be angry or not," said Oscar.

Ellie nodded.

"I'm so sorry about what happened to you."

"Don't be sorry. It wasn't your fault."

"So what you're saying is that you have no family?"

"I don't have any parents or siblings, or any extended family. But I do have you and the kids. I also have my WWE family. So I'm not totally alone. I'm so grateful for everyone in my life. But believe me, you are the best thing that's ever happened to me- you and your two children." Ellie smiled and kissed Oscar's lips to prove her point. This in turn caused Oscar to smile.

"I love you," said Ellie.

"I love you too," said Oscar. "Is it alright for me to forget that I was ever upset with you?"

"Of course," replied Ellie with a small giggle. "I do have one question though."

"Yes?"

"How did you find out?" asked Ellie.

"Angie told me," admitted Oscar. "She called me and told me what she read on Wikipedia, and printed off the article to prove it."

Ellie shook her head in both disbelief and anger.

"I'm sorry she did that."

"Don't be," said Ellie. "She wasn't wrong about her suspicions."

The couple shared a loving kiss before Ellie got off the bathroom counter and stood in front of her boyfriend.

"Everything will be okay," said Oscar sweetly.

"I know because you always make everything okay," replied Ellie before the two embraced and kissed romantically.

There ya go! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I do. :)

Please review, and don't forget to stay tuned for chapter 13! :D

- Elizabeth