"It's late Paul, is everything okay?" Shane McMahon asked as he answered his phone to his brother in law.

Paul tried to stop his voice from breaking as he replied, "No Shane, something awful has happened."

"It's not my dad is it?" Shane asked, already panicked by the tone of Paul's voice. "Tell me my dad is okay?"

Paul had known this would be difficult but he hadn't realised it would be this bad. He could hardly talk as he had a lump in his throat. He didn't know that he was in a state of shock and was actually doing very well. "It's not your dad."

"So what is it? Tell me for Christ's sake!"

Paul managed to blurt out, "It's Steph, someone attacked her."

"What?" Shane yelled. "Attacked her? You mean like a fan or something? Is she okay?"

Paul found himself fighting back tears again. "I don't know who it was. They found her in the parking lot."

"What do you mean found her?" Shane screamed hysterically. "Are you telling me that my sister is dead?"

"No... I don't know."

Somehow managing to yell even louder Shane demanded, "What do you mean you don't fucking know? Is Steph alive or not?"

Paul realised that he was making a complete mess of this and tried to get across what he knew. "Shane listen to me. Someone attacked Steph and she has a bad head injury. Whoever did it left her for dead in the parking lot but Brie and Daniel found her. Her heart stopped twice before we got here but they revived her. I don't know what's happening now, she's in surgery but we haven't been told anything."

Paul could hear Shane crying now. "No. Oh god. Why Steph?"

"I don't know Shane, I have no idea who did this but I'll fucking find out and I'll kill them myself." For the first time Paul felt anger towards whoever the attacker was. He had been too shocked and focused on what Stephanie's condition was until now, but now that he had thought about it he wanted to get hold of whoever this was and show them what it was like to be beaten to death. He'd do it with his bare hands and make them suffer too.

"You're at the hospital now?" Shane asked, trying to regain control of himself.

"Yes, I'll call you as soon as I hear anything. I need to call Linda."

"No I'll do it," Shane offered. "What about the girls?"

"I don't want them down here until we know if Steph's okay."

"Okay, call me when you have news."

"I will," Paul promised. He put his phone in his pocket and brushed away the snow that had been settling on his jacket as he stood there. He trudged through the slush on the pavement on his way back to the entrance. As he approached he waited for two police officers to enter in front of him and walked in behind them.

Following them inside he heard the young female officer ask her partner, "So how do we find the husband?"

"We get them to make an announcement and have him to come to the desk. What was the surname again?"

"McMahon. No, sorry, Levesque."

"Uh... You're looking for me," Paul said from behind them.

After returning to the waiting area Paul had introduced Vince to the police officers. He was starting to really get concerned for his father in law, he was still sitting with his head in his hands. Paul was no psychologist but if he had to guess what a breakdown looked like it would be something like this. He was surprised to see that apparently the young female officer was going to be the one to ask the questions. He wondered, how old is this kid? That's what she looks like, a kid. I don't want some kid working on this! He told himself to listen to her instead of judging her.

"Sir, can you tell me everything you know about what happened to your wife?"

"Probably less than you," Paul sighed. "Someone attacked her and tried to kill her. She has bad head injuries and they are operating on her now."

"You've had no update on her condition?"

"No, nothing," Paul shook his head sadly.

"Were you the one who found your wife in the parking lot?"

Paul shook his head again, "No, it was Daniel and Brie."

Remembering the name Brie from earlier officer Williams turned back a page in her notebook. "Brie Bella, correct?"

"Yeah, and her husband Daniel Bryan."

She noted the name and asked, "Do you have any idea who could have done this?"

Paul was starting to get angry although he was trying not to, "No, I don't know who would want to murder my wife or why they would want to do it!" Sadly he added, "She's such a kind hearted person, it makes no sense."

"We're going to check over the CCTV from the arena and see if that picked up anything, also we found your wife's phone. I mean we think it's your wife's phone."

"Give it to me," Paul demanded. "I want to know if anyone called her!"

"We can't do that sir, we have to check it for prints. Whoever attacked your wife may have touched it. We'll also check the calls and messages, if we don't find anything it will be returned to you." Paul felt a little reassurance that this kid at least seemed to know what she was doing as she continued, "We'll need to talk again sir."

Paul nodded, "Whatever you need, just catch this bastard."

Officer Williams looked over at the wreck of an old man sitting with his head in his hands and crying. "Is there anything you can add Mr. McMahon?" She asked gently. Vince shook his head but didn't say anything. As she was about to leave she said to Paul, "I'll pray for your wife."

The two officers walked away and officer Henry scoffed, "I'll pray for your wife? What was that?"

"The truth."

He snorted, "I like the husband for this. It's always the husband."

More and more time dragged by and it was torture for Paul. Was no news good or bad? The doctor who had spoken to him had told him that she was going to come back with an update so where the hell was she? It had been hours now since they had taken Stephanie into surgery. He considered going to ask for information but he knew he would get no where and would end up getting angry. He was also still worried about Vince, he just sat there next to Paul with a shocked expression on his face and didn't say anything unless Paul spoke to him.

Paul turned his attention to trying to figure out whoever had done this but in truth he was at a total loss. His wife didn't have any enemies, she rarely even had disagreements with anyone. Certainly nothing had happened that would make someone angry enough to do this to her, she would have told him about it if something that bad had happened. He was certain of that, so who could it have been?

Maybe Brie was wrong and this was some nut job or some crazy fan who had caught Stephanie in the wrong place at the wrong time? There was no other explanation as no one had ever hated Stephanie. Then a name flashed into his head, there was one person who hated his wife. His ex girlfriend Joanie definitely hated Stephanie. Paul had been engaged to Joanie but had cheated on her with Stephanie and then left her to be with Stephanie. She had the motive but could Paul imagine Jo doing this? No, he couldn't, but he'd have to mention it to the cops. If it wasn't her then...

His train of thought was interrupted as he saw the doctor he had spoken to earlier walk through the double doors into the waiting area. He saw her locate him and begin heading in his direction. "Here's Steph's doctor, Vince." He realised he had forgotten the doctor's name, not that it mattered right now. What she was about to say was all that mattered. "Please be good news," he pleaded quietly to himself. He tried to read the expression on the doctor's face as she approached but he wasn't successful. As she got near enough to talk to Paul stood. "Please tell me she's alive?"

The doctor smiled but it was only a thin one, clearly there was bad news of some kind but she said, "Yes sir, your wife is alive."

The wave of relief that hit Paul was like nothing he had felt before in his life. "Thank you doctor..."

As she continued Paul realised he was supposed to be listening not talking, "Sir, I have to tell you that your wife's condition, whilst no longer life threatening, is critical. She has sustained two blows to the head, one probably only serious enough to knock her unconscious for a few minutes and leave her with a concussion but the second injury is much more serious."

"How serious?" Paul asked, terrified of what he might hear next.

"Doctor Turner found some haemorrhaging in your wife's brain. She managed to stop the bleeding and remove the clots but due to the area where the damage was sustained it's impossible to say for certain how fully your wife will be able to recover."

Paul felt like he was going to be sick. "What are you telling me?"

"We do anticipate that your wife will make a recovery but you need to know that the area of the brain that was damaged could mean that your wife may have memory loss to some extent when she awakes."

Paul was horrified, he'd seen things like this on TV. "Are you telling me that Stephanie isn't going to remember who I am? That she's not going to remember our kids?"

"No sir, I can't tell you anything for sure. I'm not even saying that she will have any memory loss for sure, there's no way to tell until she regains consciousness. I've seen people make full recoveries from injuries worse than this but you should also know that people can fail to recover from injuries less severe than this."

Paul felt his head spinning. "So you're basically saying I've got to wait and see what's left of my wife?"

"That's not how I would have put it sir, but essentially you are correct."

Feeling tears fill his eyes Paul asked, "When will she wake up?"

"Your wife is in post-op now and then she'll be moved to the ICU. She's sedated and will need to remain so for at least forty eight hours as the swelling on her brain needs to reduce before we can allow her to regain consciousness."

"Oh my God," Paul mumbled. "When can I see her?"

"I'll come and find you when she's been moved to the ICU and you can see her then."

Unable to deal with the barrage of emotions that was assaulting him Paul managed to say, "Thank you doctor."

"Uh... sir? I'm afraid there's something else I need to tell you."

"What?" Paul groaned. "What else could there possibly be?"

"Sir... it appears that your wife may have been sexually assaulted."

Paul felt himself begin to shake with anger and he jumped up and yelled, "What the hell do you mean 'may have been?' Did someone rape my wife or not? Tell me!"

"I'll need to examine her when she has been taken to the ICU to get confirmation but you should be aware that she arrived with her dress torn away and her underwear missing, and there are lesions on the insides of her legs."

Paul found himself consumed with rage and even worse than that he had no one to direct it at. As suddenly as the rage had hit him it was replaced by grief. He began to cry as he sank back into his seat. "Steph. Oh my God. Why?"

"I'm very sorry sir," the doctor said awkwardly. "I'll come and find you when you can see your wife."

Vince had been silent the whole time. All he could say as the doctor walked away was, "My baby girl."