Cracks in the Crystal

Six

Vince McMahon walked back into the makeshift office with a glare set on his face. As he'd walked he'd thought over the situation at hand and had grown angry. If what Paul had said was true and he was inclined to believe it was; he couldn't understand how his daughter could be so stupid.

He knew for fact that Paul was nothing like Linda and probably would not forgive such an indiscretion. And if it was a full-blown affair? Well, he wasn't sure what it'd mean for their marriage, let alone what'd happen business wise. Paul had just told him he'd quit but Vince wasn't going to accept that, not right now at least. It was obvious the other man was angry and hurt; any decision he made now probably wouldn't be made with a clear head.

"Tell me you haven't been fucking Orton," he blasted as soon as he saw his teary-eyed daughter.

Stephanie looked up in surprise as she heard her father's booming voice and winced as she processed his words. So Paul had obviously told him what was going on and she was actually a little surprised by the anger in his voice. He had no place to judge but she knew better then to say something because the look on his face was thunderous.

"Dad…I can't tell you that," she told him, taking a deep breath as she stood up from her perch against the table.

"How could you be so stupid Stephanie?" Vince sighed, shaking his head. "Do you realize Paul fucking quit out there? You should have known Paul wouldn't forgive something like this. Fucking hell Steph…and with Orton too? What is wrong with you?" Vince continued angrily, glaring at his daughter.

Stephanie's eyes widened at her father's words, surprised to say the least at his reaction. She knew he'd be disappointed in her but she didn't think he'd be so angry. She had messed up sure but she didn't think he had any right to be angry with her; after all, it's not like he'd never done the same.

Then it hit her; he had just said Paul had quit. Quit as in no longer wanting to work for the company kind of quit. Paul loved this company, loved this business almost as much as her father did and the thought of him quitting hit her hard. It hit her then how bad this whole situation really was and she realized she was foolish to think that they would be able to fix things soon.

"He quit?" she asked quietly, not really wanting to hear her father confirm it but knowing he would anyway.

"Yes, he did," Vince replied after a moment. He looked over his daughter and sighed, some of the anger he'd been feeling fizzling out. "I need to get the script changed for tonight. There isn't going to be any Authority for a few weeks. You two need to sort this out and if you can't…well…" He shrugged, not sure what else to tell his daughter. He looked her over again before sighing in disappointment and heading out of the room in the direction of creative.

Raw had finished an hour ago and Stephanie grudgingly made her way into the hotel bar, intent on drinking her pain away. Paul had not shown up again and he wasn't answering any of her calls. She wanted to pretend his phone had just run flat but all the calls had been sent straight to voicemail, which meant he was deliberately ignoring her.

She was upset but she hadn't cried; she'd cried enough in the last week and honestly, she had no one else to blame but herself. A part of her wished she could just blame Randy but she knew it wasn't entirely his fault either. He had never forced her to sleep with him, she'd done that all on her own free will.

Her own selfish vanity was to blame and the worst part was she couldn't even give Paul a real reason as to why she'd done it. She had always been attracted to Randy but she couldn't deny she worked with a lot of attractive men. Never before had she thought about sleeping with any of them, Paul being the obvious first exception.

The last few months it seemed, she'd lost her senses. Randy was a natural flirt but the past few months something had changed, it was like all his attention was focused on her and at first she'd been flattered. It wasn't like people hadn't found her attractive before and really; it'd been innocent to start with. She'd catch him looking at her hungrily, like all he wanted in the world was her and at first it had unnerved her.

Until it didn't.

She couldn't even remember the point it'd changed for her except that one moment she'd caught him staring at her and then she'd been wondering what exactly he could do with that mouth of his. She'd blushed bright red at the thought, shaking her head to dispel the idea but it'd already been too late, she was stuck on the thought. Since then her mind had betrayed her making her think about all the things Randy could do to her.

She had started flirting back despite her better judgment and for a while she had maintained that it was innocent even though she knew it wasn't. Paul had been in the back of her mind the whole time, her subconscious way of reminding her that what she was doing was wrong. Stephanie had known all along that even the flirting and the texting would hurt her husband yet she'd continued to do it because it hadn't actually been cheating.

That was what she'd been telling herself until the opportunity to actually have sex with Randy presented itself. She hadn't been able to resist, her self-control had been shot to pieces and she'd given in to temptation. Afterwards she had felt like an absolute bitch, feeling sick to her stomach that she had actually just cheated on Paul.

People liked to say that if you cheat, you don't truly love your partner but Stephanie had to disagree. She loved Paul more then anything, he really was the love of her life but Randy had been like an addiction in a way. He'd gotten into her head and under her skin and she'd let him, just like she'd been letting him fuck her.

It had to stop though; it never should have started in the first place. She never should have let his attention get to her head. It had though and now she was paying the price for her own foolish desires. She sighed in frustration, not knowing how she could even begin to fix anything especially when Paul wouldn't even answer her calls.

"Why did you tell Paul?" a voice asked from beside her, causing her to jump in surprise.

She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them slowly and turning to the man now sitting beside her at the bar. She winced a little as she saw the darkening skin around his cheek and eye, knowing it probably hurt like a bitch. She shrugged at his question though, not wanting to talk to him at the moment. All she wanted was to drown her sorrows in alcohol and that was what she was going to do.

"Not now Randy," she sighed, turning back to the drink in front of her.

AN: Here's another chapter, a little longer. It was going to be longer but I thought it might be better to leave it to the next chapter. So on that note, I've also already written most of the next chapter too. Haha. I'm going to be focusing mainly on this story and A Beautiful Mess for the next little while because I would like to get them written and finished soon. Plus, I have a whole heap of free time at the moment.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Please review. :) LT.