I'm so sorry I've taken this long to update. I've been busy with French language school, as well as suffering from writers block. C'est dommage. ;)

50 chapters! Woo hoo! Big thank you to Imagineer1392, BillionDollarPrinceStephanie, nikki1335, LetItReign, PassionWriter101, Sasha, benova13, Shield316, Bharm, LuxuriaVanitas, princessreigns, DeeMarie426, justkimmy, Brittany, ChelleLew, corbettluv, Paisley2, fenner82, CFierce116, Olivia Reigns, IRENELOVE83, Guest, vegas angel baby, M.J Irving and ItReignsJustice-619 for the last reviews, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who has been there from the beginning and has been kind enough to review every single chapter. You are all super-amazing!

I don't know about y'all but I am absolutely LOVING all the Roman Reigns WrestleMania week exposure – the interviews, commercials, talk shows, photo shoots, everything. People can say what they want but he deserves this, and I have to say he films very, very well. ;) Absolutely loving it.

Are you ready for the Sasha-Andrea showdown? Will there be one? Find out now!

So this is her, Sasha thought as she stared at the woman before her, a mix of emotions coursing through her. This is the bitch that fucked him up. And she was gorgeous, just like she'd expected. Like Danielle. Like Chrissy. Looks-wise, her boyfriend sure knew how to pick 'em. And now that she had finally put a face to the name, she was already thinking up of ways to rearrange it.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in the calmest possible way, wondering how long she would stay calm for. She shut the door behind her, blocking the door handle in case the trick was having any smart ideas.

Andrea continued to smile that sickly sweet smile. "Joe and I are old friends," she explained. "We lost touch a long time ago. I happened to be in town and wanted to see how he was doing."

"He's doing fine, no thanks to you."

The brunette started to speak again, then stopped short, her features suspicious. "I'm sorry…who are you exactly?"

"I'm his girlfriend, and I also happen to live here," Sasha replied, crossing her arms. The Jezebel in front of her did not deserve to know her name, let alone be on first-name terms with her. "And I know who you are. You ain't no friend. You got some nerve showing your face around here. You really think after what you did to him, he'd want anything to do with you?"

Andrea raised an eyebrow. "Look, lady. I don't have a problem with you. I just want to talk to Joe for a minute, so if you could just let me come in-"

"I wouldn't let you in here if the rest of the damn world was on fire," Sasha snapped. Who the hell did this little heffa think she is? Sasha had a mind to smack her hard enough to send her tumbling down the front steps, then call up Trinity so she could come finish the job. If the Diva knew Andrea was here, Sasha knew she would immediately hop on the next flight from whatever city she was at so she could come down here and beat her ass herself. But she didn't need Trinity. If push came to shove – and oh, she hoped it did – she could handle it all by herself.

Meanwhile Andrea continued to stand there defiantly, sizing Sasha up. "So he's told you about me and what happened," she said. She sounded almost...proud. "Not that it's any of your business, but you wouldn't understand-"

"I understand fine," Sasha interrupted. "I have two children of my own, none of whom were planned. But I kept them both because I'm not a savage that would tear my own body apart just because I wasn't getting my way in life."

Andrea tossed her dark hair back, her hazel eyes flashing with anger. "I'm sorry lady, but you have no right to judge me. You don't know me, neither do you know my side of the story."

"And I don't care to know your side. It's your word against his and last I checked, my loyalty lies with him. He's never had a reason to lie to me." Sasha's fists itched for some action. There was an inexplicable air of arrogance and amusement exuding from this woman that grated her nerves with each passing second.

Andrea leveled the older woman with a glare. "You do know nobody's perfect right? Not me, not you, and certainly not your boyfriend. Since he's never lied to you, I guess he's told you all about his constant partying and drinking and pill-popping. Maybe he's still at it and you've seen it for yourself. If that's the case, you're stronger than you look, sticking by him, exposing your kids to that. The traveling must suck too. Him being away all the time? Surely you must wonder what he's up to, who he's with. How have you been coping with that? Or are you simply ignoring it all and only sticking around so you can leech off his fame and money?"

Sasha had to look around to find out who the fuck she was talking to. Her voice was calm but it dripped with venom and murderous intentions. "First of all, bitch, you ever speak that way to me again, I will knock your ass out. You should be on your hands and knees begging for his forgiveness, not running your mouth and acting like your shit don't stink. Second, I know what's going on with him, and he knows about me. That's because we actually talk. We sit down and communicate and work things out. And don't even try to make this about me. This is about you showing back up three years after murdering the baby of the man you claimed to love – your baby – in cold blood, and you talk about me leechin'? You stand there talking about his shortcomings as if it should justify what you did, and if you really believe that, then little girl you are more evil than I've always thought you to be." She stepped right up to her until they were nose to nose. "Now, are you gonna leave or do I have to make you?"

"Sash."

Joe's deep voice garnered both women's attention. The mother of two turned to find her boyfriend stepping through the front door. "Joe," she breathed.

Moving purposefully towards the two women, he said to Sasha in a low, flat voice, "Get inside. I'll handle this." His face was eerily expressionless, focused on Andrea. Sasha turned back to the other woman, noting how her demeanor softened at the sight of her ex-boyfriend. "Are you sure?" she asked Joe. She didn't want to leave him alone with this bitch, not for one second.

"Positive." He hadn't taken his eyes off Andrea. "Give us a minute alone. Please?"

He took Sasha's hand and gently caressed the back of it with his thumb, a silent assurance that he was okay. If he said he was okay, Sasha thought resignedly, then she had to take his word for it. She stroked his arm encouragingly, and casting a final menacing glower at the other woman, she turned her back, squaring her shoulders, and disappeared inside the house.

Once Sasha was gone and the two of them were left alone, Andrea's smile widened. "Hi," she said to Joe, tucking her hair behind her ear as she scanned his features. "It's been a long time. You look good."

His expression didn't change. "Give me one reason I shouldn't pick up the fuckin' phone right now and call the police," he demanded, cutting right to the chase. "I know I told you to stay the hell away from me. Did you forget something here? Ask Trinity; she's the one who cleared out your shit."

Andrea took a deep breath. She had expected this reaction. "Joe, I'm not looking for a fight. I was in the area and I thought I'd stop by. I remembered you usually have today and tomorrow as your days off. I tried to contact you a couple of times, but it was obvious you'd changed your phone number and your email. I just wanted to check on you, see how you've been doing."

"Why? So you could pick on the bones of what you thought was left of me?" Joe sneered. "Sorry to disappoint. I'm doing good now. It took me a long while, but I am. I got out of the gutter you left me in and I made it back on my own two feet."

"I'm glad to see that."

"Are you?"

The brunette sighed. "We may have ended things badly but it doesn't mean I don't care about you, Joe."

"If you cared about me you'd never have done what you did," the Samoan retorted coldly, chills sweeping over him as that fateful day swam before his eyes; her lying in that hospital bed shedding those phony-ass crocodile tears; the rage that consumed him when she confessed the truth; he could still hear the smash of the vase he'd thrown across the hospital room…He'd never felt the kind of emotion he'd felt that day and he never wanted to again. But now here she was, the living embodiment of those horrifying memories, still lying to his face three years later. Hadn't she done enough?

"Joe, you don't know how sorry I am for hurting you," she was saying. "It's been three years, but I still think about it every single day. Back then I was in a bad place in my life, and I didn't know what was wrong with me until about six months after we broke up. I was diagnosed with depression. Apparently, I've had it for a while, and that was why I was the way I was; why I was so angry and upset and I did the things I did. But I'm getting better. I moved to Virginia and got a job as a receptionist at a local magazine. The chiropractor thing didn't work out, so I took a different career path." She smiled. "I see you're doing well, too. You're on TV now, wrestling. You wanted this so bad, and I'm glad you made it. I'm proud of you."

Liar. She'd never wanted him to be a wrestler. That was what started this whole mess in the first place. Shaking his head, Joe wasn't surprised by the performance she was putting on. He'd seen it many times before. "Look. I'm sorry about your depression, I really am. But that gave you no right to do what you did to me. It was cold and calculated and premeditated and it went on for weeks behind my back. Even worse, you got me involved and you lied to my face over and over. We were together for two years and not once did I lie to you. I never claimed to be the best boyfriend, but it didn't stop you from preying on my hopes and dreams and using it to destroy our relationship and our future together. So forgive me if I don't seem thrilled about anything you have to say."

He bristled, his fingers dragging through his hair impatiently when he spotted the tears filling her eyes. "Don't do that, Andrea," he said harshly, cutting his gaze away. "I ain't buying that shit. Save your tears for someone who cares."

Sniffling, she wiped the corner of her eye with a finger. "Sorry. I can't help it."

"You haven't changed a bit, have you? You manipulated me then and you're trying to manipulate me now."

She looked at him with wide, tear-filled eyes. "Joe, please. I know what I did was selfish and hurtful. I know you wanted to be a father but I wanted us to be together first and foremost. I was all alone in our own relationship. You were gone all the time and I just wanted you home. If I didn't get pregnant you would never have come home and you would never had stayed with me. I thought I was doing what I had to do but I went about it the wrong way and I'm sorry. You don't know what it was like for me after it happened; how terrible I felt about everything. I made a mistake and hurt you." She gazed at him, taking one small step towards him. "But if you let me, I can make it all up to you, Joe, for as long as I can. We can start over, and I can make things right between us."

Joe gaped at his former lover, absorbed the loaded content of her words, and it took all of his willpower not to laugh in her face. "Are you fuckin' kidding me?" he said, incredulous. "Do you really think I could ever have any trust in you as a friend, let alone a girlfriend, after what you did to us? To your own self? I don't know if I could ever forgive you, Andrea, but I know I can never forget what you did. I did some soul-searching of my own and I know I'm to blame too. It's on me too, what you did. I was young and stupid and self-centered. I should have seen it all coming. But I didn't, because I was too caught up in my independence and my own ego, and I was almost destroyed because of it. For three years I didn't date because I was scared that some other woman was going to do this to me again. I was paranoid and hurt and broken, and I started hurting myself in the process." He wished he wasn't telling her about any of this; he sure as hell wished he didn't sound as emotional as he did, but she needed to know the damage her selfishness had caused, just in case the loss of a baby hadn't done that, even after three years. He pointed at the door behind him. "That woman you saw out here, ready to claw your eyes out? She built me back up. She's never tried to control me. Not once has she complained about me leaving to do my job and do what I love. She's never asked anything of me. She listens to me. I listen to her. I don't dread coming home, wondering what mood she's gonna be in. I'm happy to go on the road and go to work, but not because I'm trying to get away from her. Hell, I'm missing her the moment I walk out the front door. Our relationship isn't perfect, but we sit down and work things out every time. That's the difference between you and her."

"You sound more sure about her than you ever were with me. Why? Because she has children?" Andrea demanded, her remorseful stance fading as she crossed her arms. "I know you, Joe. You wouldn't be caught dead with a woman like her in a previous life, so what changed? Are you trying to compensate for what you lost?"

The audacity of this girl. It was hard to believe that he'd ever felt anything remotely affectionate for her. "What I lost, you took from me. And that previous life you're talking about is dead. I'm no longer the shallow egomaniac you knew five years ago. Sasha and her kids are my world now, and she's more than likely the person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. So if you think you can come up here and disrespect her, you got another thing coming."

"At least I had the guts to come here and admit my mistakes," Andrea argued, "Shouldn't you at least respect that?"

Joe shook his head. "I have no respect for child murderers," he retorted, his tone so cold and emotionless that she flinched. But he was determined to have the final say, to shut all of this bullshit down once and for all, even if it meant taking drastic action this time around. "I still have the documentation of everything you did," he said to his ex-girlfriend. "The doctor's report, the prescriptions, everything. I've kept my mouth shut all this time and I'm still willing to. But if you ever come near me or her again, or you try something stupid like going to the dirt sheets to sell your story to make a quick buck because I'm a public figure now, I will tear shit up. I will expose you for the conniving bitch that you really are and by the time I'm through with you, you'll wish you could take back the night you met me in Georgia Tech. That's a promise."

Andrea had the decency to look offended. "Sell my story?" she repeated, "Do you really think I'm capable of doing something like that?"

"You aborted your own baby to get my attention. Airing our dirty laundry for the world's attention will be nothing to you," he answered caustically. "You and I are done, Andrea. For good. I told you never to come back here again. That was all I asked, and you couldn't even do that. And now that I see that you don't want to stay away, I'll have no problem calling up my attorney to obtain a restraining order as well." He glared at her. "Three years ago I said you were dead to me, just like our baby is. That sentiment hasn't changed. Now get the hell off of my property."

He didn't wait for her to respond. Retreating into the sanctuary of his home, he shut the door, and it took a monumental effort not to slam it. Striding into the house, he saw Sasha waiting for him in the kitchen from his peripheral vision, but he walked past her without a word, marching upstairs. He heard her scrambling after him, following him up the stairs. "Joe? Baby, are you okay?"

He didn't know how much she had heard and right now he didn't care. "I need a minute."

"Joe-"

"I need a minute," he reiterated, his harsher tone halting Sasha in her tracks. Before she could say more, he had shut the door to their bedroom behind him, leaving her alone in the hallway. She stood there, at a loss for what to do and feeling shut out. She then made her way into Mia's room, her movements downcast and robotic. Lying on the bed, she absently picked up one of her daughter's Bratz dolls, and she fought the urge to cry as the feeling of helplessness began to overwhelm her. That bitch had the nerve to show up here, no doubt to weasel her way back into Joe's life. Undoubtedly, old feelings and emotions had been dredged up once again. Her love was hurting, and there was nothing she could do to alleviate his pain. She'd looked into her boyfriend's eyes, and the mother of two had to wonder if he had bought any of the spiel Andrea had spewed. Not that she was doubting her boyfriend or where they stood in their relationship; Sasha knew Joe loved her. But there was no denying that Andrea still had a psychological grip on him. Had he finally found the strength to break that hold once and for all? Or was she going to hang over their heads for the rest of their relationship?

"Nani."

Her head whipped towards the door. She hadn't heard him come into the room. She sat up. "Hey."

Joe stood for a moment, watching her. Slowly, he crossed the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to her, his heart wrenching at the tears that had formed in her eyes. "Please don't cry, Sash. I'm sorry I snapped at you."

Sasha shook her head and wiped her face. "That's not why I'm crying. I just hate seeing you unhappy and feeling like I can't do anything to help." She put her hand on his knee. "How are you feeling right now?"

"I've been better, but I'm okay," he assured her, his eyebrows knitting together with disgust. "The nerve of her, showing her face here after everything. I don't know what she said to you but I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Don't apologize, baby. I handled my business. I'd do it over again in a heartbeat for you. A queen protects her king no matter the cost," she said, reaching up to stroke his long hair.

Smiling tenderly at her sweet words, Joe kissed the top of her head. "I went into our room because I left my phone there. I called my lawyer, told him to file a restraining order against Andrea ASAP. The quicker he gets it done, the better. If she comes within five hundred feet of me again, her ass is going straight to jail."

"You think that will stop her?" asked Sasha.

"It better. Or I'll find out where she works and email every single document of what she did to me to her current boss. Let 'em know the kind of person that's working for him."

"I don't want you to be so vindictive, Joe."

"If that's what it'll take to keep her out of my life for good, then I will. If she's still looking for my attention, then I'll give it to her. But she just might not like it."

Sasha nodded and leaned against him, feeling his arms wrap around her and his face nestle into her neck, and she rubbed her arm up and down his broad back. She could feel the tension still coursing through his body. Seeing that vile woman could not have been easy for him. "You sure you're okay, baby?"

He pulled back from her and nodded his head slowly but confidently. "I am. I'll admit it was fuckin' surreal seeing her again, but I'll be fine."

"That's good, that's good," Sasha replied. "I didn't hear you yelling, and I don't know how you were so calm. Best believe I was ready to snatch that bitch." When he let out a chuckle in response, her heart soared at the sound. "There's that smile I was looking for," she murmured, running a finger under his bottom lip.

Joe pressed his lips to her finger. "You always make me smile, baby girl."

"You sure you don't want to talk about what happened?" she asked, meeting his eyes.

"There's nothing to talk about. Not anymore. I'm done letting her haunt me. I wanna move on, baby, and I wanna move on with you. Starting now," he declared.

Her heart give a little lurch at the sincerity of his words. "I'd really like that," she whispered.

"Good." As he cupped her face and rested his forehead against hers, he realized he meant what he said. Sasha had been nothing but a Godsend, and he owed it to both her and himself to put his past behind him where it belonged if they were ever going to take the next crucial step in their relationship. "I love you, Sasha. Never forget that."

"Never. I love you too." She closed her eyes and a grin came over her face as she sensed the weight finally lift off both their shoulders and the power shift fully into her possession. Joe belonged to her, hundred percent now, and ecstatic could not begin to describe how good it felt to know that.

I'm such a sap! *weeps*

That went well, didn't it? Short and sweet, in my opinion.

I want to confidently say we have seen the last of Andrea – because let's face it, she doesn't deserve to be anywhere near Joe or Sasha ever again, does she? Hopefully, now that we're approaching the final few chapters, it will finally be smooth sailing for Jasha. And don't worry about me taking long to update the next chapter, I'm about halfway done with it. Perhaps if I could bribe you to leave as many reviews as possible so that I can update faster? Yes? ;)

WrestleMania is this Sunday. (Yes! Yes! Yes!) Can't wait to see how it all goes down. Enjoy the weekend, guys! It's gonna be fun.