Chapter 51

By the time Lilianna walked out of catering, after cleaning up Jecina's mess she'd left behind, Jon was just outside the doors, across from them. He must've heard of her running off from the other coworkers since it wasn't done quietly. Jon was on the floor, his back pressed against the cinderblock wall with his knees drawn up, elbows resting on them. He kept staring at the concrete flooring deep in thought. Lilianna had no idea what to say to him, but now wasn't the time to have the talk.

"She's gone, isn't she?" His voice was low and raspy, barely audible. He didn't look up at her, feeling his heart harden in his chest little by little.

Lilianna sighed with a heavy heart and dropped down beside him, pulling something out of her pocket. "Do you want her to be gone? If so, here." Opening her hand, the emerald engagement ring lay in her palm and Jon's eyes had moved to it, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Take it, or listen to what I have to say and then make your choice."

"She made her choice…"

"Moxley, you need to walk with me and listen to what I have to say." Lilianna stood up from the floor and extended her hand down to him, waiting for him to take it. "If you love her as much as you've claimed all this time, then you will do it. I'm not going to have this conversation with you in the arena, with prying eyes and ears around. Come with me, or lose her. Fight for her or let her go."

It was an ultimatum. He could take it or leave it. Jon was used to Lilianna's callousness and looked at the ring still glittering in her hand. "Fine, lead the way. I'm smoking though."

"Don't really care what you do as long as you listen."

Pulling his smokes out, Jon followed her out of the arena and watched her pull her cell phone out to send Seth a text message. She didn't want him worrying about her. "Give me the ring. I wanna hang onto it for safekeeping." He extended his hand, seeing the smirk on her face before placing it in his hand and he pocketed it instantly. Ducking his head, Jon lit his cigarette and took a long pull from it while they continued walking. "Why did she run off and leave the ring behind?"

They were far enough from the arena to where Lilianna felt comfortable, but she wanted to do this in complete privacy. "Get in." They were at her rental, a Toyota RAV 4 and Lilianna slid behind the wheel while Jon got in on the passenger side. "Buckle up. There's a park not far from here and we can talk there."

"You really don't want anyone else overhearing this, do you?" Jon snorted, rolling the window down and proceeded to keep smoking, not giving a damn he was in someone else's rental. "Or maybe you're taking me somewhere nobody can hear my fucking screams."

"Maybe." Lilianna shrugged, not minding his dry sense of humor and pulled out of the parking lot just as Seth texted her back.

"Shouldn't text and drive." Jon snatched her phone away to read the messages and let the cigarette dangle between his lips precariously. "Tell me what to write and I'll do it for you."

"Just tell him I'll call when we're on our way back and to stop worrying about me." Lilianna grumbled, though she didn't argue with Moxley and rolled her own window down to let some of the warm air filter through the vehicle.

Jon did so, then set her cell phone in the center console and slammed it shut to make sure she couldn't get to it while driving. Lilianna didn't comment on that and simply kept driving, mulling over in her head what she wanted to say. Jecina was already on a plane in the sky, so there was no point trying to stop her and talk sense into her. When the woman made her mind up about something, there was no changing it usually. Lilianna would try to fix this situation because she truly believed, now more than ever, Jon and Jecina belonged together.

Pulling up to a park about 10 minutes later, Lilianna pulled into a parking spot and cut the ignition, seeing Jon was ready to light up another smoke. "You're going to get lung cancer if you keep chain-smoking like that." She took the pack and tossed it back in the car, looping her arm through his to guide him into the park.

"Bitch." Jon grunted, no malice in his tone and smirked when she smacked him upside the head.

"Dick." Lilianna kept walking with him, silence developing and finally stopped at a picnic table, setting down on top of it.

"All right, you've kept me in suspense long enough, woman. And you took my smokes away, so let's hear it. What the hell is going on with her?" Jon demanded, hating the longevity this had taken.

The sun had already set on the horizon and the stars began peeking out one by one, the moon appearing as well. There was a warm breeze and it felt wonderful, but all Lilianna felt was cold because of the draft. Granted, she was happy they had included her in Seth's draft pick, but she also didn't want to be stuck as a valet either. Lilianna was a hell of a wrestler and it was time to get back to doing that, she just had to figure out what to do to get back in the ring. Nevertheless, right now wasn't about her, she had a promise to keep and would do it, no matter how heartbreaking it was.

"Okay so, to start off, you need to understand something. Jecina loves you. She loves you so much, Moxley. She fought tooth and nail to be with you, through all the controversy and people talking shit in the company. Through it all, she stuck with you, even after you betrayed her." Lilianna's voice took on a serious tone, her focus solely on him now instead of the sky. "What you did to her with Layla was the cruelest thing you could've done. Not only did you lie to her and fuck her, while Dean watched, but then you were cold about it afterwards in telling her what you did. All to gain revenge on Dean because you had a fucked up childhood and he didn't, if I recall." Lilianna was still a little cloudy on the details with that.

"I wanted him to suffer." Jon admitted quietly, not appreciating rehashing the past because nothing could be done to fix or change it. "What's your point?"

"My point is you shattered her that day. You drove her into Dean's arms and she hated herself for it because she couldn't love him. You had her heart all along, from the moment she met you. The reason she went through with the threesome between you two, in the first place, was because of me. It was my idea. I don't know if she ever told you that, but it was my idea since she couldn't choose between the two of you. Jecina didn't want to hurt you guys and it was tearing her apart." Lilianna explained, having to stop to take a breath and could tell this wasn't easy for Jon to hear. Bitter pills never were easy to swallow. "And despite all of that, she STILL chose you in the end. When Dean beat you within an inch of your life and you were on your deathbed in the hospital, she was there. She did NOT leave your side and took as much vacation time as needed from the company to make sure she was there when you woke up. It scared her at the thought of losing you. It was a huge relief when you woke up because she was slowly dying inside without you. Just like I know she is now."

"Then why the fuck did she leave in the first place? The past is the fucking past and I've apologized for what I did!" Jon felt his temper rising, not understanding why Lilianna was going into this whole long-winded explanation instead of getting to the point.

"Because you need to understand WHY she left. When you betrayed her and broke her heart, you immediately pursued her. Ambrose wouldn't leave her alone either. She had NO TIME to come to terms with what happened, to process what you did because you two were relentless with her. She never had the chance to just sit back and say, 'that fucking dickhead fucked another woman before me, after we agreed I would be the only one until the threesome was over'." Lilianna decided to put it in simpler terms for Moxley to understand since he still looked confused and then she saw the dawning of realization wash over his face. "Do you get it now?"

Jon didn't speak for several minutes, letting the silence stretch between them and Lilianna waited him out. She was patient, he'd give her that. "She doesn't trust me." He shut his eyes, grimacing and really needed a nicotine fix now. "She never fully trusted me, did she?"

"No." Lilianna refused to lie to him, tilting her head slightly. "And do you blame her after what you did and put her through? Moxley, you're a smart man and I know you love her, but…her trust issues are because of YOU. Because of the things YOU did to her. Using her like a cheap piece of meat all to stick it to Ambrose, your twin brother. Put yourself in her shoes for a minute and think about how she felt, what she went through, what she experienced and how her heart broke when you told her about Layla. When you went up to her and told her you only fucked her to make your brother suffer. Because you knew he was in love with her and used that against him by using her. She trusted two men to take care of her that night and only one did, and it wasn't the one she wanted. It was the one who is now a major obsessive dickhead."

"Fuck…" Jon groaned, needing to sit down due to his legs feeling weak all of a sudden and put his head in his hands. "She…she agreed to marry me though. She agreed to move in with me, finding a house…" Why would Jecina do that if she had these trust issues with him?

It was the reason Lilianna was entrusted to have this talk with Jon. "Jecina couldn't tell you face to face, Moxley. That's why I'm doing it for her. She admitted to feeling weak when around you. And she knew because she loved you so much, if you begged her to stay, she would've in a heartbeat instead of doing what she felt in her heart needed to be done. And that was leaving. If you were on the same show as her, she wouldn't have left. It's not that she doesn't want to marry you and be with you and share a home with you. But she's terrified of being hurt again by you because you did it once before. You fucked another woman while sort of with her and she's scared it's going to happen again because you two won't see each other often." Stupid draft, she thought bitterly, hating Vince McMahon right now for doing this to her friends.

"So because of fear, she's taking the coward's way out instead of doing this with me, fighting for our relationship." Jon scoffed, shaking his head and couldn't believe what a fool he'd been to get involved with someone like this. "I get it. I fucked up. I made a mistake and I own up to it. But at one point is she going to stop worrying I'm gonna hurt her again and just be with me and fucking love me? Is that even possible for her at this rate?"

"She's not a coward, not really. I would've done the same thing if the roles were reversed. I don't know what I would've done if I was separated from Seth with this stupid draft. Because we just found each other again, even though we never lost contact and remained friends. The timing was always off with us until now and to have that ripped away would crush both of us." Lilianna had once again put her heart in the palm of a wrestler's hands and she could only hope third time was the charm with Seth.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do? I can't change Vince's mind! I can't be on the same show as her, so what we're done? That's it? Our relationship is done because she doesn't trust me? I don't know how to fucking fix this!" Jon was beyond frustrated and it didn't help his heart was shattering into tiny pieces in his chest, making it hard not to lash out.

"Like I told you at the arena, if you want to let her go and walk away, by all means, do it. But if you love her as much as you claim, you will fight for her. You will make her SEE and PROVE to her you're faithful to only her and you want nobody else." Lilianna laid it out for him, put the ball in his court and stood up from the picnic table, knowing Jon had a lot of thinking to do. "The only question is: How hard are you willing to fight and how far are you willing to go to win her back?"

Pulling the emerald ring out of his pocket, Jon held it in his palm under the moonlight and shut his eyes, remembering when he found the ring. It was in a pawn shop, if all places, in Cincinnati during one of his visits there without her. He'd walked in there to see an old friend and the man had given him a great deal on the piece. It reminded Jon of her eyes, how they sparkled emerald whenever she was happy or excited about something. Closing his hand around it tightly, Jon opened his eyes and knew what he had to do.

"I've never in my life given up and I'm not gonna fucking start now. I love her and I know she loves me." Too much, it sounded like since Jecina couldn't face him head-on and had to have her best friend do the honors. "And this isn't about my brother either. This isn't a competition to me. She IS the love of my life and I WILL marry her one day, no matter how long that takes. And we WILL live together in that house in Colorado we picked out together. I'll give her as much space as she needs, but I'll be damned if I cut off all contact with her."

That was exactly what Lilianna wanted to hear. "Give her a few days and then call her. Don't go see her, not until she requests you to. And be patient with her because this is twice as hard for her as it is for you." They began heading back toward the car and Lilianna actually felt her own heart melt a little at Moxley's next choice of words.

"I'm her future, and I will not let her forget we were built to last."