THE QUEEN'S GAME

Chapter 12

"Not that I mind or anything, but how in the hell did I end up being the person you called on your phone tree of support?" Ivory drove, guiding them toward her home in Seattle.
"I just needed a break and I figured what the hell, maybe I'll spend some time with Ivory."
"Honey, we hardly have conversations. Now I know the sound of tears when I hear them, and you were crying when you called, so I know there is more to this."
"I just wanted to get away from Hunter. That's all."
"And you called me? Not Trish, not Chyna, not even your dad?"
"I don't have anyone else, Okay? Is that what you want me to say? Things are going so terribly the only person I could think to call was someone who I knew would always be honest. You don't like me much, but I can't think of a time where you've ever been less than honest."
"Hmmmh, you fell out with the Scooby gang, so that only means you know Hunter's little secret and you also know they didn't tell you?"
"Does everyone but me know? Has everyone just been laughing at me behind my back?"
"Not everyone knows, it's truly one of the best kept secrets considering how much those people talk, but I had a front row seat to that disaster. Not by choice, trust me."
"And you didn't say anything? Why was everyone I know content to let me look like a raging idiot?"
"I was never going to get into that. I assumed, like any other person who didn't like you would, that you knew at first, but once I realized you didn't, it was not my conversation to have. I came to you at the bar that night, thinking it might be why you were fighting, but once I realized you were in so deeply I couldn't be the one to break that news. It would have been horrible coming from me."
"Oh you telling me would have been a decided improvement over how it really went down. It would have been miles better."
"That night? No way. We're just now able to be in the same room, which is why I'm shocked that I was your one phone call."
"You came."
"Curiosity got the better of me. I knew the story had to be good if you called me of all people."
"I'm a masochist."
"Clearly. You're dating Hunter. That deserves a medal."
"Formerly."
Ivory scoffed as she drove. "You're letting Billionaire Barbie just run you away?"
"He's her husband, not my problem anymore."
"You don't believe that any more than I do. I don't believe in love or soulmates, but you two are most definitely connected."
"Connected to a married man. I sure know how to pick them. I'm great at picking friends too."
"Oh honey that's as far from a marriage as I've ever seen. He's been trying to get out of it since it started. Your dad got him a good lawyer, but that Stephanie is a tricky one. She knows that if Hunter divorces her before her thirtieth birthday she won't get her trust fund."
"What?" Charlotte sat up, uncrossing her arms.
"You think it was a coincidence that she got him drunk and kept him that way long enough to marry her? She's been after him like a dog in heat long before she knew about you. Vince keeps her on a short leash with her monthly stipends, she gets a few thousand monthly but blows through it with ease. She's counting on drawing this out until her thirtieth and then she's planning to divorce him, but then again, she seems to be enjoying causing problems between the two of you. She might try to keep this marriage as long and she can."
Charlotte was blown away. She'd known about the trust fund, they both had them, but she wasn't aware of the stipulations. They hadn't discussed the details. She'd only needed to turn thirty before hers would become active. It would be a small fortune compared to Stephanie's.
"How do you know so much about this? I can't imagine they told you."
"We were in Vegas and I'm sleeping with Shane. Shane was passed out when their little scene started. I went along, I wasn't as plastered as everyone else, and I saw the whole little show. I saw the whole drunken mess, he was clearly out of it. He kept babbling about Ashley this Ashley that, so at least I know what that meant now."
"Shane knows? What was Hunter saying about me?"
"Shane knows she's desperate to get her trust fund, but no. He's as oblivious as Vince. He's lucky he's pretty. They have no idea what little miss priss has been doing behind their backs. They would be livid. She didn't sign a prenup, so technically what she has is Hunter's, although he doesn't seem to want it. He just wants out. And talking about you, he kept saying something to the effect of she's with Mickey."
"He just assumed that since he was doing what he did that I had to be back with Mickey." Charlotte huffed. "Does everyone sleep with everyone in this company? It's like a free for all."
"You're one to talk. You had Hunter and Adam on the line until you went with Hunter. Superior choice, I might add."
"After all this you think so?"
"Definitely. Adam is gorgeous that hair, that body, that sweet smile..."
"I'm not hearing the positives to choosing Hunter..."
"He's flawed, aggressive, intense, and damn..."
"Okay." Charlotte stopped her. "I get it."
"You and Adam were never going to work. He's too green. You're young, but you've been through things. He would never understand you the way Hunter does."
"Hunter doesn't understand me, obviously. He's been lying to my face daily."
"How would you have taken it if he'd told the truth upfront?" Silence befell them and Ivory kept going. "I have no reason to defend him, God knows we're far from friends, but desperation will make you do some strange things. I've never seen that man care about anyone the way he does you."
"So I'm supposed to just forget what he's done because he cares?"
"No. You're supposed to make him pay. He screwed you over, there is no doubt about that, but you also have to remember it could be much worse. His love could be the other kind of love."
"Out of all the things he's done or didn't do, I don't think Hunter would ever do that. I get freaked out over how he is about some things, I think he could really physically hurt someone, but not me. I just hate the way I reacted."
"I'm sure you threw a few things, hopefully. You did throw things, right? Because if you didn't that ruins the effect of a good storm out."
"If you count throwing Stephanie against a wall, then yes, I threw things."
"Oh. This was good. So what else? What are you so ashamed of if you got to stick it to her?"
"I was leaving, I had my bag in hand, and Hunter was begging. He was frantic and I didn't want to hear it, I was walking past him and he grabbed me."
"Grabbed you how?"
"It wasn't like that, he only wanted me to stop and listen to him. He wasn't aggressive, it was more about him just wanting to be heard, but in my mind I just couldn't distinguish between the two."
"Two what?"
"Him begging me to stay and Mickey making me. I just started screaming. I don't even know why, he wasn't hurting me, but for a split second I forgot that he wouldn't and envisioned he could. How can I say that I love someone and think those things about him? What does that say about me?"
"You've been through hell, you're not going to just wake up one morning and decide you're fine and that the trauma doesn't exist. I, for one, think you and Hunter moved at lightening speed. You were new one day and in love the next. I get it that you've known him for a long time, but you don't know this version of him. He's not the same guy he was years ago, I can say that because I've worked with him. The anger, the rage, his hot temper, that wasn't always there. Situations and people change you, but I do agree with you, I don't think he'd ever cross that line not with you or anyone."
"He can be the sweetest person, but there is this part of him that I just don't get to touch. He doesn't always want to talk about things whereas I feel like I'm an open book."
"Does he know that you feel this way?"
"No."
"Then you're not as open as you think either. Love is so messy, it can be wonderful, I hear, but you have to go through the bad parts to appreciate the good. That man believes in you. He believes so much he talked his ex into training you."
"How can I even face her? When everything happened, I admit, I was in the wrong. We both were. I knew he had a girlfriend, but I wanted what I wanted. I'm glad we didn't sleep together then, but it could have happened. I wouldn't have stopped it. That makes me a horrible person. And then to make matters worse I show up where they both work and constantly throw it in her face that he's in love with me."
"Chyna made her peace with what happened between you and Hunter. She's had two years to sort out her feelings. This is so overwhelming for you because you're just now finding out, and being last to know absolutely stinks. I don't think she would have befriended you if she harbored any resentment."
"I just hate the way it makes me feel. I feel dirty and like I did something wrong by just allowing myself to fall in love and be loved. I've always felt that way about love, like mine was a burden, but never with Hunter until now. I don't know how to make this feeling go away."
"You're going to be upset for a while. Truth is, he deceived you. Whether it was intentional or just in a protective nature, he was definitely wrong. You should have known all the details before he went there with you. For that he deserves your anger."
"Good, because I'm so angry. It sounds bad, but I want him to feel what I do. He needs to know what it's like to have someone you care so deeply about make you feel like your feelings just don't matter."
"If we're being honest, I don't think it was that they didn't matter. I think it's that he—like you—is new to what a real relationship consists of. You guys have been through so many bad ones you completely dismantled the good one in record time."
"What we have—"
"Is special. I look at the way he cares for you and am in awe of how quickly he can go from that asshole onscreen to searching the entire backstage for his girlfriend. And it's not even a possessive thing. He's just wanting to share those moments. When his adrenaline is so high and he's completely pumped the first thing he wants is to lay eyes on you. Sometimes he doesn't even approach you. He could see you talking to one of the girls and gets this goofy grin as he just looks on from afar."
Charlotte didn't know he did that. He'd find her, but she thought it was just to know where she was. They'd spent every night together since that first time he'd come into her shower. As mad as she was, she couldn't deny it was good to hear. She always looked for him too. He was the first person she wanted to share her moments with.
"He cares, I know that..."
"He loves you. He just has a stupid way of handling conflict. And you run."
"I don't run."
"You're in Seattle instead of Connecticut ripping him and Billionaire Barbie to shreds. You run, honey, and that's okay. But what are you going to do when you have to face them both at work?"
"She's not involved in the company that way."
"Who do you think pitches angles to creative? She stays in their ear because Shane and Vince don't let her do anything else. They really don't know how often she contacts them."
Charlotte's heart slammed in her chest. Stephanie had been responsible for bringing Mickey that night. She'd also orchestrated the Edge onscreen romance, Charlotte was sure of it.
"How do you know so much about everything and everyone?"
"I'm the person people ignore a lot. I'm not important in the company, so they don't think doing or saying things around me matters. I hear and see so much and speak nothing."
"But you're telling me."
"Because you are one of the few people who are worth protecting. I was such a bitch to you, I really had no reason, but when I saw you that night when your ex showed up I knew I'd been wrong. That night also changed my mind about Hunter, I knew his situation and thought he just wanted to sleep around with random women until he could get rid of Stephanie, but that night he could have lost everything and didn't care. He did that for you. So take your time, go through the emotions, be angry, but don't forget."
"He's been a part of my life for so long in one capacity or another, but I just don't know when this hurt and anger is going to fade. I just feel like this fire is coursing through me and I don't know how to extinguish it."
"Then don't. Use that fire and apply it to what you can control right now. You have probably one of the biggest matches of your career coming up, use that anger to motivate you to give the best performance you can."
"I feel bad about it. Here I am, in the business less than a year, and I'm in a pay per view but you don't even have matches on Raw regularly."
"One thing, never feel bad for shining. I know I said some things before, but you deserve the place you're in. You put in the work and you're constantly evolving. Do I wish the rest of could come with you? Yes. But I'm old enough to understand that it's not your fault."
"That's the thing, I don't want to be the shining star. I want to be in a group of shining stars. Yes, I want to continue to be one of the best and take myself to new extremes, but I don't want to be the only one. I want us all there. Without you guys I wouldn't exist. You did all the things I wouldn't do and paved the way for me to stand my ground and feel confident. I feel as if I owe it to you guys to give you that same feeling. If I don't stand up for you the way you're doing for me right now then I don't deserve to be anyone's star."
"Well, you seem to have the upper hand. Because that stunt Stephanie pulled with Mickey could have been catastrophic, and she knew it. Now you know and I hope you use this information wisely."
"I've never been the type of person to seek vengeance, but then again I've never had my life blown apart to this magnitude by people who are supposed to love me either."
"I'm not saying go unibomber and kill them all, but you aren't required to forgive them on anyone's timetable but your own."
"It won't be anytime soon."
"That's ok. Now, listen, I know you and Hunter have been joined at the hip since you began this relationship, but if you need to travel with someone I guess I can make an exception and take you with me."
"You'd do that?"
"You're not so bad. I can stand to have you around if it helps."
"It helps."
Ivory pulled into her yard, and Charlotte sighed. It was raining. They'd spend the night there, talking and having a nice dinner. Her phone rang the majority of the time she was there. She didn't answer, she just let it ring. Her dad, Chyna, even Adam called wondering where she was, but nothing from Hunter. She'd asked for space, but she expected him to at least call.
He never did.
The next day the girls were up early and headed to the airport. Smackdown in Connecticut. A Smackdown where she'd have to wrestle Lita and sit ringside for Edge while he and The Undertaker faced off. At least she didn't have to be near Hunter and pretend like she didn't want to castrate him. Maybe the night would go great. As long as Stephanie stayed far away from her.