Training Stephanie

The Decision

Stephanie lay on that disgusting mattress all night long, tossing and turning, turning and tossing.

Sleep? What was that?

As the night grew shorter, Stephanie knew that this crazed and demented man, whom she foolishly mistook for a friend, was going to — oh, she didn't even want to think about it, but she just couldn't help herself.

She was angry, she was hurt, and the worst part of all this was, there wasn't a damn thing she could do about any of this.

The dark night sky quickly turned into bright early morning, and Stephanie knew that her time was drawing closer and closer.

She just kept thinking over and over again, "Why me?"

What could she or her father have possibly done to Mark to make him victimize her like this?

Stephanie knew that her father wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, however, when Mark or anyone else really needed anything, Vince was always there to help.

The man that people saw on TV versus the real Vince McMahon behind the scenes was a completely different person.

And Stephanie guessed the same thing could be said about Mark, as well.

One moment he was being nice to her, laughing with her, someone whom Stephanie honestly thought that she could draw friendly conversation out of every now and again, then the next, he was stalking her every move, invading her privacy, and even kidnapping her!

Had she unknowingly spurned some kind of sexual advancement that he may have made that she wasn't aware of... or had this been the plan all along?

Stephanie really couldn't put anything past Mark. This was the same man who had caused his own brother's face to be permanently disfigured.

Stephanie's poor mind was plagued with anguishing questions.

What would happen to her family if she was no longer a part of it? Would her friends miss her?

And most importantly, what did Mark have in store for her? If he only wanted sex from her, did that mean he would release her after he got what he wanted?

Going by the angle of the sun, Stephanie estimated that it must have been at least eight or nine in the morning.

She had literally sat up all night, rocking back and forth, worrying herself into oblivion about the what if's of her dire situation.

She thought about trying to yell for help, but she was too afraid of the repercussions that would follow.

She even tried scaling the wall in hopes of reaching the window, but it was too high for her, and she had nothing to latch on to, so those plans for escape fell through, as well.

The only thing in the room was the mattress.

She looked around for the chair that Mark had been sitting in the night before, but he had obviously taken it with him.

There was no way out. Stephanie was trapped.

***

At the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Hartford, Vince and his two best friends, Jerry Briscoe and Pat Patterson, all sat around the hotel suite, sick with despair about what had happened the night before.

Vince couldn't believe that he had been so stupid as to leave Stephanie with those goofy cops just in order to make things right with Austin, when his priorities should have been with his daughter.

Linda, being consoled by Pat, was completely grief-stricken, rocking back and forth on the bed, confused, hurt, startled that her only daughter had been kidnapped by someone the family had trusted, not just as an employee, but as a friend, as well.

What would Mark do to Stephanie and why was he doing all this? What point was he trying to make?

Over the past few weeks, Linda had noticed a severe transformation in Mark, one that was indescribably evil.

She had warned the board of directors about Mark's erratic behavior turning psychotic on several different occasions, however, all had warned against actually taking action against him, since the ratings and advertising for the show seemed to skyrocket while Mark was on top, so she leaned away from her suspicions.

But now, things had taken the ultimate turn for the worst, and it was causing she and Vince's one and only daughter everything.

"Vince, I think you ought to call the cops, the FBI, or something, Vince," said Pat in a voice packed with urgency. Vince, about to speak, was cut off by him once again.

"No, no, Vince, listen. I know that you want to do things his way, but doing things his way has gotten us absolutely nowhere. Look at what's happened to Stephanie, and Vince, that's my goddaughter. I want to see her back safe and sound just like you and Linda, and in order to do that, we've got to call the proper authorities."

Vince, looking at Linda and the pain that she was in, then turning to look at Briscoe, who had the same amount of concern as everyone else, knew that what Pat was saying was absolutely true, but he honestly just didn't want to involve the cops at all.

Mark was already off the hinges, and God only knew what he would do to Stephanie if they dared to get law enforcement involved in all of this.

"No, no. Let's do things his way, ok? You've seen what he's done to the Bossman, what's he's done to Ryan Shamrock, let's just ..."

Just then, a knock at the door interrupted Vince's sentence.

Rising from the bed, Vince let out an audible sigh, before walking to the hotel room's door and veering out the small peephole. And standing outside his hotel room was exactly whom he thought it would be.

Opening the door, Vince then greeted Matthew, his attorney, into the room.

"Vince, I'm sorry we have to meet under these stringent types of conditions," said Matthew, who was exceptionally good looking, with blonde hair, green eyes, and just enough facial hair to still look the part of a poised professional.

"Yeah, I know. Come in," Vince said in a husky voice, which suggested that he hadn't slept much since this whole fiasco between he and Mark began.

Matthew, entering the room, sat down at the table which separated the bedroom and the living room in the hotel's suite. Vince, looking on sternly as Matthew brought his briefcase up to his lap, asked seriously, "Do you have the papers?"

Matthew, letting out a sad sigh of his own, replied, "Yeah, Vince. They're right here."

Vince nodded slowly, "Good, good."

That's when Linda finally spoke up. "No, Vince, I cannot allow you to do this. What will happen to the family if you give up your majority share of the company? There must be another way."

Vince, wishing to God that there was another way out of this mess, remarked to his wife, "Linda, what other choice do we have? Huh? What other choice do we have? I have racked my brain over and over and over again, and nothing has come of it.

I'm at wit's end. I'm doing what I know will get our daughter back.

As far as this company goes, well, Linda, you'll still have minority interest. Mark will have the majority. We'll just have to cross that bridge whenever we get to it. Until then, our number one priority right now is getting Stephanie back."

Vince, looking around the room for opposition, received none.

Linda, with tears steamrolling down her face, simply nodded and bowed her head, completely uncertain of what the future had in store for their family as a whole.

Reassuring his wife lovingly, Vince then sat next to Matthew and asked poignantly, "Now, where do I sign?"