Checks & Championships

24.

"Yeah that's right." Rachelle says and I adjust the title on my shoulder. 

"Last time I checked though, you two don't have the best track record as far as being a tag team." I say and Dakota and Tegan roll their eyes and shake their heads. 

"That was ages ago. We are taking you up on that challenge tonight and you will kiss those titles goodbye." Dakota says. 

"See you then." I say and walk off with Rachelle and before I enter the locker room, I see Roman talking with Paul and Jey. He looks up and winks at me and I bite my lip at him. His eyes darken a little and I wink at him before entering the locker room. 

//Flashback//

Marlana's P.O.V

"No, Galina. You don't get to keep my kids away from me!" I hear Roman yell as I walk into the apartment. "I don't care, they are my kids too!" He continues to yell on the phone. 

I walk into the bedroom and lean against the door frame. "It doesn't matter how you feel because once the divorce is final, you won't have a choice BUT to give me my kids when it's my turn." He says and throws the phone on the dresser. 

"Roman." I call out to him and he quickly turns around. "How much did you hear?" He asks me and I just open my arms out to him. "Come here." I tell him and he hesitates before walking over to me. 

I wrap my arms around him and he hugs me back tightly. "I don't know what I am doing wrong." He says and releases my body, standing up and walking over to the bed and sitting down.

"You aren't doing anything wrong. You are doing the best that you can." I say and squat down in front of him. "Hey, look at me." I tell him and move his face to meet my eyes. "You are a great father. You are good person. This will just take time." I say and stand up, placing my hands on his face. "Trust me I know, I had to deal with it as a child when my parents got divorced." I tell him and he brings his hand up to my wrist and turns it, placing a kiss. 

"I didn't know you went through that." He tells me and I nod and flashbacks of my childhood enter my brain. 

"Yeah, I was 13 when it happened." I tell him and his eyes have soften since his phone call. "I can tell you about it if you want?" I ask him and he nods so I sit down 

"I've suppressed a lot of it for years just because of the relationship fallout with my mom." I tell him and he looks at me. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Roman tells me and I debate it for a minute but decided I needed to tell him. 

"No, it's okay. I'll tell you." I say and he lays down next to me while I sat  with my legs crossed. "At the start of it, I didn't really understand, just because I was so young, but over time I realized what happened and had to grow up a whole lot earlier than what my dad would have wanted. I was 13 and we were put in foster care because someone had called child services on us and my dad worked many jobs just to get us back while my mom stayed back and partied and got with the man she is currently with now. She never went to any of the classes recommended while my dad busted his ass." I stop for a minute to take a breath because I hadn't realized how much of this I had actually suppressed. 

"My dad eventually got us back. It took him 2 years, and as soon as we were back, my mom wanted to see us. I was 15 at the time and was happy to be home. I love my mom, I do, but as I got older I had found out that in the midst of the divorce, she brought us to our dad's and said she didn't want to be a mom. She just wanted to have fun." 

Roman sits up a little bit and starts rubbing my back, and I'm glad he did because I could feel my anxiety building up. "Once I started realizing just how shitty my my mother was, I started distancing myself from her, and formed a wonderful relationship with my stepmother. She took all 5 of us in when she didn't have to, she knew my dad had a lot of kids, but she didn't care. She actually showed me what it was like to have a mother."