Breakdown 5-16-24 #2
{{ Thursday, March 28
Gretna, LA
Josh’s condo }}
Today has been one hell of a day and most of it is my doing.
After Dom and I had court the other day and he then went to Santa Monica, we spoke on the phone. He asked me when did I think was a good time to make a public statement. I honestly hadn’t thought about it, and asked why he brought it up. Apparently Lisa and some of the studio execs thought it would be best as soon as possible, before their filming starts, so that the media fracas would die down before they got to work. I suggested waiting until after our final court date, but Dom thought that was too long, it was just a week or so before they started. The more we talked the more I realized I didn’t actually care, so I suggested why not today? This seemed to be the reply he had been looking for all along, and he asked me to do it, since he hadn’t been on social media in months. That was a valid point, so I agreed. We went over wording and early this afternoon I made the post.
Roughly five minutes later the internet went bonkers. Dom had been right; all the articles put the blame fully at his feet, despite the fact that I wrote it was a mutual decision. I only clicked around for a few minutes before I had enough. I am woman enough to admit that I am equally to blame as he is, and it made me feel bad, or guilty in some way, to see him get talked about that way. If they knew the truth about what I did? They’d be just as harsh on me, I know it.
I finished up at BOA, and I didn’t want to go home alone. I asked Josh if I could go home with him. He gave me a look as if I’d asked if the sky was blue.
So, here we are at his condo. Both the babies are here with us. I keep calling them ‘the babies,’ I have to remind myself that Heath is closing in on two and Jalyn is only a few months behind. Oh who am I kidding? I’ll probably be calling them ‘the babies’ when they’re grown. Anyway, it’s evening and we’re settling down with dinner to watch Breakdown. Josh made what he called comfort food, which for him was a cheesy chicken pasta dish. We’re all on the floor around his coffee table, I’m making sure Heath eats and doesn’t make a mess, while Josh attends to Jalyn. It’s still a few minutes before Breakdown starts when my phone starts dinging again, the Google Alert sound. It pings when news with my name comes out.
“Gods, now what?”
“Ignore it.”
“You know I can’t do that, babe.”
“Yes you can. It’s easy. Just silence your phone.”
“But I already heard it. I won’t be able to relax until I see what it is.” It would be more accurate to say, I would be a nervous wreck until I saw it. The way Josh looks at me tells me he read between my lines.
“Okay. I give in. What is it?”
I take a deep breath and open my phone. My name is all over the articles but they aren’t about me. They’re about Dom… and the fact a paparazzo finally managed to get a picture of the face of the woman he’s been seeing, and it’s very clearly Robin. She’s named and described, too. Everything clicked immediately.
“Shit. He knew.” I hand my phone to Josh to read. “That’s why he wanted me to say something today.”
“Looks like it.” Josh hands me my phone back. “Are you okay?”
I stare at the links til the letters go blurry. “I don’t know. Obviously I already knew about her. But I really hate how they’re making him sound like a scumbag.”
“It is pretty intense.”
“I mean yeah, it was wrong. But it’s not like... like… this!” I wave my phone, indicating the articles. I then open my texts and fire one off to Dom.
“[You knew. Why didn’t you tell me?]”
“Isn’t it, though? To the public? From what I’ve read, he had a reputation before you.”
I shake my head. “Yeah, but people change, babe.”
“I hate to break it to you sweetness, but it’s pretty obvious he really didn’t.”
I stare down at the article links again. Maybe Josh is right. Dom was never the man I thought he was, he just tried to be for me. Or pretended. I push that away though, I don’t want that to be true. My phone buzzes in my hand, Dom replied. I write back immediately.
“[Yeah, I did. I thought if you knew you wouldn’t do it.]”
“[I would have. There’s no reason not to. Just would like to have known.]”
“[I’m sorry.]”
I scoff and lower my hand, closing the screen. Josh takes the phone from my hand, and sets it down on the coffee table, face down and out of my reach.
“I know what you’re really upset about.”
“You do?” What, that it’s dawning on me that the last few years of my life were a cover story, or a lie?
“You’re reading all the shit talk about him, thinking that if they knew everything, they’d do the same to you.”
“That’s some of it, yeah.”
“What’s the rest of it?”
I shake my head. I don’t want to tell him. It can’t be true. I am not that oblivious.
“Bree?”
“Can we just watch Breakdown now? It’s started.”
Josh sighs, but nods then turns on the TV. It’s only a few minutes into the show so we haven’t missed much. Heath smiles when he sees what’s on. Jalyn watches with interest. The first thing I hear fully is that CHBK has suspended Kandis because of how she acted at the end of Retribution. I never thought I’d say this, but I think she was justified. Selena Frost is clearly running some kind of under-the-table scheme to protect herself. I shake my head at the TV. I’ve never liked her and it warms my heart to see that the rest of the world has finally caught up. I glare the whole time she speaks.
“That woman is so full of shit, her eyes are turning brown.”
“I’m glad you agree.” Josh has had his run-ins with her too over his career. She seems to have a lot of enemies.
We keep watching as we finish dinner. Heath ate most of his portion, but Jalyn gave up. I don’t think she liked the cheese. During a commercial Josh takes the plates to the kitchen and I got the babies up on the couch. He sits next to me and Jalyn crawls into his lap. Heath is next to me, leaning on the arm rest.
About halfway through the show, Breakdown returns from commercial featuring Sharper and Knots. As soon as I hear my name, I am not surprised as they mention my tweet. Knots though has the memory of a goldfish, as he called Dom my fiancé.
“Come on Jon, you were at the damn wedding!” Josh just snickers.
The guys then bring up Simon, and my mood is ruined again. Just when I was starting to forget things. Apparently he asked to appear on satellite…? Then the feed comes up, and I nearly jump off the couch.
“What the fuck is he doing?!” It’s not like me to swear in front of the babies, but Simon is standing in front of my house!
“That piece of shit motherfucker!”
I watch in abject horror as Simon somehow gets inside, after insinuating that he gained access through the gate by information from Amy. He must have known her gate code. Goddammit! Josh sets Jalyn to his side and starts to get up.
“I’m going over there.”
“No you’re not!”
“Bree, he’s literally in your house going through your shit!”
“And they’ll be gone by the time you get there! And even if they weren’t… is it really a good idea for you to show up on live television in my defense, today?”
Josh sits back slowly. “Dammit. You have a point. Okay then, I’m calling the police.”
“Stop, they won’t be there fast enough either. But all of this is on film, I’ll just have him charged lat— Ohmygods he’s in my bedroom!!”
“You were saying?” Josh waves his phone. Mine rings. Josh slides it to me and I see it’s Dom.
“Dom--"
“Please tell me you’re actually not home right now.”
“No, we're not. But I am watching, and—"
“Thank fuck. Never thought I’d be so happy to know you’re over there.”
I decide to ignore that. “I appreciate you checking, but I have to ask… why were you even watching?”
“To be honest, I wasn’t. Lisa called, someone informed her.”
“Oh. Well, you can thank her for me.”
“Sure. Are you calling the police?”
I speak without thinking. “Josh wants to, but they won’t get there before Simon leaves.”
“Oh.” I then realize what I did, confirmed where I am. “I guess that’s a good point.”
Paying attention to the TV, I see Dylan Howell of all people also there. This keeps getting worse. My phone dings in my ear. I glance at the screen.
“Dom, I have to go, someone from SCW is calling me.”
“Keep me posted.”
“I will.”
I tap the screen twice, and speak.
“This is Bree.”
A male voice speaks. “Ms. Lancaster, this is Mike from SCW security. I’ll assume you’re aware of what’s occurring on Breakdown?”
“Yes, I’m watching. I am not at home, me and my son are fine.”
“Good to know. We’d like to know if you want to contact authorities?”
“Not right now. Just save the footage.”
“Ma’am?”
“It doesn’t appear they’ve damaged or stolen anything. I’d like to handle this between him and I myself. I can use the footage as leverage.”
“Are you sure?”
“Quite.” I see Josh looking at me with a smirk.
“Alright… we’ll get you a copy.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the call.”
I end the call and lean back. Heath crawls up next to me, he can tell I’m upset. I hug him as I grin at Josh.
“What’s that smirk for?”
“You’ve been around me too long. Leverage?”
“You seem to forget all the time I spent with Sienna.”
“That… is a fair point.” We both laugh a bit. “However there is one thing I will need to handle myself with that piece of shit.”
“What’s that?”
“He threw my hoodie in the trash. Unforgivable.” The look on his face is dead serious.
“That’s sarcasm. You’re trolling me.”
He tries to keep the look, but breaks after a second or two, snickering.
“It’s scary how well you know me.”
“What I know… is that you have four more just like it in your closet.” A black hoodie is part of Josh’s ring entrance gear. He smirks again, in the most ridiculously attractive way, and for a moment I wish the babies were in bed so I could lean over and kiss that face.
We watch the rest of the show, get the babies to bed, then shower together. That’s become one of our favorite things to do lately. It was the perfect ending to one hell of a crazy day. From my announcing my divorce to the world, to the media, and the picture of Dom and Robin – which cleared Amanda’s name, I know she’ll be relieved – then Simon’s garbage…. A hot, steamy shower with this beautiful man is exactly what I needed to wash the stress away.
I knew it was temporary, and things are still going to get worse before they get better. But for that half hour… I could believe that life was absolutely perfect.
ON CAMERA
I am going to say something that I never thought I would say publicly, but it needs to be acknowledged.
I think Kandis right, and she’s on to something about Selena Frost.
I know, I know. She and I are not known to be acquaintances, much less allies. But she’s been screaming from the rooftops since Selena returned that something was off about it all. At first I wasn’t too sure, it could have been just sour grapes, right?
But the more Selena spoke, and the more she acted, the truth began to reveal itself. This week is no different. I have no idea what I did or said to get on her radar, but I find myself facing her in Breakdown’s main event, and given the way she’s been allowed to pick and choose her opponents, her officials, and even her own rules… there’s no doubt in my mind that she asked to fight me.
As any SCW Faithful fan knows, there is no love lost between Selena Frost and I. We’ve had some pretty epic battles over the years. I’ve won some, she’s won some. Without fact checking I’d say our record against each other is close to fifty-fifty. Given that Selena knows there is just as much a chance that I will beat her as there is of her beating me, I have to question why she would want this match in the first place, given the lengths she has gone to, to protect herself.
I wonder how much it stung to demand to be the main event again, when she realized that it meant I was also in the main event with her? I still don’t understand what the obsession with match placement is. It must be a Frost thing, because Deanna threw the same tantrum at Rise to Greatness when she and I fought on the pre-show. I wonder which one of them taught the other to be so egotistical?
Oh wait, no I don’t. It was Selena.
Selana Frost has always been one of the most egotistical people in this company. I’ve said it for years. I got a lot of heat for it, accusing the Face of SCW of being even the slightest bit ingenuine. Sometimes, Lux Veritatis takes a while to fully illuminate the truth, when a more gentle, slow revelation is what’s needed for the masses to accept the truth. The light has been growing and growing since Selena returned, and now? I’m putting the spotlight directly over her head.
Selena, I don’t know why you wanted to fight me. We are both champions yet neither is on the line. However I feel the need to reiterate what I said on Breakdown, just in case you somehow missed my comments. Only one of us acting like a champion, and it isn’t you. You’re acting like a petulant child, throwing tantrums that rival my two-year-olds. The fuss you made about the Taking the Leap main event? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were just jealous, because you’ve always thought that you’re better than me.
But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Jealously may be a part of it, but there’s more. You’ve given my niece a message to pass to me, like high school, rather than being woman enough to say it to my face. You’ve demanded your own security and officials. You’ve also demanded that said officials follow every single rule in the book, just to make sure that no one gets one over on you. You’ve had a clause added to all your title match contracts that your challenger can’t touch you or else they forfeit their match. You want zero interference in your matches. You denounced every outside attack, you even wanted Kandis fired for jumping you twice.
Do you know what all of that tells me, Selena?
You’re afraid.
These people have finally, finally seen what I’ve seen for years. You don’t care about them, you only care what they can do for you, to build you up. But they’ve figured that out and let you know how vehemently they disapprove. So you live in fear, every time you walk into an SCW arena. Every time you step into the ring. You are afraid that they’ll see through your last façade…
That you’re not as good as you claim you are.
That's not to say you aren't good at all, clearly you are. You're one of the most decorated in this company. What I mean, is that you think you are so high above everyone else that no one can touch you. But that just isn't true, and furthermore... you know it. If you were, you wouldn’t need all of these accommodations and contract clauses. You would just come to work like rest of us, fight the match given to you like the rest of us, and give everything you have every time the bell rings like the rest of us! Instead of hoping your opponent breaks some antiquated rule that hasn’t been enforced in twenty years and you win on a technicality. You are terrified of being exposed.
Don’t worry, this isn’t the part where I vow to expose you and take you down a few notches, humble you, any of that. Unlike you, I don’t need to put, or hold, others down to lift myself up. I will walk to the ring, confident in my abilities and fight with everything I have, like I always do. I will rise all on my own, just like you will expose yourself, all on your own.
In fact, you’ve already started. For months you’ve done everything you can to have everything done by the book, because you want integrity and honor to surround the World Championship. You’re standing up for respect, right? But then last week you threw all of that out of the window when you slid into the ring during Kandis’ match and attacked her. Not only did you just hand her a W, but you also became the biggest, loudest hypocrite in wrestling.
I hope getting back at her was worth it. Because with that one action, you blew your entire platform since you’ve returned… into dust.
Those dust particles are sparkling in the spotlight that Lux Veritatis has pointed at you. I won’t have to break any rules or rely on someone attacking you from behind, to win. I just have to show up and do what I do best. Wrestle.
The truth always wins, Selena. And the truth is… I may defeat you at Breakdown, or I may not. But neither result will change the truth that I was right about you all along, and now the world sees it.