Destiny

Chapter 8: A painful memory

She wakes up a few minutes later in a locker room that is not hers. Realizes that she really fell asleep from fatigue when Taker held her in the ring in the dark. She's ashamed to think that maybe she missed the last attempt. She looks around, analyzing which dressing room she might be in. She realizes she's in Taker's locker room when she saw his big dress, lying on top of her like a blanket, she looks at the shower door, he's probably inside since she can hear the shower flows. She gets up slowly to get out of his locker room to take a good shower too.

Lini can be proud of her, she had a great night, the fans loved it but on the one hand she's afraid that Taker will make another remark to her about the fact that she fell asleep. When she's finished taking her shower, she wraps her towel around her, goes to her bag to get dressed, exhausted. So exhausted that she didn't hear anyone enter, turning her back on this person, she went to take off her towel. "Impressive"

Lini frightened by hearing it, she grabs her towel so as not to fall, turns around and sees Taker. freshly showered, dressed in a dark gray sweater, jeans hugging his muscular thighs, a black bandana on his forehead, his hands behind his back. Embarrassed at being half-naked in front of him, she grabbed her things and ran into the shower, hiding behind the wall. Taker amused, he walks over to a chair near Lini's bag and sits down. "I've seen a naked woman before, Rookie". Said Taker amused that she was so embarrassed, Lini doesn't remember he was there before her shower. She came to, staring directly above her head from the shower room. "What... what are you doing here?" She says.

"To talk to you since you left my locker room in a hurry so I came". Said Taker pulling his legs out in front of him and crossing his muscular arms.

"O...Okay but let...let me get dressed." she said before closing the bathroom door. While Lini dresses in the shower room, Taker waits patiently, sitting in the chair, hands clasped, head bowed, thinking. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a photo in one of Lini's boots. He takes a kind of Polaroid, it's Lini and... a man, her husband? I've seen him somewhere before.. thought Taker.

The man looks familiar to him but where did he see him?. Lini comes out of the shower room and sees Taker looking at the picture she takes of her and Josh with her. She sits next to him. "He is your husband?" Asked Taker looking at her, calmly hands her the photo. "Yes...well...was.." She said calmly, Taker nodded thinking he understood she was in the process of a recent divorce but what she's going to say will change his mind.

"He was killed outside a donut shop two years ago.." She said sadly. Lini keeps staring at the picture of her and Josh, missing him terribly. She looks at Taker and realizes his eyes are blank and it looks like he saw a ghost, she wonders what is happening to him. Worried, she touched his arm but he stood up abruptly, which frightened her, his gaze becoming cold and intimidating before leaving her locker room. Lini sits wondering what is happening to her. why did he react like that?

~!~

Taker is sitting in the corner of his hotel room, a bottle of whiskey in his hand. For two long years he tried to remove these images from his head, he concentrated in his work to forget this event. He holds his head, grimacing when he begins to have a violent headache. Why does life do this to him? the Rookie is perhaps the answer to his questions that he has been asking himself for two years? he wondered. He finishes his bottle in one go when his bottle was half full, wipes his mouth with his forearm then suddenly throws his empty bottle violently against the wall.

~!~

The next morning, Lini gets up and prepares to catch her next plane for the next non-televised show. And Lini is very enthusiastic because it is in her city where she is going and today is a big day because it is the birthday of her daughter who is 5 years old. When she arrives home, she runs to her daughter to give her a huge hug and wish her a happy birthday. Agnes didn't think her mother would be home today, but what Lini is telling her is going to make her immensely happy. " You know what honey? Tonight, you're going to accompany me to work, you're going to see me wrestle in real life and... maybe see your idol." Said Lini to Agnes, smiling at her.

"yay!!!"

She hugs her mom for this gift, she dreams of seeing her mom wrestle in real life. Lini had never accepted her daughter being ringside or in the locker room before because she was afraid of losing her. But with Will who will watch her, she is reassured so decided to give her this gift for her birthday. Will returns to the living room and brings Lini a bouquet of flowers for her homecoming. She hugged him and thanked him for this intention and went to Agnes to give her presents for her birthday who hastened to open them.

~!~

Taker remained silent during the trip which was not like him. He wore a gray shirt underneath his long coat, wearing his sunglasses even though the weather was rainy, hiding his tired eyes. The rest of the Ministry's car parked in front of Taker's house and started packing their bags to head home. Paul parks next to their car, turns off the engine and looks at Taker who still hasn't said a word. he realizes that Taker has his eyes on Mideon who is warmly welcomed by Lona, she is very close to him because he takes care of her more than her own father.

Her dad was a smiling, funny man who liked to come home to take care of his family despite his job which takes him almost all week. Lona liked to sing little songs with her dad on the guitar or on the piano. She loves her father but for two years, her father has changed, he is cold as if he no longer had a soul, showing no emotion as if he no longer knew happiness, he is like dead inside. Since the Ministry is here, only Mideon takes care of her and plays with her.

The image of seeing his wife and baby in the morgue still haunts him since he made the connection with Lini's husband, the policeman killed at the same time as them. His character is his shell to protect himself from these thoughts and to stop thinking about the incompetence of the police on the case that drove him crazy. Even today the murderer is still in the wild, he promised to do justice even if he finds out who did it. He ignores Paul and gets out of the car, without his luggage, hands in his pockets, head down, paying no attention to the rain falling on him and heads home. Wanting to stay alone until evening.