Destiny

Chapter 44: A necessary explanation

They did it. They are both champions, Lini looks at her champion title which is placed on her knees, smiling. She watches the TV which shows Taker returning to the locker room, full of blood and sweat. She's ready for the curtains with the kids waiting for Taker to come back, the kids running towards Taker when he walks through the curtains. Lini smiled as she limped from her thigh injury towards them, her title on her shoulder. Taker drops to one knee in front of his daughter, staring at her without emotion. She remembers what she did at triple h earlier, she couldn't help it, she didn't accept that her daddy was treated like this in front of her. She looks down, not wanting to meet her father's cold gaze but she feels something heavy resting on her shoulder. Lona looks at her shoulder and sees her dad's title, she looks at her dad who gave her a little smile before ruffling her red hair and getting up. She smiles at her dad who leaves to get treatment for his head injuries from his terrible match.

~!~

The road back to the hotel was very good, the girls sang "We are the champion" all along the road, very happy that their parents won, Agnes still wears her mother's belt while Lona wears the one of his dad. They went to get a pepperoni pizza before going back to the hotel, they ate while watching TV.

After a few minutes, Taker looks at Lini who is still eating then looks back before looking back at Lini. "You wrestled well despite your injury" Taker admits finishing eating his pizza, Lini looks at him, smiles at him. She suddenly remembers what Taker did before her match, the strange behavior he had when he saw her on the phone with Will. Since her hospitalization, she has never seen him like that, why he hit Will and why he doesn't want him to call her when he's her friend? She looks behind her and sees the children falling asleep in the bed before looking at Taker who is drinking his coke.

"Taker, why do you react badly when my friend Will calls me or like the other day at the hospital, you put him down?" She asked looking at him, Taker looks at her then looks at the children sleeping peacefully. He puts his coke on the table and goes with her to the balcony to talk about it quietly, they sit on the bench, Taker takes a breath of air. "I think Will has something to do with the case..." he admitted looking into her eyes, Lini frowning wondering why he thought that. Will has always been a great friend to Josh and her, he takes care of Agnès, he is kind, gentle and caring. "But..Why do you think that?" she asked. In truth, there are two reasons, the first is that Taker has doubts about Will because everything reads it and the second is that for one reason or another, he does not want Lini to be close to him, he does not know if it's because there are suspicions about him or...is he developing feelings for her?

"Everything against him, the van, your husband, your house, the phone calls, the robot portrait. I don't know but it's a bit too much" He said looking at her, putting his elbows on his knees. "But he would never have done that. Josh was his best friend, the van yes by coincidence, it was stolen when he went to wash it at the car wash and then...it's coincidences, he didn't would never have done that, not to Josh or to me." She said sincerely, trying to convince Taker but he didn't seem to be convinced. "And then, I remind you that if he hadn't been there, I would have exploded with my house." She added. Taker stands up, puts his hands against the railing, looking down. "Another coincidence isn't it? Too much coincidence Lini. And the murderer knew your address." He finally said without looking at Lini. She gets up from the bench, stands next to Taker, puts her arms around his arm resting her head against his shoulder. "I know there's a lot of coincidence but I'm sure he would never hurt josh or me." She says closing her eyes, a tear silently runs down her cheek.

~!~

After a few minutes of discussion on the balcony, Lini and Taker enter the room where the children are still sleeping. Lini takes her daughter who wakes up briefly before going back to sleep, resting her head on her mother's shoulder. She leaves the room with her daughter, her bag and her belt, leaving Taker and Lona in their room. Taker rolls over, leaning his back against the door, watching Lona sleep on the bed. Then go to the bathroom to change, putting on a black t-shirt with boxer shorts and then gray jogging. He turned off the bathroom light before going to bed, he looked at his sleeping daughter leaning his head against his arm. He ran his hand through her beautiful red hair, looking at her proudly. He hasn't been the best dad lately, he's been distant for years, his focus was on his job to escape his emotions over the tragic loss of his family. He knows that Lona thinks her mother and brother just left without thinking about death, he told her that they left but can't come back. He knows that Lona deserves to know where her mother and her brother really are, but on the one hand, he doesn't want to see her sad, he doesn't want to see her cry. He wants to protect her from that.