After Shine [despues de brillar]

Danika October 18, 2022

"I'm at your house now." She grumbled into the phone. Damian had called her to check his mail at his rental house in Tampa. Honestly at this point he should just move in with them full time because the bulk of his belongings were scattered all over Danika and Dominik's house anyways. "Who leaves a spare key under the welcome mat? It's like you're asking to be robbed." She murmured as she retrieved the key. On the other end of the phone the man in question chuckled good naturedly. She'd been collecting his mail once a week since she'd gotten out of the hospital. Between that and spending every Tuesday-Thursday on the road or flying around the world to be with AEW or RAW on taping nights, as well as working out in Tampa regularly, she stayed tired.

"Coming up on almost two months for Ángel, how are you feeling, Mami?" He wondered as she turned the key in the lock and nearly tripped over all the mail that had been pushed through the mail slot in the last nine days since she'd been there. She kicked haphazardly at a package that she was sure was for Lainey, because Luis Martinez had absolute shit impulse control when it came to her oldest daughter.

"Good, the work outs in Jacksonville are helping me feel more normal. Not to mention the huge increase of followers is always nice." She picked up the mail carefully, nudged the package out of her way, and headed into the house to the kitchen counter. She spread the mail out, "Looking for bills and official mail right, no credit card ads or other junk mail."

"Right, mamacita." He hummed.

She flipped through the mail, "Some fan letters, how do they have your address? Ah, here's the electric bill, your cell phone bill, the water... hm." She gazed down at the large brown currier envelope in her hands marked confidential from the Department of Justice in Atlanta, Georgia. "Did you ever get in legal trouble in Atlanta, like ever?"

"No." Damian grumbled, "Why?"

"You got a confidential letter from the DoJ in ATL."

"Well, open it." He encouraged her, she could tell he was curious himself.

She rolled her eyes, "Opening confidential mail is wifey level shit."

"You've been opening and paying my bills for the last month." He deadpanned.

She pursed her lips, "Yeah but I do that for Demi, too." Which was true because she picked Rhea's mail up once a week from the post office box the woman had in Tampa Bay, she'd also been paying Rhea's bills for her when the Superstar was on the verge of being late for something, Danika would just handle it and let Rhea give Dominik the money back, if they were all going to stay together like this (and she was hoping they were) she was going to start pushing for a joint account that all the four adults bills could come out of.

"Babe, I have absolutely nothing to hide from you. Whatever it is, I'd have told you anyway. Just open it Danika, the suspense is killing me." He sounded like he was pleading so she tore into the envelope, "Please read it out loud..." He said a few minutes later, Danika had been staring at the extremely legal and binding document in her hands. Shaking slightly as she looked down at the ink, this was something she'd seen before - something that had changed Dominik's life completely.

"Luis, it's a petition for genetic testing for paternity." She hoped her voice didn't crack.

"What?" He sounded back loudly, charged with disbelief.

"Let me read." She grumbled at him, "You're being requested to give a DNA sample to compare to a boy, three, whose mother claimed you were the boys father on the birth certificate and her suicide note..." She trailed off, "He's apparently in foster care and it sounds like his mother had drug problems before her death..." she continued reading, "He maybe suffers from mutism or selective mutism they aren't sure. You had fourteen days to respond to this nine days ago."