La Arquitecta

Chapter 62

"Nia's going over tonight, Zelina."

As the words came out of Hunter's mouth, Zelina felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. After all of the pain she had been through with the rib injury over the past five weeks; after all of the sleepless nights worrying about whether Doctor Amann would clear her for TLC when the time came, this was what she got. She had been cleared, barely, only to come and drop the belt. She wanted to walk out of the boss's office and go cry somewhere. But she had to be stronger than that.

"Please don't look so downcast," Hunter said gently. "This isn't a reaction to your injury. The plan was always for you to drop the belt tonight. We have other plans for you."

"What other plans?" Zelina asked, sounding more strident than she had wanted to. Being upset would do that, she thought, deciding not to apologise for it.

"That's for tomorrow night. What I need you to do tonight is put Nia over. You're going to sell like your ribs are still hurt, yet you're competing anyway. It'll give Nia a fairly easy win, but without making you look bad."

Zelina still felt very bitter about the whole thing, especially if her loss was going to be a squash. "It's because Fighting with My Family is old news now, huh? I only had the belt because you wanted promotion."

"No," Hunter assured her firmly. "I didn't book you to be the first Women's Champion just promote the movie. That's not fair. I don't think you can argue that you've had a twelve month period that a lot of women around here would kill for."

She had to admit that was true, and she was very close to stepping over a line. Hunter wasn't someone she should let herself get angry with; only bad things lay down that road. What she had to do was suck it up. The booking decision had been made. She was going to have to do a job for Nia. Kicking up a fuss about it was only going to make it less likely that she would get a second run herself in the future.

"I'm sorry, Hunter," she said after taking a breath. "This just hurts, that's all. But I'll give it my best out there, of course."

"I know it's tough, especially with the injury, but like I said, we do have other plans for you. You're dropping the belt, but we're not casting you aside."

"Am I teaming up with Ronda?" she had to ask. "After the way Hell in a Cell went down, that's what it seems like."

Hunter decided to throw her a bone to make her feel a bit better. "Yes, you're teaming with Ronda. But I can't say anything more until tomorrow night. I don't want this leaking out, understood?"

"Yeah," she confirmed with a nod.

"Alright, you can go." Zelina made it halfway to the door before his voice stopped her and made her look back. "Zelina. There are ups and downs in this business. You've been here more than a year and this is your first down. Take it on the chin."

Reading between the lines, Zelina figured that the message was that she was in danger of losing some standing in his eyes if she didn't do what he said. It was a warning delivered with a smile. "I will," she promised.

Walking out into the hallway, that last little exchange replayed itself in her head. She wondered just how badly she had played the meeting. It had all started so well, with Hunter's heartfelt thanks for the money she had raised with her live stream. But he clearly hadn't been overly impressed with her reaction to news that she was dropping the belt. Part of her regretted not acting differently, but another part said that the news she had gotten had hurt, so why should she pretend otherwise?

Walking back to the locker room, she resolved herself not to give Nia any attitude or to be miserable in front of her. That wouldn't be fair. She was a nice girl, and this was her night to win her first championship. Zelina knew she would feel bad if she did anything to spoil things for Nia. That was the kind of thing Sasha Banks would probably do.