Masked//Roman Reigns Love Story

22. Bloodline

Thursday, November 14,2013
2:48p.m.

"I just got off the phone with Vince."

Mark came into my bedroom with a small, sympathetic smile as he looked over at me lying in the bed. My foot in a cast, looking pathetic. I turned the volume down on the television and sat up in the bed with my back against the black headboard.

"What'd you guys talk about?"

A sigh escaped his lips and he already looked defeated. My eyes followed him as he sat himself at the edge of the bed and faced towards me. "We don't think it's safe for you to wrestle anymore."

My heart began to race almost as fast as it did when I was fighting for my life. I spent years training to be perfect for WWE. There were so many restless nights from catching the bus back from Maryland or New Jersey back to Philly after late night wrestling shows. There were so many times I'd been put down during training, being surrounded by a bunch or strong, talented guys that thought I was too weak to ever make it anywhere big. I cried so many tears from not improving as fast as I wanted. So many ice baths, so many torn muscles, so much time away from my family and friends. All for just fifteen minutes of fame?

"Why? What do you mean? The doctor said once I healed I should be cleared. Did he tell you something different?"

"No, it's not your ankle we're worried about, it's your safety. It's the fact that people can get easy access to what city you'll be traveling to and when. We still don't know if this attack was something personal, but we have to believe it was and take caution. For the next couple of months you just need to take cover and lay low," he said.

"No!" I scoffed. "Absolutely not."

"What do you mean 'no'? It's for your safety!" he yelled.

"You think that keeping me locked up in the house is gonna help at all? If anything, it'll just lead the person that tried to kill me right here. He'll get me, he'll get your wife, and he'll get your daughter—"

"Don't talk like that!"

"Then don't talk about me not wrestling. That's not fair to me. You're going to make me stop doing something I love because of someone else's decisions?" I cried out.

I wanted to wrestle. I wanted to strengthen the Divas division and get us more opportunities to go out and shine. We earned that. I wanted us to have table matches, two out of three falls matches, I wanted us to have WrestleMania main event matches. I wanted us to be equal to the men, if not better. I wanted to become champion and establish myself as not only the best women's wrestler to step foot in that ring, but one of the best of all time, male or female.

"Wrestling is all I have, Mark. I'm just not willing to give it up, not now anyways," I whispered.

My uncle let out another sigh, this time it was louder. Mark and Vince were just as stubborn as I could be if not more. But they were going to have to see this my way. If anyone understood how much wrestling meant to me, it should've been Mark. His career meant everything to him, regardless of what he'd say out loud, he put wrestling first. He loved wrestling, every aspect of it. He understood my passion because he had it himself. He understood my drive and my work ethic because I got it from him. I needed WWE like he needed it.

"I don't want to take your career from you. Ending something like this should be a choice you choose to make many, many years down the road. That's how I'd want it for you," he began but I knew there was going to be a but.

"But you want me to be safe," I said.

"Maria, you have to understand that you're not a normal girl. You've been through a lot, seen a lot, done a lot. You've made a lot of enemies. With this job, those enemies have easy access to you and I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here anymore..."