EPILOGUE CHAPTER TWO

"Okay, so you threw the weapon and the other things in the river, then what?"

Marissa stared blankly back at the middle aged police officer. His prematurely greying hair reminded her of her husband a little. Probably ex husband now, she thought, thanks to Stephanie."

"Come on Marissa, just tell us what happened next."

Marissa looked at the other officer who had just spoken and thought, This old bastard has been bombarding me with questions all day. Give me a break would you?

"What do you think happened next?" She eventually replied angrily. "I got the last flight back to New York. I got a couple of hours sleep in the car when I landed and then I drove home first thing in the morning. I sent the sitter home and started to get the kids ready for school when Linda showed up with the girls and told me the 'awful news'. I did a good job of seeming horrified and agreed that the girls could stay with me until Stephanie recovered. I knew then that I was in trouble."

"You looked after those three girls after you had almost killed their mother?" The younger officer asked in disgust. "You tried to kill your husband's sister to avoid telling him that you slept with another guy. You'd watch him suffer the pain of his sister being murdered just to... what?"

"To avoid losing him and my boys," Marissa hissed, as if it made perfect sense. "I told you that already."

"You don't realise how crazy that is? You tried to kill her!"

"Well I didn't invite her into my house that night did I?" Marissa hissed again. "She walks in like she owns the place and then has the nerve to judge me and try to ruin my life. Stupid bitch."

"Right," the older officer laughed. "She's the stupid one. You put this stupid plan together and you're going away for attempted murder. I'd say..."

Marissa cut him off as she spat, "Stupid plan? Please. You assholes had no idea that it was me. You know how many questions you people asked me? None! Not one fucking question. The hours I spent trying to think up perfect answers to every conceivable question and no one even bothered to talk to me." She laughed, "The closest you got to arresting someone for this was my husband for God's sake."

"That didn't worry you? Your husband going inside for what you did?"

"Why would it? I knew that he didn't do it, obviously. I got mad unlucky twice, three times actually, that's the only reason I'm sitting here now. If she hadn't opened her eyes that night for another minute, well, she wouldn't have because I would have strangled her. Then someone goes and finds her just in time before she bleeds to death and then when I finally get another chance at her she fucking goes and remembers that it was me! I have the worst luck in the world."

"You're one crazy woman."

Shane McMahon finally finished his meeting and walked out of his clients office building and got into his car. He started the engine to get the air conditioning working on heating up the car and then took his phone from his pocket. It had been on silent all afternoon during the meeting. He saw that he had sixteen missed calls and all but three of them were from Stephanie. Oh shit, he instinctively thought, don't tell me something has happened to her? I know crazy shit can happen with blood clots and things... Then he realised that if something had happened to Steph it wouldn't be her that was calling would it? What a dick head So what was she calling so many times for?

He called her number and he could tell something bad had happened when she answered even though she only said one word, "Shane..."

"Steph what is it?" Shane asked with concern. "Are you okay?"

He heard that she was crying now, "Oh God Shane, how can I tell you this?"

"Tell me what?"

"Oh God, it was Marissa."

Shane didn't even come close to understanding. "What was? What's happened now?"

"Shane it was Marissa who attacked me. She tried to do it again today but..."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Shane cut in.

"She tried to do it again today but I remembered that it was her and Paul got the cops to your place in time."

Shane couldn't respond as his life crashed around him. He could hear Stephanie calling his name into the phone and eventually he managed to ask, "Why?"

"I have no idea. I asked her when the cops were taking her away but she just looked at me. She hates me Shane and I don't know why. What did I ever do?"

Shane was too shocked to cry. "I'm coming home now," he mumbled.

That night Paul walked out of the bathroom and heard his wife talking. He knew that she had just been reading a bed time story to their youngest daughter. He stood out of sight near the doorway to the bedroom and listened. He heard Stephanie laugh as she was saying, "Okay, we'll read that one again tomorrow. Time to say goodnight."

He heard Vaughn say, "Goodnight mommy."

Stephanie said, "Goodnight sweetheart."

"Goodnight," Vaughn said again.

"Goodnight," Stephanie repeated.

Vaughn laughed, "Goodnight."

Stephanie backed out of the room in front of Paul, "No, mommy says it last. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Vaughn said quietly and Stephanie pretended not to hear as she closed the door, allowing her baby girl the victory. She turned to Paul and he hugged her, "I love you. I couldn't imagine you not being here with us."

Stephanie returned the hug, "I love you too and I'm not going anywhere."