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Thaddeus Duke · (11-28-2021)

Woolworth Tower || Tribeca – New York City || 3:23 PM

This morning, all of us slept in a bit later than normal. Last night, by the time I made it back to my room with Adi, it was past 4 in the morning and she’d understandably gone back to sleep. By then though, I really wasn’t “in the mood” as it was. After waking up, it was like last night didn’t even happen. Frankie was happy and playing with Minkah. Adi was plugging away on her script. And I was packing Frankie up for his trip to North Carolina. When he comes home in a couple weeks, I think I’ll make it a point to lay out some ground rules and allow his pup in the room with him at bed time.

Anytime he goes away, I put on a brave face. I keep a smile on my face and I laugh and joke like I normally do but the honest truth is it guts me. I don’t feel whole without him. There’s a sadness and a darkness that is present when he’s not. I don’t know what any of it means and I certainly don’t let the viewers know that for the sake of gaining empathy or sympathy. I’ve always been the kind of guy that’s worn my heart on my sleeve and good, bad or indifferent, I’ve always just been me. Whether the fans of the XWF love me or hate me, it’s never been me that’s changed.

I’ve stayed exactly the same. The difference being, now that they’ve decided that Thaddeus Duke is someone to loathe and detest, I make it a point to figurative drive a stake into each of their worthless hearts whenever we’re together.

Except here in New York.

They still love me here.

Frankie and I are in the elevator on the way down to the ground floor. I try really hard to hold back what I’m feeling. My head pounds from the inside out as I force the sadness to stay off my face. You know the feeling, it’s almost like sinus pressure.

”I still don’t want to go,” Frankie says quietly as the elevator slows to a stop. With a ding the doors slide open and he and I make our way through the lobby toward the Broadway entrance.

”Yeah I know, but T.J. and Caty need to have you around more than you have been,” I say to the boy. ”They need their big brother.”

”I know,” he says, defeated. ”But I need you right now.”

Little jerk!

”Listen to me,” I say to him with tears welling in my eyes. Stopping about ten feet from the doors I drop to my knees and spin him around to look at me. ”There’s nothing I want more in this world, than you being with me all the time.

“You know that.

“But I need you to be strong,” I say to him as I fix the collar on his jacket. ”I need you to be a big brother right now.”

”I can’t stop thinking about Keith,” he says with tears welling in his own eyes.

”Stop worrying about him Frankie,” I say as I wipe a tear from his eye. ”You let me handle that. Keith Rickle will not be problem for us, okay?”

He nods as over his shoulder, Elizabeth’s Ford Bronco pulls up at the curb.

”Your mom’s here,” I tell him and he wraps his arms around my neck. Hugging him back tightly, I kiss his cheek and start for the door. Outside, Liz opens the back door and I shove Frankie aside for a moment.

”Hey Thad,” she says warmly.

”Hi, move,” I tell her and jump inside the Bronco to see my other babies.

”He doesn’t want to leave you I assume,” Liz says as I play with a laughing and giggling T.J. and Caty while she looks at a sniffling Frankie.

”Don’t be offended,” I answer while playing with the twins. ”It’s not you.”

”Why don’t you wanna come with me?” she asks of Frankie, entirely ignoring what I just said.

”Keith,” he answers quietly.

”Your dad?”

From the sidewalk, he point at me. ”That’s my dad.”

”What’s going on?” she asks worriedly.

”Tell you in a minute,” I say as I make my way out of the car. Taking Frankie’s suitcase, I toss it in the back of the car before turning my attention to the boy. ”You know the drill buddy,” I tell him while kneeling down to his level. ”Any time, day or night you can call me. Face Time me. Zoom. Whatever you want, whenever you need it.

“I always have time for you.”

”I know,” he says quietly.

”Stop being sad, stop worrying about Keith.”

”It’s a little easier to say it than to do it.”

True.

”I know, but I need you to trust me and have faith that I’ll handle it,” I plead with him. ”Have I ever let you down?”

”Well, there was that one time you let Mufasa eat my first puppy,” he says with a little bit of a smile.

”I should’ve never told you that,” I say to the boy. ”Besides, I didn’t let him eat your puppy. It just happened.” To be clear, Frankie wasn’t home and he didn’t even know he had a puppy before the lion decided he’d make a good snack. Whatever else Mufasa is, he’s still a lion. You don’t interfere with feeding time if you like having both arms.

After exchanging last hugs and ‘I love you’s’, Frankie climbs into the Bronco and buckles in. After closing the door, I turn around right into Liz’s ‘we need to talk’ look.

It’s always been unsettling.

It still is.

”What’s going on with Keith?” she asks.

”He’s lawyered up and he’s appealing his conviction,” I answer.

”Everyone appeals their convictions, that’s not such a big deal,” she argues.

”No, but Robert is telling me that from what he’s hearing, Keith stands a pretty good shot at winning a new trial and if that happens, all bets are off.”

”He really might get out?”

”I don’t know, but if his case is strong enough to be granted a new trial, then it’s probably easier to see a scenario in which he gets exonerated.”

”Damn,” she says quietly. ”What are you gonna do about it?”

”Whatever it fuckin’ takes,” I say with a wink.

She nods, knowingly.

”After Bad Medicine, I’ll be goin’ to Egypt for a few days,” I tell her. ”Never been to Egypt but when I get back… we need to talk about what I told you months ago.”

”You’ll have to be more specific,” she says with a smile. ”You tell me a lot of things.”

”What we fought about the day I buried my mother.”

”Mother fucker,” she says with an angry smile. ” You really...”

”It’s not what you think...”

”...have SOME nerve...”

”Liz...”

”...to DEMAND of me...”

”STOP,” I say to her, grabbing her by both shoulders. ”I’m not making you do it.”

She falls quiet as she stares into my eyes.

”What changed your mind?”

”I just think that,” I pause while arranging the words in my head. ”I just want them to be able to lead some kind of normal lives.”

”Is that even possible?”

”I don’t know, but it’s worth a try.”

”So does that mean you’re gonna call off your surveillance?”

”Not a chance,” I answer her honestly.

”Really?” she utters with a dejected sigh. ”You have any idea how difficult it is to...”

”I don’t care about that Liz,” I interrupt. ”You’re a grown woman. You can date and sleep with whomever you want. But my people need to know who they are because… well… my kids are still my kids. Being who they are is still very dangerous.

“Six months old or sixty years old, it’s dangerous.”

”It’s such an invasion of privacy,” she protests.

”I know it is, and I’m sorry it has to be that way, but it has to be that way. They know exactly who they are before they even make it to your front door. There hasn’t been a viable threat yet so, I don’t know what you’re really worried about.”

”What happens if they do find someone suspicious, or think someone might be a threat?”

”Then they’ll never make it to your front door and I suppose you’ll be very thankful that they didn’t make it into the house where our kids sleep.”

Food for thought I guess.

For the most part, Liz and I have remained on very good terms. Though our friendship has fallen quiet since I’ve been with Adi. I have a tendency to push buttons that needn’t be pushed and well… I’m not pushing those ones.

After exchanging final pleasantries and goodbye’s, Liz and all my children are on the road back to North Carolina. Standing the curb, I wait for my car to arrive. While doing so, I put my hood up and peruse Twitter.

Cashe and Atara just went to Splitsville.

Lovely.

I guess it’s just me and Adi for Thanksgiving.

I can think of much worse.

Putting my phone away, the car pulls up and I take a seat in the back next to my business manager Chris Page.

”You don’t look happy,” he says as the car pulls onto Broadway.

”I’m not really,” I admit to him. ”I got a whole lot goin’ on in my personal life and I just sent Frankie to North Carolina for a couple weeks.”

Unsure how he’s supposed to react, Chris remains silent.

”I hate when he leaves,” I say quietly while staring out the passenger window. ”He leaves and… there’s a big fucking void and nothing can fill it.”

”Not even this?” he asks with a grin while showing me what’s on his phone.

”You get that done, then I guess you earned your fifteen percent of my paycheck,” I say with a bit of a smile.

”15% ain’t nothin’ Thad,” he replies.

”It is when it’s 15% of my money,” I argue with a smile.

”I guess it helps that it’s your uncle signing those checks.”

”Everyone thinks I’m blowin’ smoke,” I say in reference to the money. ”Inflating numbers and boostin’ my own ego.

“Truth is, I undersell the shit out of it.”

”You talked to your dad?” he asks, switching topics on a dime.

”I haven’t talked to him since I kicked him in face,” I reply, referring to Relentless. ”You get that other thing done?”

”About the match?”

I nod in response.

”Progress has been slow, but it’ll get done by match time.”

”Good,” I say as a smile starts to grow. ”Paul probably would’ve had it done by now.”

That should chap his ass a bit.

Chris stares at me from behind his sunglasses.

”Say what you want about him, but when Paul was talkin’ business, they gave in because he wouldn’t shut up until they did.

“There’s some value there.”

”Where we headed anyways?”

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Corey and I go back a long time and we’ve certainly both taken a big ole trip in the Wayback Machine, haven’t we?

So let’s do this one more time. And, I only bring this up because he legitimately sat there and tried to chastise me for not being there for him when things were happening to him that I had no control over, things I was not privy to in advance, and while I was fighting a war.

A different war than this Ares Project thing, but still a war.

I was a good friend to Corey Smith. Was I the best friend I could’ve been? Probably not. But I don’t blame him for things he couldn’t control. I don’t blame him for things happening to me that he didn’t know about. I didn’t blame him for not once putting on some fatigues, a helmet and some body armor to help me in my war efforts.

For what it’s worth, I’d have never asked him to and had he offered, I’d have denied him.

But why is any of this important? Why is his life story and my life story so important when neither of us could really step in and save the day for the other?

Because he had a chance to and he blew it. He blew it, like he blew his television title reign, that I constantly harp on despite only mentioning it, including this time: twice. He blew it, like he blew the 24/7 briefcase opportunity. He blew it… because… it isn’t what he wanted.

So, what does that mean and what am I talking about?

You know those tag straps we talk about so much? You know how I won them with Doc D’Ville and NOT Corey Smith despite invoking Freebird Rules after the fact which gave Corey a freebie tag belt?

Corey Smith was supposed to be my partner.

Okay, so ‘supposed’ is used a little loosely, but the fact is I asked him to team with me to go beat Cataclysm. It should have been Corey Smith in that match and not Doc D’Ville and I already know the Corey Smith Innocence Project would try and tear this one apart. I know the sympathizers are already trying to argue up that he wasn’t ready.

Corey wasn’t yet back from his stroke.

True.

Corey was however, promoting the battle royal for the Universal title.

So what does that mean, class?

It means, that even if he wasn’t quite ready, he was damn close. It means that even if he wasn’t quite ready, he would be by High Stakes 2020 and therefore could easily have been my partner that night, but he told me no. He told me no because… he wasn’t willing to do for me what I’ve been willing to do for my friends.

Case in point, he can ask our sister Dolly Waters.

Go ahead Corey… ask her what I did for her when she was being tormented by Micheal Graves.

Ask her what I sacrificed of myself in order to help her… in order to protect her…

Right after our debut match as a tag team, I kicked her in her face and it fucking broke me to do it, Corey. I betrayed everything I stood for in order to help her. I aligned myself with the likes of Robert Main and Chris oh my god I’m gonna vomit Chaos… to help her. I joined AX3 for a very brief period in order to learn what their plan was for Graves’ archnemesis- Dolly Waters. I endured the mockery and humiliation, I endured the boos and the hatred from the fans I once loved and adored.

So, the Waters/Graves feud reaches its climax and I reveal to the world that I never actually betrayed my friend and my sister Dolly Waters. And I took a four on one beat down for it and you know what? I’d do it all again because there’s not a thing I won’t do for those I love.

He’s said that he loved me.

Maybe part of him still does.

I’ll admit that there’s part of me that still loves him too.

But there comes a time, people, when you have to take off the rose colored Corey Smith glasses and see him for what he really is and that’s not anyone’s friend. Corey Smith is a self centered, self important asshole that doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him. I’ve taken off my Corey glasses and I do see him for what he is and what he’s always been.

It’s time you all did the same because when you do, you’ll see the fraud that he’s been perpetrating against the XWF Universe since the moment he came back here.

He has the audacity to sit there and paint me as a liar and attempt to drag me through the mud claiming I’m the evilest of all the evils because it was Doc as my partner and not him.

He had his chance.

I asked.

He said no.

Why did he say no?

Is it really because he wasn’t well enough yet?

He outlasted everyone but me in the battle royal and it wasn’t exactly filled with the Schism’s of the XWF was it?

If he was well enough to accomplish that much, he was well enough to be my friend, to be my brother, to put himself at risk to help me beat Cataclysm when he sat in his room and watched them try and end my career just two months earlier.

He knew I needed the help.

He knew I needed someone I could trust.

Maybe that’s the key and his conscience got the better of him because maybe, just maybe he knew that I really couldn’t trust him after all.

I can not and could not trust Corey Smith because to this day, good boy holier than thou white meat baby Corey Smith… doesn’t trust Corey Smith.

The script has flipped since last year and I’m no longer loved and adored by the Universe, but that changes nothing. I have said before and I’ll say it to my dying breath that I have never, not once, lied about what or who I am. From day one, I have worn my heart on my sleeve and showed you exactly who I am and I let you make up your minds about me.

You love me, I give you what you want.

You hate me, I take away the things you love.

And I’ve done that with Corey Smith.

Corey shows you his cute face and his adorable locks, flashes you a million dollar smile… albeit with a ten dollar body… and he tells you exactly what he thinks you want to hear. When in reality, he’s not the victim… but a self serving piece of shit that doesn’t deserve your love and adoration.

I mean, if I don’t for telling you the truth… he surely doesn’t, for filling your head with the Corey Smith veneer of wholesomeness that doesn’t actually exist.

This entire cycle he’s been laughing and doing his thing like he always does… but with beads of sweat figuratively running down his head. They don’t even to be present to know its true. You can tell in his demeanor. You can tell in his delivery. You can tell with each successive sentence he utters that the veneer is cracking and starting to shatter.

Because I’ve been telling you all the truth about Corey Smith and he knows it.

His biggest fear isn’t what I’ll say… his biggest fear is that you’ll start to believe it, because I do not lie to you and you know it. And that, dear Universe, is why he’s been trying to paint me as something I have never been.

It’s a good thing Bad Medicine is in less than 24 hours. Corey Smith suffers from lie-abetes and needs a prescription.

Green Haven Correctional Facility || Stormville, New York || 5:14 PM

The ninety minute trip to Stormville was mostly Chris and I talking business, mixed with several interruptions from some of his other clients also talking business. I don’t normally bring wrestling home with me. Or in this case, I don’t bring it with me into my personal life that is this sensitive. Sometimes in life, we make exceptions to the rules and this is exactly that.

With Chris Page waiting in the car, I stand against a wall in the vacant yard inside the prison. While waiting on Keith I try to gather my thoughts. I’m still wrapping my head around how a murderer who got off light with manslaughter might serve less than two years total. Interrupting my thoughts, Keith Rickle exits through the door into the yard. Pulling a pack of cigarettes from his jacket, he doesn’t even see me approaching on his right side. Placing a smoke in his mouth he feels around his pockets for a lighter.

”Dammit,” he says with a sigh when he can’t find it. Pulling a lighter from my own pocket, I hold it out and strike it. Turning toward me, Keith is stunned motionless for a moment before lighting his cigarette and taking a puff.

”Didn’t know you smoked,” he says to me.

”I don’t, but you never know when you need to catch an asshole off guard with some surprise dramatic entrance,” I say, only half joking.

”What are you doin’ here Thad?” he asks as we start to stroll the grounds.

”You know me Keith. There’s really only one reason I’d be here.”

”Frankie,” he assumes correctly. ”How is he?” he asks with a tear in his eye. ”Did he get the birthday card I sent him?”

”He got it,” I answer.

”What’d he say? Did he like it?”

”He never even opened it,” I answer the man with honesty. ”As soon as I handed it to him he threw it in the trash,” I tell him, taking some satisfaction in driving the dagger in just a little deeper.

”Oh,” he says, hanging his head.

”Keith, I’m gonna be honest with you,” I preface. ”Frankie doesn’t want you out of prison.”

I’m sure that stung.

”It’s not really up him though, is it?” he asks rhetorically with a bit of a cocky grin.

”Isn’t it though?” I ask him with a cocky smile of my own. We stop and stare at each other a long moment.

”Is this where you threaten me?” he asks with an uncomfortable smile. ”Drop my appeal or you have me killed?”

”I don’t want to kill you,” I answer quickly. ”Actually, this is where I give you options,” I correct him. ”Stay in prison, do your time… what? 19 more years?”

”18,” he answers.

”I’ll open a trust in your name Keith,” I begin to explain. ”Starting from the first day of your incarceration. Payable on the date of your release.”

”You think you can just buy anything, don’t you Thad?” he asks as we resume walking the grounds.

”I’ve yet to see a price I couldn’t afford, if that’s what you’re asking,” I ask, but naturally he doesn’t answer. ”Twenty million dollars for every year of your sentence. Do the math, Keith. 20 million times 20 years.

“It’ll take you a long ass time to squander 400 million dollars.”

”Is that what my life is worth to you?” he asks, and again we stop.

”No,” I answer with a light chuckle. ”Your life isn’t worth anything to me.

“Frankie on the other hand, his life is priceless and there is no amount of money I won’t pay, no nothing that I won’t do to protect him from scumbags like you.”

”I have a chance of getting out Thad,” he inhales the last of his cigarette and tosses the butt. ”I’m taking it.”

”I’d strongly advise you against that,” I say before leaning my face toward his ear. ”I said I didn’t want to have you killed, Keith…

“But I will if I have to,” I warn him, before leaving him behind and starting across the yard toward the exit.

”If Frankie ever finds out you threatened to have his dad killed...”

”You’ll never see him again, Keith,” I call out to him. ”But if by some small miracle you do make it out of here while you’re still breathing, and you do see him again…” I quickly make my way back toward him.

“I dare you to ask him who his dad is.

“And for the record Keith, I don’t make threats… I just do.” Taking a slip of paper from my pocket, I slide it into his breast pocket. ”That’s my attorney’s number. Think about it. When you come to your senses, give him a call,” again, I start for the exit.

”You’re afraid,” he says and I turn to look at him. ”You’re afraid that if I get out, I’m comin’ after Frankie.”

For the moment, I say nothing.

”I’d never hurt Frankie like that,” he pleads.

”As much as I’d like to believe you Keith, that’s just something I’m not willing to take my chances on.”

Not really wanting to be here anymore, I continue on toward the exit.

”Ninety days Keith,” I call out. ”Day 91, the deal is off the table.”

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