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Thaddeus Duke · (09-20-2020)

John Adams Academy || New Haven, Connecticut

I’m struck with a feelings of relief and of dread. Liz walks into the IT room with big, dark sunglasses covering her eyes. It wasn’t enough. I can see the bruising under both eyes and her lip is cracked. I’m filled with fear that she was in an accident. I have this overwhelming dilemma raging within me that I don’t want to let go of Garrett because I missed him so much but at the same time, something happened to my lady.

What a fucking day.

On top of all of this, she walks in as Garrett is crying into my shoulder. Obviously its entirely innocent, but I never feel innocent.

”Oh my God what the fuck happened?” I ask her as I let go of Garrett and head to her.

”Did you wreck?” Frankie asks with a worried expression as he leaves his chair and runs to her with a hug.

”No honey, I’m okay.”

”Babe what the hell happened?” I reiterate.

”Not now,” she says, her voice shaky.

”Can you please do me a favor?” I ask of Garrett. ”Take a walk with Frankie,” I say as I retrieve a ten dollar bill from my wallet. ”Grab us all something to drink.”

Once they’re gone, I close the door.

”Tell me,” I insist as I kiss her forehead and hold her against my chest.

”Don’t say anything, just listen,” she says as she sits down. I nod, confirming for her that I’ll shut up. As difficult as that may be.

”Alister wasn’t even there when I got there,” she begins. ”So I started trying to be quick and be in and out before he even got back. I grabbed a couple of trash bags from the pantry and was about to go upstairs when curiosity got the better of me.

“I know he has files on just about everyone in his life from his maids, employees, me… so I started thinking ‘does he have one on Thaddeus Duke’? I went into his study and his safe wasn’t even locked. That should have been a dead giveaway.

“He has files on you, on your dad and your uncle. He has files on fucking Frankie for hells sake.”

Rage burns within me but I contain it for now. Files on my dad or me, yeah whatever. Files on Frankie? A child? A school age boy? Are you fucking kidding me?

”That’s when he came home, as I was looking at Frankie’s file. It had his birth date, his social security number, his mothers death certificate.” She lets out a sigh. ”The school we just registered him at.”

Oh hell no.

”I will kill that mother fucker!”

”Baby, you promised,” she reminds me.

Well, OBVIOUSLY I’m going to stand up for Frankie! ”Go on, I’m sorry.”

”He walked in and I was sitting at his desk looking at Frankie’s file and I don’t know. I’m not his mother but, instincts took over and I confronted him about it. He said it was nothing, just keeping tabs on his property.

“He meant me of course, but I pushed him further. I wanted to know why he wanted information on him. He said to hurt you if he felt the need.”

Oh I will kill him.

”So in a burst of anger, you know that meteorite paper weight he has? Well, I picked it up and chucked it at his head. It only grazed him but he came after me. I didn’t back down from him and what you see is the result.

“He busted my phone over my head and threatened to slowly take away everything you loved, Thaddeus.”

I sit in a silent rage. My blood boils inside and I don’t know how to let it out. I look over and Garrett and Frankie are standing in the now opened doorway.

”How long have you been standing there?” I ask him through grit teeth, trying so hard to not let out my anger.

”...Since the paper weight,” Garrett answers sheepishly as he hands me a Dr. Pepper.

”Liz I got you a Diet Coke like you like!” Frankie says excitedly, entirely and thankfully oblivious to exactly what’s going on.

”Aww thank you baby boy, you’re so sweet!” she says, feigning excitement.

”I’ll have Jim drive you two home,” I say to her.

”What about you?” asks Frankie. I can feel his disappointment. We were supposed to play some video games after the ceremony.

”I have to drive to New York for something Frankie. I’ll be a few hours but I promise, when I get home, we’ll play after dinner. Okay?”

Liz is cold staring me and I only just now realized it.

”It’ll be fine,” I say to her very unconvincingly.

”I’ll keep him cool,” Garrett says, making me wonder just how much he actually heard. But I guess it’s a party.

”See, Garrett will keep me cool,” its this moment that I don’t think she’s that comfortable with Garrett around. I don’t blame her for it.

”You don’t need to go there, you’ll just make it worse,” she says. And before I can reply she continues. ”And now you’re gonna drag Garrett into it.”

”Whatever he is to you,” Garrett interrupts, feeling the sting from her not wanting him there. ”He’s still my friend. I’ve lost him once before, Elizabeth. I’m not ready to do that again.”

I grab her hand, and his. After kissing both hands simultaneously, she walks off with Frankie. I anticipated incorrectly. She definitely rolled her eyes as she turned around. Hindsight being what it is, I’m not sure why I thought that was a good idea. It certainly wasn’t and now I’ve landed myself in a world of trouble. Two people that I love passionately are seriously ready to claw at each others eyes. It isn’t what I intended. It’s not what I wanted. To be entirely clear, I’m not so sure even I know what I want.

If only I could have both…

Two hours later, I roll my car to a stop a block way from the Henry Mansion. The drive was an interesting one. Garrett and I talked a good bit about some things. Reminisced some. Spoke at great length about Curtis and how much he is missed and how we thought his commencement address would have filled the place with laughter.

If I said there was no longer a connection when I grabbed his hand earlier I’d be lying. I feel the same spark when I touch Liz. I don’t know how I find myself in these predicaments but here we are. How does one cope with loving two people simultaneously the same way? The short answer, the easy answer is to let one of them go. But what if I can’t? What if I don’t want to? Then what? I mean, it’s selfish right? Not wanting to let go of one so they can move on with their lives and find a new source of happiness?

My thoughts quickly switch to Liz and the marks Alister left on her face. That don’t fly. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

I hesitated to bring Garrett into the house but I know him. He wouldn’t have listened and would’ve came with me anyway. As we approach the darkened house, by my design of course, I use the key I still have to unlock the door and Garrett and I slip inside. I said ‘my design’ because I had the boys at home pull some strings and stage a blackout in Scarsdale letting me waltz right in unnoticed and undetected by Alister’s cameras. Once we’re inside, I give the signal to light it up and within seconds the lights come on in the house and all over the neighborhood.

We wait in the study. There’s no cameras in that room. With the lights off in the study and the pocket doors slid shut, I can hear Alister moseying about upstairs. The boards creak as he descends the stairs. He slides the door open and steps inside and flicks on the light. He turns around and is startled by my presence.

”Thaddeus,” he says with a shocked but subdued tone in that typical stoic Alister Henry kind of way. ”I wasn’t expecting you.”

”Of course you were,” I reply.

”Alister Henry,” he says as he plays nice, extending his hand to Garrett.

”Garrett Wentworth,” he says, introducing himself.

Sitting behind his desk, I’ll admit I feel a little more powerful. It’s not the desk, it’s not the house, it’s the fact that Alister Henry is caught off his guard. A man like him? They’re never off their guard.

”I see you haven’t lost your touch for sneaking in unnoticed,” he says as he takes a seat in the chair I used to sit in when we’d discuss business.

”It’d do you well Alister, to remember that.”

”Is that a threat?” he asks, giving me his intimidating to most, but not to me, blank expressionless stare

”It’ll be more than a threat if you come near Frankie again,” I warn him.

”Mmmm.”

He grunts, but says nothing.

”You got something to say?” I ask as it occurs to me that I went right for Frankie and not Liz.

”Francis Robert Rickle is safe and he’ll remain that way so long as you do the right thing,” Alister says, his shaky voice betraying his false bravado.

”What is the right thing in your learned opinion, Dear Grandfather?”

”It’s simple,” he says cracking a slight smile. ”Return to me, what belongs to me.”

”People aren’t property, Alister. She’s free to do what she wants.”

”Is she?”

I say nothing.

”Her last name is Henry. She’s my wife and I want her here with me.”

I stand from my chair, the blood coursing through my veins faster and faster. He stands up too, probably thinking I’m about to hit him.

I’m not.

Yet.

”I don’t like to flaunt my wealth and power, Alister, but if you keep up your shit, I will crumble your little criminal empire down on your head.

“I will destroy you.”

”You have bigger balls than you do brains coming here, Jaime.”

”I can vouch for the balls thing,” Garrett chimes in. His eyes light up as if he didn’t mean to say it. I laugh… on the inside.

”Thaddeus,” I remind him, realizing he called me Jaime just to get under my skin. It worked.

”Do you know how easy it is for me to make one call and take something away from you?” he asks rhetorically. ”One call, Thaddeus, and that’s all it takes. And your father disappears. Or your uncle. Your chief of staff.

“Liz.

“Francis.

“Or even Garrett here.”

Incensed with rage, I grab him by his throat with one hand and pull my pistol from the back of my waistband. Throttling him backwards, he stumbles to the floor with me on top of him, the barrel squarely in the middle of his forehead.

”THAD!” Garrett shouts and he lunges for me, grabbing my arm. Quickly, I pull back the hammer, stopping him from struggling with me.

”Threaten my people again, and I’ll bury you Alister. I don’t care if I share your blood. I will put a bullet in your skull. I promise you, no one will find the body.”

”Thad! Come on man!”

”Because we are in fact blood, Alister, is the only reason I’m not killing you for what you did to Liz.”

He struggles to breathe from my grip on his throat. I squeeze tighter and tighter, wanting to choke the very last breath out of him. Finally, I relent and ease my grip on his throat enough that he could breathe again.

”Where was this version of you when you met Keith Rickle?” he asks, referring to Frankie’s father. ”If he had shown up, Francis would still have a mother.”

In a fit of rage, I smash my pistol into his skull once. Then a second, just because it felt good to do it. Blood trickles from his forehead and he’s out cold.

”I thought you were really gonna pull the trigger!” Garrett says with a sigh of relief.

”Relax man,” I say as I pull the trigger. CLICK! I reach into the pocket of my jeans and retrieve a handful of bullets. ”It wasn’t even loaded.”

”You son of a...”

I place a bullet standing upright on his desk, carved into the casing is the name Alister. I notice his safe is still open. Old man is slipping. Reaching in, I retrieve the Frankie file and fold it, slipping it into my back pocket.

”We’re done here, let’s go.”

After we make our way back to the car, I look inside the folder and laugh. Not because I think its funny or anything, just over the absurdity of it all.

”What’s so funny?”

Laying the folder in his lap, I start the car and pull onto the road.

”Nice try, Thaddeus,” Garrett says aloud, reading what’s in the file. It was just a stack of blank pages with nice try Thaddeus hand written on the top.

I really might have to kill this mother fucker.

Page, I just want to start off by sayin’… You are as clueless as you are gutless. Not only am I not single, which you’d know if you were as smart as you claim you are, even if I wasn’t, you wouldn’t even crack the top 100 of people I’d like to fuck. Do yourself a favor and gets yourself a Thaddeus Duke encyclopedia. Recent chapters include such things as: taking in a foster child with my girlfriend by my side. Not to mention, that one where I sing to her in a bar because, you know, kids got game. And I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the time she took off my mask, I resumed being the real me and then I fucked her on her husbands couch, but here we are.

I’m Thaddeus Duke.

I’m better than you.

And you’re still a fucking idiot coward.

How can you be in this business as long as you have and still be so fucking insanely stupid?

Here’s the story. The real story. Not only do I not have a crush on dudes old enough to be my grandfather, the truth of the matter is that this is simply all about me, because it always is. See, as you might have noticed I have been on this path of redemption since the calendar switched over to September and while I’m fine with Robbie Bourbon having his two well earned, hard fought victories over me, Chris Page having a ‘W’ over me just makes me want to vomit in my mouth. Why? Because no matter the spin, the honest to dog, yes dog, truth is that it was me that beat me on Savage. Not Chris Page. Yes, the history books, which apparently Chris Page is afraid of those too, will always show a ‘W’ next to him and an ‘L’ next to me, the fact is that it was my cockiness that allowed you to do what you did at Savage.

Handcuffs have a better claim to victory than you do.

Handcuffs man.

I said this is about me. It’s always about me. Why does beating Chris Page make me tick? The answer is complex, yet simple. So simple that even Chris can understand it. And if he doesn’t, then fuck him who cares? Beating Chris Page is at the forefront of my focus at this time because he’s gone up and down the road for weeks claiming that him beating me was like this fucking no brainer what else did you think would happen kind of scenario and that just pisses me off. It pisses me off because handcuffing a guy to a ring rope and climbing a ladder to win a match proves absolutely fucking nothing.

He denied my challenge, not because his ‘plate was full’ like he claimed. He forgets while even saying that Theo Pryce is my uncle, that THEO PRYCE IS MY UNCLE! His Relentless plate was never full and I knew it because… again… THEO! PRYCE! IS! MY UNCLE!

He denied my challenge because he knows he got fuckin’ lucky and he knows he wasn’t exactly down to beat the Lionheart square. What better way to make sure his narrative stays true, that he’s better than I am, than to NOT give me what the world desires: me kicking his ass all over Santa Monica?

He denied me because he fears the truth. The truth is, that he’s not better than me and he found that out on Savage. He fears what’s going to happen and its not because I’m some big tough guy that’s gonna beat him up. He fears what’s going to happen because I am exactly what I always said I am and I’m not talking about the fucking catchphrase. I’m simply talking about the fact that any match I am in is five fucking stars in PWI because it’s what I fucking do better than anyone else.

He may spin and allude to him “forcing” this to happen, it’s simply untrue. He never had any intent of facing me because we both know who the better man is and he had no interest in letting me prove it to the fucking world.

It’s not about titles. I don’t give two shits whether I have gold around my waist or not because simply being who I am and doing what I’m capable of is gold enough. I do not need leather straps with gold plated medallions to validate my worthiness as gods fucking gift to a wrestling ring.

This is simply about respect, and taking back the victory he never should have had.

Chris Page can not beat Thaddeus Duke. He can talk down to me like I’m an insolent child, he can make this about my sexuality, he can say whatever he wants but the truth has been written on his face since this began at Leap of Faith: Thaddeus Duke is better than Chris Page and I’m going to prove it at Relentless.

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