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Thaddeus Duke · (12-15-2020)

The Henry Mansion || Scarsdale, New York || 11:47 AM

After leaving the house in Connecticut with Frankie, I decided to make a stop I hadn’t planned on making. I know what I did. While I have to suffer the consequences for the actions I took, Elizabeth shouldn’t have to. When I get to North Carolina and its all over with, if she doesn’t come home, if she decides she can’t be with me, then I’m not leaving her empty handed. At some point, if he doesn’t know already, Alister Henry is going to know that Liz and I have split up. With that, he’ll try to reclaim his “property” as he so often refers to her.

Whether she comes home or not, my intention is to have her freedom from Alister in hand. She can do with that whatever she chooses. It isn’t just a ploy to get back into her good graces because I honestly don’t deserve that. Her freedom to do as she pleases is all that concerns me at the moment. When she left him for me, came home with me, I promised that I’d get him to sign the papers and grant her the divorce. I intend to see that through, no matter the cost.

Pulling into the drive and circling around the fountain in front of the house, I sigh deeply as I nudge Frankie who’s asleep in the passenger seat.

”Are we here already?” he asks as he wipes the sleep from his eyes.

”No,” I reply to him as I ruffle his hair with a smile.

”Where are we?” he asks as he eyeballs the mansion.

”Alister Henry’s place,” I answer.

”Liz’s husbands house? Why? I thought we were going to North Carolina.”

”We are, but we have to do this first.”

”Why?”

”Frankie,” I begin. ”I don’t know if going to Ginny’s is going to fix anything, but I need to make sure she has the freedom to do what she wants to do. My grandfather is a total asshole and if she decides she can’t come home to you and me, then we have to be sure that she’s still free of his grip.”

”Wait,” he says as he scrunches up his face. Clearly doing math in his head, it occurs to me that I’m not sure he knew Alister is my grandfather. ”Her husband is your grandfather?”

I nod affirmation.

”So that makes Liz… your grandma,” he surmises with a smile on his face. In turn, that causes me quite a bit of laughter.

”Only by marriage,” I say, trying and failing to contain my laughter.

”You Duke’s really are strange,” he says with a smile. Admittedly, the laughter helps immensely. Yet I still owe Frankie some resolution to what’s happened due to my actions.

”Bub,” I say as my laughter fades. ”I love you more than anything, and I really am so freakin’ sorry that I messed up the way I did.”

”I know you are,” he says as he looks up at me.

”Will you forgive me?” I ask him as… CLEARLY I’m gonna cry folks, shut the fuck up.

”I already have, Thad,” he answers me as he releases his seat belt.

”Really?”

He nods.

”How come?”

”Because I love you and you’re gonna be my dad soon,” he answers. ”I mess up sometimes too, but you always forgive me because you love me.”

Why? Why is this kid so good at hitting me right in the god damn heart?

”I watch most of your promos you know? Especially the ones I’m not in. I hear you say all the time how you think you’re a bad dad or a bad boyfriend to Liz, but you’re not. You’re just learning on the job.”

Incredible.

”How are you this smart at ten years old?”

”I don’t know, but Thad, I think she’ll forgive you.”

”Why? I don’t deserve it.”

”Yes you do.”

We’ve reached an impasse. He’s wrong and he isn’t usually.

”You deserve it because you’re kind. Because you’d do anything for us. Because we love you.”

It’s sweet, but a little misguided.

”Well,” I say as I unbuckle my own seat belt. ”You ready to meet your asshole great grandfather?”

”Thad?” he says as he grabs my wrist just as I throw open my door. I stop and look at him. ”I’m sorry I yelled at you like I did. You didn’t deserve that.”

”Yes I did,” I answer back.

”You saved me when no one else could. One mistake doesn’t cancel that.”

You slick little shit.

”I know the stories about Alister, Thad. You saved her too. She knows that.”

Is that what I’ve become? A savior to the beaten down? I don’t think so.

After exiting the car, we make our way to the front stoop and ring the bell causing his dogs to bark loudly and angrily, waiting and hoping they’ll be able to rip whomever stands on the other side of their masters lair to shreds. They wouldn’t, but if you didn’t know them, you might just piss yourself. Cash and Junie are a pair of the sweetest Rottweilers ever, in contrast to their owner.

Alister opens the door and the dogs whine and wag their tails rapidly, eagerly anticipating my return.

”Jameson,” he greets me with a sly smile.

”Really? That’s how you want to play this?” I ask, taking exception to him referring to me as the false name I lived under for about a year.

”Who’s this?” he asks in his typical stoic and cold demeanor as he eyeballs Frankie then returns to me.

”Don’t pretend you don’t know Alister, it’s insulting to my intelligence.”

”Francis, is it?” he asks as he extends his hand to the boy.

”Frankie, sir,” he says, accepting the handshake.

”Respectful,” Alister says with a pleased nod. ”I like that.”

Alister leads us into the house and the dogs are beside themselves with joy as they welcome my return to their homestead. Junie bounces back and forth between greeting me and licking Frankie in the face causing him to laugh and love it up. Cash meanwhile, does circles around us both.

A few minutes later, Alister leads us into his study where as usual, he plops down behind the desk and peers at me over the rim of his glasses, interlocking his fingers as he lays his hands upon his midsection. Old habits die hard and I throw myself down in the big chair across from him, leaning to one side as I throw my right leg over the arm.

”Not much has changed, I see.”

”Let’s get down to business,” I say with some authority behind it. ”I have things I need to do today that don’t include you.”

He smiles ever so slightly.

”Off to Ginny’s I take it?”

Siiiigh. He knows.

”Thaddeus, I know why you’re here,” he says as he opens his desk drawer and pulls out a folded up stack of papers, backed by a sheet of blue. ”I’ve never even read them.”

”Mr. Henry,” Frankie interjects. ”Why not just sign them? She’ll never come back to you anyway.”

”No Frankie, she likely won’t,” he replies as he looks at Frankie who sits on the floor rubbing the bellies of both dogs. ”In my business, you get what you want by applying pressure. When I get what I want, that allows me the freedom to give them what they want.

“Understand?”

”Yeah,” he replies. ”But it also kinda makes you a shitty person.”

The remark causes some hearty laughter from Alister as he returns his attention to me.

”Not even six months and he’s already adopting your ‘qualities’, if you want to call them that.”

”He’s not a mincer of words,” I inform him. ”He has no filter and he regularly speaks truth to those that aren’t ready for it.”

”Clearly.”

God dammit. I say ‘clearly’ a ton. Too much, even. I got it from him.

”You want to make a deal, I’ll deal Alister. As long as when I walk out that door today, you hand me those papers, with your signature.”

He grabs his coffee mug in front of him and takes a sip. ”You’re really not in a position to make demands, Thaddeus. I know she left you. I know she’s at her mothers in North Carolina and maybe more importantly… I know why.”

”Fantastic,” I reply with a mocking tone. ”That should save us a ton of time.”

”That,” he says as he stands up and points at me repeatedly. ”That’s part of the reason I’m doing this. Your cocky nature.”

Thaddeus shrugs.

”You fall in love with my wife, you make love to her on my sofa, in front of my cameras, rubbing it in my face...”

”We hoped you were watching,” I interrupt.

”Dude that’s cold,” Frankie interjects, causing me to laugh on the inside.

”All I did Alister, was give her what she needed. A little love and true affection. And a whole lot of manhood.”

”Ewwww.”

This kid, I swear.

”Be that as it may,” Alister begins as he returns to his chair. ”I’m not about to make it easy on you. I could have signed them immediately and sent them back, but then I wouldn’t have you exactly where I want you.

“You hope that when you leave here you’ll have signed documents granting her divorce and she’ll just throw her arms around you and forgive what you’ve done,” he surmises with amusement.

”Alister, I have no idea how this shit with Liz will play out,” I begin my rebuttal. ”The fact is, I promised her freedom from your arthritic grip and I’m here to see that promise through.

“To the end.

“What she chooses to do afterward is her right to do it.”

Alister leans back in his chair as he picks up the divorce papers and begins to read them over.

”All she wanted was a clean break,” I offer up in an attempt to save time. ”She takes nothing, you get to keep the small fortune you amassed by pilfering off the desperate citizens of New York City.”

He looks at me a few moments before grabbing a pen.

”And how do I know you’re not lying?”

”Because I’m a man of my word,” I reply honestly.

”Are you?” he asks as a slight smiles creases his lips. ”And when that gay boy re-entered your life a few months ago, I’m sure you told her you’d never do anything to hurt her.”

Gahhhhh. Good point.

”Be that as it may,” I echo him from moments ago. ”I have more money than we’ll ever need. I assure you she wants nothing from you except your signature on those papers.”

Alister signs the papers and tosses them in my direction. I stand and lift them off the floor.

”C’mon Frankie, we got places to go.”

”We’re not done here,” Alister informs me.

”You signed them, that’s all I needed.”

”Is it?

“And when I call the judge and tell him those papers are a forgery and I never granted the divorce? Then what?”

I was so close.

”Sit,” he urges me. I relent. ”You have what you want and I’m fully prepared to honor that. But if you thought you were getting that for free, if you thought that was coming at no cost to you, then Thaddeus, you’ve lost your touch with who I am and you haven’t been paying attention.”

”How much do you want?” I ask as I pull my checkbook from my hoodie pocket.

He simultaneously laughs and scoffs.

”You think I want your money?” he asks before taking a sip of his coffee. ”Thaddeus you’re rich enough that your fortune grows by the second and I could demand half your fortune and in a years time you’ve recouped your losses plus interest and I’m sitting here in my lonely home with nothing but a pile of your money.

“That doesn’t hurt you at all, does it?”

I lean forward in my chair, albeit nervously.

”What is it you want then?” I ask as I put my checkbook away.

Opening his desk drawer again, he pulls out a leather bound ledger… the ledger… and throws it to me.

”I don’t want your money, Thaddeus. I want my money.

“Along with your dignity and self respect.”

He has me speechless. He’s right, I’ve been away from him so long that I’ve kind of forgotten just how despicable and rotten to the core he really is. He wants my services back. He wants me to betray my true self again.

”What’s that mean?” Frankie asks.

”It means if I want Alister to grant Liz’s divorce I have to do bad things to good people,” I answer him with honesty.

”The mask thing?”

I nod.

”That’s not so bad, Thad… That’s how you met me.”

”I know.”

”Revenge is a dish best served cold, Thaddeus. And I won’t be robbed of my revenge.”

”Why do you hate me like this?” I ask as I look at him. He stands and goes to the bar behind him. Grabbing a tumbler, he flicks a few ice cubes and pours a bit of Bourbon before venturing around the desk and handing me the tumbler.

”No, I have to drive.”

”It’s only one Thaddeus, you won’t even be buzzed,” he says as I hesitantly take the tumbler. He returns to his seat behind his desk.

”I don’t hate you,” he answers my question. ”But you embarrassed me by taking what was mine and all my friends and acquaintances know it. It has weakened my position in the order of things and now I’ll see to it that my rightful place near the top of the New York food chain is re-established.”

”But why this?”

”Because you’re good at it,” he answers. ”And because those I hired to replace you when you left, are useless shits that have recouped just a small fraction of what you did.

“And simply because… you owe me a debt that still needs paid and I’m intent on collecting.”

Exasperated, I lean back in my chair shaking my head.

”For how long?” I ask and he laughs ever so slightly.

”Until it pleases me.”

”And if I say no?”

”You’re perfectly within your rights to do so, Thaddeus,” he begins his answer, only to drop the other shoe. ”But then I carry out plan B, and assuming she’ll agree to a reconciliation with you, I drag this out for years and the kids you will most certainly have by the time this ends will have been born bastards named Tate and not Duke and every time you think you’re close… I’ll move the goalposts and we start all over again.”

”You do realize that even if all that happened, she could just name them Duke anyway, right?”

”Sure, she could, but then I drag this out until I’m dead. I’m a healthy 64 years old, Thaddeus. Do you really want to wait until you’re in your 40’s or 50’s to call Elizabeth your wife?”

”You really are a jerk, ain’t you?”

Alister chuckles, but doesn’t answer.

”I like him,” he says of Frankie. ”So I can only imagine how much you love the boy. Tell me no, Thaddeus, and I drag the boy into this and use him as a pawn until I get what I want.”

Lid.

Blown.

Leaping from the chair, I hop over his desk and land on him in his chair, my hand around his throat.

”You don’t want to fuck with him Alister,” I warn him as his face starts to turn red. ”I can end all of this in a god damn heartbeat and you fucking know it.”

”THAD!” Frankie cries out and for a moment, I forgot he was here. Realizing what I’m doing, I release my grip on his throat and take a step back as Alister coughs and gasps, trying to regain his breath.

”You wouldn’t,” Alister replies as he straightens his tie and coughs a little. ”You’re not that kind of person and what’s more, I’m the only blood connection you have to your mother.”

”You threaten my son Alister, you have no idea what I’m capable of,” I inform him as my anger subsides some. ”And if you think it’d be painless and over in an instant… man… you really don’t know the lengths I will go to protect my family.”

”Despite our differences, I do respect that about you,” he concedes a little ground. ”Just look at the big picture for a minute. You agree to swallow your pride and set aside your dignity for awhile, put on that ridiculous mask again if it helps you sleep at night, recover the debts I need recovered, and you walk out of here today with signed divorce papers and in a few weeks or a month from now, the divorce is processed and finalized.

“Elizabeth is free of me and free to marry you if she so chooses.

“Of course, that’s providing your current situation… reaches your desired conclusion.”

God I hate him.

”My current situation, is only my current situation, Alister,” I inform him as I turn to Frankie and put the signed divorce papers in my hoodie. ”Let’s go.”

No sooner than we reach the door to the foyer just beyond his study, he calls out to me again.

”Thaddeus,” he says it all elongated like, and I turn toward him as he picks up his desk phone. ”Are we in agreement or do I need to make a call to the proper authorities about my missing, forged divorce papers?”

I venture back into the study, eyeballing the leather bound ledger I left sitting on the arm of the chair. Saying nothing I return to Frankie with the ledger and he and I make our exit.

"Give Elizabeth my regards," he says as we round the corner. ”You made the right call!” he yells out as I close his front door behind us.

Buckle up kids, its time for Chris Chaos’s lesson in Promo Ability 101.

Lesson One: The transparency of Chris Chaos.

This is the guy that listens to me cutting a promo on him like I always do and in the same manner and demeanor that I always do yet suddenly in his fictitious sense of reality he’s “in my head,” suddenly he brought out my “anger.” Man, if you thought my promos were anything more than me shaking my head in disgust and laughing at you, if you thought the things I said were in any way anger and not just doing what I always do and that’s speaking the truth about you, to you, then you really do have a ton of shit to learn about me and this business. I mean, it really is reaching a point of pathetic that I’m not even disgusted with you anymore.

I just… feel sorry for you, to be honest. So congratulations Chris, you accomplished receiving pity from the biggest pain your ass you’ve ever had… aside from yourself of course.

I feel sorry for you because you release this grand third promo hoping it was trolling me when in reality, it was just you becoming a parody of yourself. Really, it was you trolling yourself and you’re too damn stupid to see it. I legitimately had multiple people on this roster approach me and say “hey Thad, you see his third promo yet?” When I tell them I hadn’t, you know what they’ve been saying? “Dude he trolled himself.”

In all reality, what others think of you promos and what you do in them, doesn’t really matter, does it?

If it isn’t abundantly clear, (and it is), Chris’s little “victory lap” he thinks he’s taking with his third straight failed promo is a metaphor. It’s kind of like when a dog takes a shit outside then comes back in the house and runs all over the house like he accomplished something.

That’s Chris Chaos.

He just took a giant shit in promo form and did a self congratulatory victory lap all the while accomplishing nothing but taking a giant shit.

To be honest Chris, as much as I don’t like you. As much as I despise the ground you walk on. As dumb and unintelligent as I and so many others know you are I thought to myself “there’s no way he’s that stupid” and here I am viewing this promo of yours and my god they were right. I mean you legitimately thought that you were playing me when the reality is you played yourself. Now, let me tell you how. Because when I got to the end of your first promo I knew exactly where you were going, I knew exactly what direction you were taking your game plan and I just let you talk yourself in circles, I let you hang yourself with that same rope that you say I tugged on.

Give a man an inch, watch him trip over his own two feet, fall down a cliff, and take the whole damn game plan and any shot he thought he had right along with him.

You don’t think I knew you were setting bait by the boundaries you were pushing?

You don’t think I knew that you were dumb enough to actually go that route?

You don’t think I knew exactly what buttons to press to make you practically go all in on it so I could sit back and watch you make a complete ass out of yourself like you always do?

If that’s the case Chris, you haven’t been paying attention.

Now, your browse through my match history has lead me to peruse your own which leads us to the next lesson.

Lesson Two: Revisionist History.

Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. I’m paraphrasing and I don’t know who to credit for that line. It isn’t mine.

Chris, if you’re gonna try and revise my history, you probably shouldn’t try and sugarcoat your own by continuously making excuses.

Example One: In a match on Savage, Chris counts a loss as a draw because he and Kitt Kennedy pinned each other simultaneously. Chris, a loss is still a loss. There’s something noble in acknowledging failure. Acknowledging failure leads to growth and your refusal to do one, doesn’t allow you to do the other.

Example Two: He logs his win/loss record quite well, but I noticed a problem when it comes to the statement made about War Games in 2017 where it even states that Chris’s team lost War Games then The Engineer cashed in his briefcase on Chris’s half of the tag team titles. That’s two losses in the same night. Yet in the very next line he has a match on Warfare in which he won against Gilmour and Bearded War Pig yet his pre-War Games loss total and his post-War Games loss total never increased by two like it should have.

Why is that Chris? Is that because losing twice in one night is just too tough a pill to swallow and your ego needs to be protected? I mean, the reality is that there’s no shame in losing a match like War Games and its pretty close to inevitable that a guy cashing in a briefcase is gonna get the win over a guy that just had a grueling match.

Own it man, come back stronger with a chip on your shoulder and no one can hurt you with it.

Example Three: Let’s fast forward to something more recent. There are others I’m skipping because I could literally tear each excuse down to ego fragility and yet he talks about me being too emotional, being too sensitive to be a leader. Absolutely I’m an emotional guy. I’ve never hidden that fact. Anyway...

Warfare September 2, 2020.

You remember it.

So do I.

I was fresh off an August to forget where I lost to Robbie Bourbon in two epic clashes on Warfare and lost the TV title to Page on Savage. Successively. You were… just being you. Your loss to me that night is explained as ‘Jenny interference caused distraction.’

The reality is far different.

The truth is far different.

You’ve been running from truth and reality since you started your tenure in the XWF. The reality and the truth of what happened on Warfare was that your stupid cunt of a girlfriend Mandii Rider was up on the top rope about to leap off as I was lining you up for the big kick. Your plastic former better half runs down, shoves her off the top rope, I catch her in mid-air with Shell Shocked, you get your ass to your feet and miss a spear, then eat a superkick for the three count.

That’s the real story. That’s the whole story.

He later attacks my win loss record and how I lost to ‘big names’ and yeah he’s right. I have never hidden from my failures and I’m not hiding from them now. What you don’t seem to realize is that I’m not trying to live off of my past, you are. I’m trying to learn from my past. You’re not, so again, yeah you’re right. We are not the same.

You’ve gone from continuously discrediting the fact that I’ve won the Universal title to now also claiming that somehow I also didn’t beat Cataclysm and their undefeated streak. You try and credit both of those things to Doc D’Ville and that’s only because you beat D’Ville more than once and I’m not at all saying that isn’t impressive. What I’m saying though, is that it wasn’t Doc that tossed the ladder overboard. It wasn’t Doc that climbed the ladder while all three other men laid in a heap on the floor. It wasn’t D’Ville that retrieved both tag titles from their suspended state above the ring.

That was me, Chris. I did that. I did beat Cataclysm so your whole argument that I never beat top names is over before it begins.

I can kind of get your brand of revising ancient history but when you’re trying to alter a recent history from barely two weeks ago and trying to credit anyone but me for my success, it’s not gonna look good when the facts are staring you in the face.

Since we’re on the subject of Doctor D’Ville, if your so fresh and ready to win against big names again yourself, after you lose to me on Warfare, go see D’Ville. I’m sure he’d love to have you in session again. I’m sure he’d more than welcome the opportunity to see if you can still beat him.

Spoiler: You can’t.

Lesson Three: Don’t throw stones from inside your glass house… or something like that.

This dude has legitimately been ripping off everyone and everything not nailed down and his defense to all that isn’t calling me a liar, because I’m not and he knows it. It isn’t him making the excuse that he took their game and did it better, because he didn’t and he knows that too. His defense, and his only defense is calling me out and thinking he has my balls figuratively nailed to a wall because I’m called the Lionheart and someone else did it too.

While I’ll admit I did have a chuckle. I did think for a second ‘man, he actually got me for once, he actually figured out something to hit me with that’ll stick.’ Except he didn’t and here’s the reality of that nickname, dumbass.

It’s simply a derivative of Thaddeus Leander, my first and middle names. Now, I know you’ve gone on record saying you hate my name and that’s fine. I know it’s nothing unique like Christopher or anything, but it is what it is and I didn’t name myself.

Thaddeus equals ‘courageous heart.’ Leander equals ‘lion.’ But Chris Chaos still equals an incompetent idiot.

Lesson Four: Sit back and watch them come full circle

If you keep an idiot in this business talking long enough, they’ll literally come full circle and start contradicting themselves at paces so fast that… you have to pause their promo in order to stop laughing since they’ve already done your work for you.

This.

This is the old Chris Chaos bread and butter and he’s never once failed to deliver. Now, maybe I have underestimated his development just a little because in past matches against me, he’s said one thing then turned around and contradicted that statement a little while later in the same promo. At least this time he lasted until his third before he took his eye off the ball. This time, it was three promos in and he blinked, he flinched.

And why did he flinch? Why did he blink and start pissing all over himself? Because I’m still Thaddeus Duke and unfortunately for him, he’s still Chris Chaos. I tore him down with expert precision when I could start having fun and responding to things he’s said and he caved. He caved because he knows that everything I have always said about him is true. He’s now figuratively pissing his pants because I can, do, have, and will verbally disembowel him and he’s now reverting back to the same old Chris that we all remember.

Case in point: he spent two promos building himself up to be some big star and painting me as your champion that’s just along for the ride waiting to drop the title to him at Warfare. In those two promos he painted himself a finger paint version of Starry Night as if everyone and their mother were in awe of him and his cerebral self and he was finally at long last getting the better of me on the stick and all the people were listening and couldn’t wait to fill the arena to watch him finally exorcise his demons. He made some grand claims that no one cared about me and I might be the champion but he was getting the big ‘push.’

Only for him to roll over and film, then drop the troll on himself that is his third promo where he readily admits that I’ve been right this entire time (of course I was) and no one pays attention to him, no one cares about him, and to top it off, no one has done either of those things in three years.

So which is it Chris? The world either cares about you or they don’t. It can’t be both.

So which is it Chris? I can’t be both watered down and simultaneously suck juuuuuust a little less.

Which is it man? Am I just the flavor of the month or am I staple of the XWF landscape? Or do I suck juuuuust a little less than my last run?

I know these promos are long, but the guy literally doesn’t stop talking despite the fact that he knows its his weakness. If he legit thinks he’s been shredding me, he’s even more out of his mind than any of us thought. He goes from doing a piss poor job of tearing me down to suddenly admitting that I’m a staple and right now the staple while begging me to give in and tell him this is a big match for me. I’m sorry Chris, it just isn’t.

He’s begging for my seal of approval and if that doesn’t prove my point that the name ‘Duke’ is the measuring stick, then I really can’t help him. The fact is, I’ve ripped him open and he’s bleeding like a stuck pig. His blood now spills into the water and his personal Jaws now circles him and he’s begging me to stop.

I’ll stop Chris, when the game is over and you’re defeated in the ring on Warfare. And not until.

In eight days, Mr. Jackson. I can count too.

I brought you something to clean up the mess you’ve made.

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Alister's Revenge: RP #4
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