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Thaddeus Duke · (01-05-2021)

The Henry Mansion || Scarsdale, New York || 1:02 PM

Without question, we all have issues. We all have problems that we have trouble reconciling within our minds and while I’m a very different person than most, I’m no different in that regard. I started seeing Dr. DeVille (not to be confused with the XWF’s Good Doctor) about a year and a half ago. Not long after I abandoned my life as Thaddeus Duke. Not long after I adopted the name Jameson Henry. Not long after my plane was blown out of the sky. Not long after Curtis, one of my best friends, committed suicide.

It’s all well documented by now to be sure. Putting the mask on again, even if it’s just while I’m doing work for Alister, makes me sick to my stomach and at some point in the near future, I’ll have to pay DeVille a visit again if for no other reason than to get things off my chest. One of the reasons we had our split, aside from Elizabeth, is the fact I had to do bad things to otherwise good people. The thought of doing that again makes me want to vomit.

Pulling my Audi R8 Spyder around the fountain in his driveway, I slow to a stop and kill the engine. Hesitating to resume this life again, I almost refuse to exit the car. I know what’s at stake here. By swallowing my pride and doing this, he grants Elizabeth her freedom. But is it all worth it? By and large I am a good and decent man and to not be that, even if it’s just a short time, makes my heart want to explode from my chest. I don’t like this work. Yet I love Elizabeth with the force of a thousand burning suns and if I have to do some shady shit in order for her freedom to be granted, in order for one day being able to call her my wife, then yes. It’s absolutely worth it. While I’ll regret some of the things I have to do, I would never regret the end result.

After finally exiting the car, I make my way up the steps an across the stone porch to his front door. No sooner do I reach the door does he open up and stand aside, waiting for me to enter. Our eyes meet and neither of us says a word until we’re inside his study.

”You are a man of your word, Thaddeus,” he says as I plop down in the chair and he makes his way behind the desk. Not responding, I simply take an envelope from my hoodie and toss it on his desk in front of him. He eyeballs it for a moment but doesn’t touch it, then lifts his eyes to meet mine.

”Do you think I’m an idiot?” he asks as a smile creases his lips. ”That’s your money, not mine,” he says as he slides the envelope back toward me.

”Can’t blame a guy for trying,” I say back to him.

”I’m having your accounts monitored,” he informs me.

I’m not entirely surprised, but I have overseas accounts that he’s not aware…

”And before you start moving money around to try and fool me, Thaddeus, I know of your overseas accounts as well and whatever you’re trying to do, it just isn’t going to work.”

Well shit.

”You will honor your end of the deal and I will honor mine,” he says as he stands up and saunters over to the bar behind him. Grabbing a couple tumblers, he flicks in a few ice cubes and pours in a little Bourbon before turning and setting a glass down in front of me. He retakes his seat a moment later.

”I know what you think of me,” he says as I eyeball the tumbler in front of me and return my gaze to him. ”I’m going to level with you Thaddeus,” he begins as he takes a swallow from his glass. ”I’m not just doing this over the embarrassment you caused me.

“You’re the only family I have and while you despise the very ground I walk on and while we’re entirely opposite types of people, I know you have your other grandfather on a pedestal and as much as you dislike me for what I am and what I do Thaddeus, he was far worse a person than I ever could be.”

Invoking my other grandfathers name doesn’t sit well with me but if I’m being honest, I have laid my hands on Alister far too often and I don’t want this to be another one of those times. Physically, he’s not a challenge and while at times I’d like nothing more than to watch the last of his life leave his eyes, cold blooded murder isn’t what I’m about as a man despite there being evidence to the contrary.

”So what?” I reply as I take a gulp of Bourbon. ”Asmodeus was what he was, but he also groomed me to be the man I am.”

”Did he?” he asks with a smirk and I really want to smack it off his face. I only nod in response. ”Then perhaps you’re not the man you present to the world.”

Maybe I’m not. Whatever I am, I’m a better man than he could ever hope to be.

”What’s your point, Alister?”

”The point is, that despite your disdain for me, despite the affair with Elizabeth and me strong arming you to return your services to me, I’m doing this because I’d like a relationship with you.”

A moment of honesty from the best liar I know.

”Slim chance of that happening,” I say with a straight face.

”Perhaps,” he states as he polishes off his Bourbon. ”Have you thought of your legacy Thaddeus? Because I’ve thought of mine.”

”My legacy?”

He nods.

”It’s true, I’ve amassed my wealth and privilege, just as you say, pilfering off the otherwise fine people of New York. There’s more to me than that. There’s more to me as a man than what you think and Thaddeus, I understand why you think otherwise.”

He pauses. Polishing off my Bourbon, I can’t help but be somewhat interested in hearing him out.

”Several years ago when I was alerted to the death of your mother, do you know how torn up I was over that?” he asks, but I refuse to answer. ”The fact is, my private investigator was narrowing down her whereabouts at the time and I was preparing to try and enter her life and by association, yours too.

“Then I heard the rumors.”

”What rumors?”

”The rumors of her being a traitor to your grandfathers cause and as a result, your father gut her like a fish,” he replies angrily. ”In the time since, I’ve done my homework Thaddeus.”

”Yeah?” I say stoically. ”I don’t fucking care man.”

He smiles slightly.

”No women back then in the Illuminatus, except your mother. Your grandfather killed your fathers mother too. I know that, because I do my homework. By all accounts, your father loved my daughter and does it seem likely to you, that your mother would betray your father? And by birthright, you as well?”

The thought has crossed my mind more than once. Trying not to show it, I am absolutely interested in what he has to say at the moment. There was even a time I brought that subject up to Doctor DeVille and questioned what I’ve been lead to believe my entire life about my mother. What I know, is that Caitlyn Duke was stubbornly loyal. She was fiercely protective of her baby boy. While its very little to go on, I have a hard time believing, just as Alister does, that my mother would betray her newborn son who would grow up to one day lead the very entity she supposedly sought to destroy from within.

”Your silence on the subject Thaddeus, tells me you’ve had your own questions about the story you’ve been told.”

”I have,” I inform him without hesitation.

”Were you aware that your grandfather eliminated your grandmother?”

”I was, yeah.”

”Yet he’s still on your pedestal?”

I say nothing at the moment.

”Thaddeus, dear boy, if you think your grandfather had nothing to do with my daughters death, then you’re either ignorant or entirely stupid.”

Swallowing hard, I say nothing.

”He was a master manipulator and a mad man on top of it,” Alister says with a tear in his eye. It isn’t normal for the typically stoic Alister Henry to show emotion. For the first time really, I begin to wonder to myself if he and I might have more in common than maybe either of us would care to admit.

”I’m not saying I’m receptive to some kind of relationship with you Alister, but if that’s something you want, then it has to start with honesty,” I say to him, cutting through the silence. ”Tell me something truthful that I’m not aware of.”

He stands up from his desk and grabs both tumblers, refilling them. Rather than reaching across his desk, he comes around to my side and sits in the chair beside mine as he hands me my glass.

”You remember our last meeting?”

I nod in response.

”You remember when you pulled out your checkbook and wanted to buy Elizabeth’s freedom?”

Again, I nod in response.

”That was my original plan,” he admits. ”When I saw you so willingly offer me money, I changed my mind. I was angry, I was hurt. I felt betrayed by you for leaving me...”

”For stealing Liz you mean,” I interrupt. He shakes his head in response.

”I had no love for her,” he says without any hesitation. ”She’s a fine woman to be sure, but my plan was to… What’s the name of that militant group that wants you dead?”

”The Ares Project,” I remind him with a sigh.

”That’s it.

“The fact is I was planned to take half your fortune and finance the Ares Project’s efforts against you.”

Again, my heart starts to beat its way from my chest.

”By giving them half of your fortune, they’d have been taking their orders from me and while I’d have never allowed them to kill you Thaddeus, I did want you ruined, I wanted you flat broke for your betrayal but when you were willingly, and unprompted, giving me whatever amount I wanted, I realized that you’d have given me your entire fortune if I demanded it, so I realized that money, despite your immense wealth, meant nothing to you.

“I changed my mind on the fly and forced you to come back to work for me.

“Partly because I know you hated it and partly because… it’s the only way to get you to come here without doing something devious in order to prompt you to pay me a visit.”

I don’t know how I feel about any of that, to be perfectly clear. For the time being, I’m gonna ignore his moment of honesty and rewind this chat a little.

”You don’t think the story of my mothers treachery adds up either?” I ask of him, inadvertently admitting that I agree with him.

”No chance,” he says as he shakes his head. ”I don’t have evidence, though I wish I had.”

”If that’s all a lie and if there’s evidence to be had, Alister, I’ll find it.”

”You’ll never find any,” he replies before taking a swallow. ”A mad man your other grandfather might have been, but stupid he was not.”

”No,” I agree with him. ”He wasn’t stupid, but I know something you don’t and that’s that he had memory problems. If he had anything to do with my mom’s death, or the things that lead to it, then evidence exists somewhere,” I inform him.

”A notebook maybe, a cassette tape perhaps. He wasn’t too big on modern technology, so if evidence exists, it’d be something old school like that.”

Common ground with Alister Henry? It’s an odd place to be, honestly.

”Not if he had help,” he counters.

”He wouldn’t have had help,” I retort. ”Everyone was loyal to my father and...” I stop dead in my tracks. There was one man close enough to both my father and grandfather. There was one man that at one time, did play things from both sides after my father questioned his loyalty.

Jacob Anderson.

My fathers right hand man and closest friend.

In fact, I brought it up once to my father and dad agreed that my grandfather would definitely do something like that, but Jake never would have.

”Alister I need to go,” I say as I gulp down the glass of Bourbon and stand up.

”So soon?” he asks looking a little saddened. ”I thought we were bonding.”

”We were… we are,” I correct myself. ”The Collector stuff is gonna have to wait. You brought this up and now I’m obsessed with searching for answers.”

”Mmmm,” he grunts with a nod. ”Will you let me know if you find anything?”

I nod in his direction as I take my leave. To be clear, I don’t think I’ll find anything at all. Yet I need to perform my due diligence and search regardless. The story of my mothers betrayal has never really sat well with me because none of it makes any sense. Unfortunately, if there’s a truth that runs contradictory to what I’ve been lead to believe all these years, I don’t think I’ll ever know. The only people that would know the true story have been in the ground for over five years and I don’t think they’ll be doing any talking.

A man has to try though, right?

Let me be perfectly clear: neither Shawn Wylde nor Finn Kuhn deserve what’s coming to them tomorrow night on Warfare. Neither of them deserve to be schooled in the art of wrestling the way they will be by the likes of myself and Chris Page. While I’d love to sit here in front of this camera and entirely tear them down until there is nothing left to see but broken shells of what once stood men, I’m just not going to do that.

I am a giving and forgiving man and while Finn Kuhn’s expected yet disappointing silence on the subject of even having a match, I do want him arriving in Italy to take his lessons like a man. Just like Shawn Wylde will.

Shawn, I hope you’re listening to what I have to say because I’m about to teach you something. Promo’s are a form of art and while I’m not really the type to belittle or throw insults just for the sake of belittling someone or getting a laugh in response, and while I’d never claim to be the best shit talker in the business, far from it actually, I will say to you Shawn that you need to get your shit together.

You never want to contradict yourself the way you have. You want to come out and admit that you’re in over your head in this one, that’s fine, but that’s like waving the white flag of defeat before we’ve even had a chance to fire up the tanks and fuel up the jets. Then you turn around later on and profess that you’re going to win?

Shawn, my man you can’t have it both ways. You can’t come out here, admit defeat before the war has even started then turn around and say you’re gonna win when you’ve already raised the French, white battle flag of defeat. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? I said I was a giving man, so please, do pay attention and I promise you’ll be better for it later on.

You talk this big game, Shawn. One of not staying down, one of refusing to quit. My friend, I’ve been doing that my entire god damn career and while I’d never admonish another man for refusing to quit and never surrendering a fight simply because they’re in over their head, I will point out that my man, you’re just preaching to the choir.

I love your in-ring style and I have no problem admitting that. The fact is, you can ask my tag team partner just how fucking hard it is to keep me down. His attitude and mine are entirely different, but we fight the same damn way. If someone is gonna legitimately beat Thaddeus Duke they’re gonna god damn earn it. That’s not ego and its not boasting, it’s just stone cold facts.

There’s a reason no one has pinned me or made me tap in the six or seven months that I’ve been back in the business… simply because I’m the embodiment of what it is to be a god damn Lionheart. You really think you have what it takes? Do you, this up and coming wannabe big time star, really think you have what it takes to defeat me? To pin me for a three count? Shawn I admire your heart, I admire your desire, but you’re barking up the wrong god damn tree because while I may like you, I’m not gonna mince words either. I’m not gonna deny the facts in an effort to just simply be nice to the upstart. There’s a reason I wear the Universal championship, there’s a reason my face is on the poster for Snow Job, there’s a reason I’m the face of the franchise and while my heart and my desire and my never stop, never stay down attitude has a lot to do with it, hard work and dedication to what I do takes precedence over all. The will to win, isn’t enough. All the heart in the world, isn’t enough. Not wanting to stay down, just isn’t enough.

See, when I came back to this company last summer, I shot out of the starting gate like a god damn rocket. I stood down some of the best this company has to offer and unless their name is Robbie Bourbon, I beat them all. Why? How? Because of hard work and dedication to my craft. I’m not the best because I say I am, I’m the best because my body of work, specifically since my return to the XWF, speaks for itself. I climb the insurmountable mountain because my hunger and my will was more powerful than anyones.

I respect your desire to beat me Shawn. Everyone should want to beat me. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but wanting to beat me and having the ability to do it or two very different things. Your desire is clearly evident, your ability to do it though? Remains to be seen. And your double talk writes it all over your pretty, I’m assuming, masked face that the doubt you have in your ability to get the job done, has been seen clear as day.

You might think that Chris and I can’t work as a team and can’t put our differences aside, but if there’s one thing Chris and I do have in common, it’s winning. I mean, clearly he doesn’t do it nearly as often as I do, but he likes winning and so do I. He hates losing and so do I. Everyone should, otherwise you’re in the wrong business. Its true. He can’t touch me, I can’t touch him, but if you’ve paid any attention to the XWF from before your arrival here, you’d know that he and I have ripped each other apart. Imagine for a second, Shawn, what we’re capable of when we’re on the same side.

That spells two things. Win for us. Loss for you and Finnegan Kuhn.

I mean, unless you really do want to somehow luck into a win, but let’s face the facts as they are. No one lucks into a victory over the King of the Mountain and his wannabe partner.

I’m legit.

He’s legit.

Jury is out on you two, but it’s pretty obvious what way that jury is leaning: ain’t got what it takes. There’s nothing wrong with that fellas, most others don’t have it either.

But luck can not and will not be your saving grace because myself and Chris Page are just too damn good to succumb to “luck.”

And you know what they say, Shawn… luck is for losers.

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