Post by matt on Sept 19, 2022 6:46:34 GMT -6
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Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
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It is the first good thing to happen to Braddock in quite some time. It seems as if she has been plagued with bad luck at every turn. First her new partner and student, Amelia Stone, got injured. Next she was forcibly teamed up with Danny Darko. She lost to Julian Savell in the finals of the battle for the briefcase in MWE. To add to her professional wrestling woes there were rumors being spread by certain members of her corporate board of directors that a hostile takeover was under way, trying to remove her from power. And lastly, on top of all of that, she learned that her oldest daughter, Melinda Braddock, had started dating Clyde Sutter.
Clyde Sutter, a ruthless man who Glory quickly identified as having an anger management issue and thus kicked him out of her wrestling school, dated Melinda once before. They broke up and Glory was convinced it was because Sutter sexually assaulted her, even though both Melinda and Sutter deny that was the case. Braddock spent over two years of hard work trying to blackball him from even getting a foothold into professional wrestling as punishment for what she believes he did. Yet now he is again dating Melinda, which creates for a very awkward and unsettling situation for The British Bombshell.
Thankfully she has one problem, namely that of Danny Darko, out of her life for good, she is on break from her busy wrestling schedule and can take some time to address the other problems she has been dealing with. All of these problems have been creating major stress for Glory Braddock. This stress cannot be good for anyone’s health and well-being. Perhaps a vacation from it all is exactly what Glory Braddock needs right now? One person who would definitely agree with that is Glory’s younger sister Julia Braddock.
Ever since she went on vacation, Glory has been in Boston, Massachusetts visiting with her mother, Mary Ford-Kurensky. Julia recognizes how vulnerable her older sister is right now due to the stress and pressures of her life and has flown in from London, England to also be with her sister and their mother. Perhaps if there is one person who is more concerned about Glory’s well being than anyone else, it would be Julia, for she is one of the few people outside of Glory’s therapist who is aware of the PTSD that Glory Braddock has been suffering from for many years now. There were times when the PTSD caused was more visible and apparent within Glory Braddock but most of the time she was able to hide it well.
“I don’t know why we could have let the uber driver drop us off right at mom’s doorstep.” Is the whining, complaining voice of Glory Braddock herself. She and her sister are walking down the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The two sisters have bags with bottles inside, mostly of wine and vodka. The wine is for them, the vodka is for their mother who, as a full blooded Russian, enjoys her vodka. Braddock is wearing an ankle length pink skirt, matching pink high heeled pumps, and a white t-shirt. Her long blonde hair hangs down to past the shoulders. The younger of the Braddock girls is walking next to her wearing a classy pair of tight form fitting black dress pants, a silver silk button up blouse, and simple black flats.
“What are you complaining about, Gloria? It’s gorgeous out tonight! The moon is bright, the stars are shining…”
“My feet hurt.”
“That’s your fault.” Julia smirks. “You are the one who wanted to wear heels.”
“That’s because I thought the uber would take us right back to mom’s house! If I had known that you had planned for me to get some unplanned exercise tonight, I would have wore appropriate footwear.”
“What’s wrong?” Julia shrugs her shoulders. “You just beat Danny Darko and Konrad Raab on the same night in the same match…”
“And Christy Matthews.” Glory quickly snaps back, correcting her. Julia rolls her eyes.
“Fine, all three of them. Although you only pinned the two. But you managed to do all that and you are going to let a pair of shoes beat your ass?”
“You’re a real comedian, you know that mate?” The British Bombshell sighs and nods her head. “But I guess you’re right, I just came off of a big win at Rise To Greatness. Why am I complaining?”
“That’s my point exactly. You won and now you’re on vacation. You should be trying to just relax and enjoy yourself.”
“I wish it were that simple, mate. I mean, I suppose things will be a little easier now that my wrestling problem has been dealt with…” she begins, referring to Danny Darko “...but I still have so many other problems that I have to deal with. Like my company for instance…”
“I don’t want to hear about it.” Julia stops her sister from speaking. “You are on vacation, young lady, you should leave your problems at the door.”
“Young lady? Mate, I’m older than you! Besides that, I can’t just leave this problem at the door. I had my company taken from me once before and now I am hearing from a prominent member of the board of directors that there is talk of a faction within the company trying to take it from me again.”
“Yeah, talk from someone who we both know has his eyes on a more prominent spot on the Board of Directors, and having you as his ally would help his bid immensely.” Julia answers back. “Don’t you see, Glory? This guy…Floyd Ryan? He’s just using you to promote his own agenda.”
“But what if he is right?” Glory asks. “I have to take this threat seriously. I have to at least consider the chance that he is telling the truth.”
“From what little you told me, he thinks that there is a group within the company trying to put Aurora Alan in charge of the company, am I right?”
“That’s the gist of it, yeah.” Glory answers with a nod of her head.
“You and I both know that Aurora is almost too pure to be true. She would never betray you like that.”
“She may not…but what is to stop others who are not pure from forcing me out of power? Aurora would be next in line to take over as a result. I agree that Aurora probably wouldn’t intentionally betray me, but there are people within my company still loyal to her brother who really was scum of the earth. They would probably settle for having his sister in charge over me.”
“Why don’t you just confront Aurora about this?”
“I did. That shows you how much I do trust her…but I still don’t trust her enough to just blindly leave this alone and let her handle this. I don’t trust Floyd Ryan, either. You make a good point, he probably has his own agenda.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I think I’m going to ask mother for her advice.”
“Oh well that’s a great idea.” Julia beams happily, seemingly pleased with her older sister. “When we’re done visiting the family here in Boston, you can fly back to Miami and see Mother. She did teach you everything you know about business and how the corporate world works. Surely she would know how to handle this situation.”
“Huh?” Glory now looks thoroughly confused, but only for a moment. She realizes what Julia meant and she chuckles softly. “Oh, no, no, no, not Aphrodite. I meant OUR mother. Not your ‘mother.’” Glory says with a smirk on her face.
“Why not Aphrodite?”
“I would rather not get her involved in this, Jules. And you know why. She did something to my mind, I don’t…” Glory shakes her head “...I don’t know what, but I do know a big part of my PTSD is because of her. I don’t want to involve myself with her and risk reigniting my mental issues along with all of the other problems I’m currently dealing with.”
Julia sighs and nods her head. “I suppose you’re right. I just thought that her knowledge of boardroom politics would help.”
“Maybe it would, but let’s face facts, Jules, she would be more of a hindrance than a help. I mean, the woman has convinced herself she is royalty, she lives in a god damn fantasy. And I have had to watch you live that same insane fantasy along with her and it makes me sick!”
“Yeah, I remember.” Julia’s face suddenly turns into a nasty scowl. “You had me institutionalized over it.”
“Yeah…and I’m sorry about that…” Glory sighs and shakes her head “...I thought I was helping you. But I was wrong. I just need to accept that if you want to live in that woman’s insane fantasy world then you can. But I tried once, and it drove me to the edge. I kept myself from falling off that edge. But the PTSD still lingers.” She shakes her head. “I have too many problems on my plate to deal with without the risk of adding that one as well.”
“I suppose you’re right, Gloria.”
“I know I’m right.” She sighs deeply. “You know I hate to admit it, and it is a secret that I keep closely guarded, but my mind is much more fragile than anyone would think. I just found out my daughter is dating Clyde Sutter again, my company may be plotting against me, my mind is already being stressed to its limits, Jules.”
“And that’s why you need to take a break.” She smiles again, trying to brighten the mood. “Forget about these problems. And definitely don’t put them on OUR mother’s plate.”
“I just need advice, that’s all.” Glory insists. “And our mother is one of the few people who I believe in, who I know I can trust not to lead me astray.”
There is a brief moment of silence between the sisters. Julia then approaches and embraces Glory in a hug. “Look, I’m sorry if I got angry there for a moment. It’s just that…”
“No, you have no need to apologize. If anything, its me who should apologize. You’re right, I tried to institutionalize you for a life choice you made. It wasn’t my right to do that. I’m just lucky you did forgive me.”
“Hey, its water under the bridge, Gloria. We live, we learn, we make mistakes, we move on. Right?”
“Right.” The siblings turn and continue their walk through the suburbs of Boston. The walk isn’t much farther. And in just a few more minutes after their warm sisterly embrace came to an end, they stop in front of a modest Victorian style home. All of the lights are on which tells the sisters that their mother is home.
“It looks like she’s home.”
“Come on, let’s go.” They approach the front door. Glory tries the door but it is locked. But the oldest of the sisters happens to know where Mary Kurensky keeps the spare key. She grabs a potted plant and moves the pot. Underneath is a small key. She picks it up and inserts it into the door. She unlocks the door and then opens the door. Glory walks across the threshold followed by Julia.
“Mom! We’re here!” Glory exclaims. “Your favorite daughters!”
“Your only daughters!” Julia chimes in. Glory giggles a little. They wait for a few moments for their mother’s response but they hear nothing. “Mom?” Julia calls out again. Again they wait but again there is no response. Glory motions down the hall.
“Let’s try the living room.” Julia nods her head in agreement as she follows her older sister down the hall and then into a room, the living room to be exact. “Mom? Are you in here?” Glory asks the question but a quick scan of the living room clearly shows that it, too, is empty. “Where could she be?”
“Wait…” Julia pauses “...I hear running water from the kitchen. She must be there.”
“Hold on, mom!” Glory calls out. “We have the alcohol right here!” They make their way out of the living room and over into another door that leads into the kitchen. They find that the water is running in the sink and, in fact, the water is running over. But then they see why…lying there on the floor, lifeless, is their mother.
“Mom!” Glory is stunned. Without thinking she drops her bag containing wine and vodka, causing them to hit the floor and shatter as a result. But at this point The British Bombshell doesn’t care. She only cares about getting to her mother’s side and checking on her. She checks for a pulse. “No pulse…” she goes to her mouth and then her chest “...she isn’t breathing…” she looks up at Julia incredulously “...CALL THE DAMN AMBULANCE! CALL 911! CALL SOMEONE!”
“Yeah…yeah…on it!” Julia rushes out of the kitchen to get a phone. Glory immediately cradles her mother’s lifeless body next to her.
“Mommy!”
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Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
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Everyone needs a vacation. Glory Braddock certainly needed a vacation and was lucky to have one long vacation following the roaster of great disappointment at MWE Barcelona followed by great success at SCW Rise To Greatness. She just wasn’t expecting to have to use it for this particular reason. She was not planning to stay in Boston with her family this long. She certainly was not expecting to have to prepare for her mother’s funeral while on vacation. But on the night of August 5th Maria Kurensky, who had her name changed to Mary Ford upon moving from the Soviet Union to the United States to escape persecution, the woman who gave birth to Glory and Julia Braddock, has now passed away from a massive and sudden heart attack. For Glory and Julia, this means that they have no parents left. Both are dead. They are alone.
One week has passed and the family are now receiving friends in the fellowship hall of Mary’s home church, Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Parish. Thankfully for the two sisters, they do not have to handle this terrible situation all alone. In this large fellowship hall you can see members of the extended family; Mary’s nieces, Angelica Jones and Kayla Jones. Angelica’s daughters, Marie, Kimberly, and Jessica are there. This is just as hard for them as it is for Glory and Julia. Angelica and Kayla lost their mother when they were both teenagers and their father almost never came around before he finally passed away. Mary was almost like a surrogate parent for them. One of the few people here to try and console Glory is her husband, Kurt Logan, who flew in from Florida as soon as he could.
The British Bombshell is wearing an all black dress with a hemline that stops at the knee, dark stockings, black patent leather high heel pumps, and a black blazer. Kurt stands next to her with his arm wrapped around her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.
“How are you holding up, babe?”
“Not very good.” Glory admits quietly. Kurt rubs her back.
“It’ll be ok. I’m here for you.”
“Thanks, Kurt.”
The priest, a balding man dressed in all black with a white clerical collar named Father Heiney, approaches the pair. Glory looks up with tears in her eyes. “I am sorry for your loss, Ms. Braddock. I promise to pray a rosary for the repose of the soul of your dear mother.”
“Thank you, Father. Everything you and this Parish have done for my family…” she sighs “...I appreciate it.” The priest turns and walks off. Julia Braddock is the next. She is dressed similarly to Glory, they almost look like twins in their matching all black outfits. Glory immediately leaves her husband and embraces Julia in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you stayed, Jules!”
“Where would you expect me to be?”
“I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “I just need someone right now. Anyone. Thank you for being here for me.”
“Of course, Gloria.” Julia clasps her sister’s hands tightly. She gazes lovingly into her eyes. “We both need each other right now more than ever but believe me, we can make it.”
“I’m not sure I can. I already told you about my mind. All the stress, all the pressure, and now this on top of it all.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” Glory insists. “You don’t know. You were making the phone call last week. I was there holding our mother’s corpse in my hands hoping against all hope, praying that God would breathe life back into her but my prayers were left unanswered!” Her voice grows in decibels. “I feel like I’m losing control.”
“You can survive, Gloria. You are tougher than this. WE are tougher than this.” She points to Angelica and Kayla, their cousins, over in a corner. “Look at them. They have had to survive this same situation for much longer than us and it only made their relationship stronger. We may have lost our dad and now our mom, but we still have each other.”
“No!” Glory pushes Julia away from her. “No! No! Shut up!”
“Glory, calm down…”
“No! You’re wrong!” She points an accusatory finger at her younger sister. “You are not alone! You have a ‘mother’, you claim Aphrodite as your mother because you choose to live that insane fantasy with her! You choose to be as crazy as her! But what about me?! I choose to live in reality but I have no one, not one single person, to help me through it because NO ONE understands what I’m going through!” Kurt tries to approach his wife from behind but Glory pulls away from him as well. “No! I want to be alone!”
Braddock rushes past Kurt, Julia, and everyone else. She quickly makes an exit out of the fellowship hall and outside underneath the moonlit night in Boston, Massachusetts. There she drops down to her knees and stares up at the moon. She lets out a wail of grief and anguish.
“God! If you’re there…if you exist…WHY did you take her from me?! One of the few people I trust and you took her from me! I have no one!” Glory shakes her head. “No one at all…” her voice trails off as she buries her face in her hands and begins to bawl. She is crying so hard and so intensely she doesn’t even notice someone approaching her from behind. She doesn’t notice that person kneeling down next to her and wrapping their arms around her to comfort her. Glory is in so much grief to notice that she is being held in someone else’s arms right now.
“She went outside.” Kurt says as she and Julia exit the fellowship hall in search of Glory. They luck up as they immediately find her right there, just outside the door, crying as she is being held by none other than her former mentor, the woman whose relationship with Julia she despises and detests.
Glory is being held and comforted by Aphrodite Noel.
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London, England
Off Camera
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It is a closely guarded secret of Glory Braddock’s that she has post traumatic stress disorder. And any stresses, any pressures that accumulate within her professional or personal life, are enough to potentially trigger The British Bombshell to potentially start acting out, to begin the process of a mental breakdown. Very few know of this mental disorder that Glory has been dealing with for much of her adult life. Due to her pride and reputation’s sake, she has kept it secret from nearly everyone. Only the closest of family knows about it. Even many of her close friends and extended family do not know about it. One individual who does know about her mental issues is her younger sister, Julia Braddock. Having deeply personal psychological problems that they have had to battle through is something that the siblings have in common. Julia, herself, had to battle addiction early on in her wrestling career. Unlike Glory, Julia was up front about her drug addiction battle. She does not hide from it. She does not try and keep her past problems, and potentially future problem were she to ever fall off the wagon, hidden from everyone. Julia acknowledges her past. She also recognizes that her sister needs help now more than ever.
Glory Braddock’s psyche was already beginning to show signs of weakness with the rapidly spreading rumors of a hostile takeover within her company and then the revelation that her daughter, Melinda Braddock, was dating Clyde Sutter again. Unfortunately now her psyche has taken another major hit with the recent passing of her mother, Mary Ford-Kurensky. Both sisters have taken their time to grieve, including Julia, but Glory has had the most difficult time of it. She has taken this loss the hardest and Julia is concerned for her older sister’s well being. Her psyche was already weak before, after now suffering the tremendous loss of her mother, how fragile is her state of mind? It must be severely cracked, and how much more hits can Braddock take before her mind completely goes?
It is for this reason that Julia has insisted that her older sister spend some weekends with her. In her mind this is the perfect opportunity for them to bond as sisters. Their own cousins, Angelica and Kayla Jones, grew closer after they lost their parents. Perhaps Glory and Julia can grow closer in the aftermath of the loss of their mother? But Julia also wants to use this opportunity to watch over Glory and get a feel for what her state of mind currently is.
This particular weekend was unique. The British Bombshell chose to stay an extra day with her younger sibling. It is Monday morning, the weekend is over and the plan is for the siblings to get some joint training in at their father’s famed wrestling academy. Both are active professional wrestlers and Braddock will need to be in top condition and training regimen could do her some good. That was the plan for this afternoon. But plans change and now Glory Braddock finds herself in her late father’s bedroom. She is staring at a bookcase which has several pictures on it…pictures of happier times, when she and Julia were just little girls, when Mary and their father Glenn were married and happy. Before they got divorced, before they both eventually died. Before all the pain and heartache. They were just happy.
Behind Glory is a king size bed where Glenn Braddock used to sleep. And resting on that bed is a loaded pistol that was once owned by her late father.
“Gloria, where the bloody hell are you?” Comes the voice of her younger sister from down the hall. Glory doesn’t even pay attention. She remains mesmerized at the pictures on the bookcase. “I called you nearly twenty minutes ago, where are you?” Glory still doesn’t listen. Eventually the door to the bedroom opens and Julia walks in. “Glory what are you…” the younger Braddock stops dead in her tracks. She notices Glory frozen in place, as if she were in a trance, almost hypnotized by the pictures. But what really bothers Julia is the weapon resting on the bed.
“Uh, Glory…” she points to the gun “...is that dad’s old pistol?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it loaded?”
“It is.”
Julia swallows hard. She knew her sister was taking the loss of their mother rough but she had thought she had made progress, she thought she was beginning to heal. This time together that they had spent, she thought it had helped Glory to move on. Julia had no idea Glory was still suffering, suffering to the extent that she was considering this as a way out. The younger Braddock slowly and cautiously makes her way closer towards Glory. She hopes that she won’t make a sudden movement towards the weapon.
“Gloria…you are not planning to use that, are you?”
“No, I’m not.” This answer from Glory causes Julia to let out a big sigh of relief. “I won’t deny it, there were time in the first week after mom died that I seriously thought about it. There was at least one time I had it all planned out.” She sighs. “I was just too weak to pull the trigger.”
“That isn’t a weakness. It is a strength.” Julia says as she gently wraps her arm around her sister’s shoulder. Then they sit down on the edge of the bed. With her free hand Julia moves the gun away from them.
“It’s funny…” Glory chuckles softly “...I used to quietly look down on Angelica for her suicide attempts. She tried at least three times, if I recall. But last month I tried to end it all myself. I suppose I’m just as weak as Angelica.”
“Angelica isn’t weak and neither are you.”
“Last month I wanted to take the easy way out.” Glory says as she looks at her sister with a stoic glare. “What do you call that?”
“I call that grieving. You were hurting and in pain. You lost someone so important to you, how does the mind cope with that?”
It is a good question. How does anyone cope with that kind of loss? For your average person, coping with the loss of a loved one is hard enough. For someone like Glory Braddock who has suffered in the past from PTSD, who is currently dealing with other stressors such as the threat of her company being taken from her, her daughter dating a man who Glory is convinced is a sexual predator, all of this combined with the death of her beloved mother, how does Glory cope with this trauma?
“How do you do it, Jules?”
“What do you mean?”
“You coped with father’s death fairly well. Even this, you have held up strong, much stronger than I have held up. How did you cope?”
“Honestly, Glory, I didn’t cope much better than you. I hurt as well, just like you. I just had my own way of coping.” She smiles at her older sister. “We always have dealt with our problems differently, sis. You will get through this just as I have.”
“Just do me one favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t tell anyone about the suicide attempt. And I mean no one, not even the people we usually trust like Sophie and Mark, don’t even tell your boyfriend JaMarcus.”
“Does Kurt know?” Julia asks curiously. Glory shakes her head.
“He doesn’t even know. This secret doesn’t leave this room, understand? If rumor got out that I attempted suicide last month, the board of directors would get the idea that I was mentally unfit to run my company. It would definitely be grounds to remove me from office.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep my mouth shut.” Julia says with a nod of her head. “But ONLY if you seek therapy.”
“I don’t need therapy.”
“Yes, you do.” Julia says sternly. She even gives Glory a rough shakes, almost as if to wake her up back into reality. “Look at you and all that you have dealt with lately. It is enough to make anyone crack. And yet not only are you dealing with that but you are still insistent on going forward. You have matches this week. All of this stress weighing on your mind is too much for you, Gloria.”
“I admit that there has been a great deal weighing on my mind lately.” Glory sighs deeply, reluctantly agreeing with Julia. “I have members of my board of directors spreading wild rumors about a hostile takeover…are these rumors true or are these individuals just trying to use me and manipulate me for their own gain? My daughter, sweet Melinda, has been corrupted by that monster Clyde Sutter. Our mother has died.” She shakes her head. “It would be just easier if I could forget.”
“Exactly, that’s what you need to do.” Julia gently rubs her sister’s back. “Forget it all, forget the company and Sutter. And try to move on from mom…don’t forget but try and move on. Push all of this stress out of your mind.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Glory shakes her head. “I want to forget all of it. I want to forget about every single bit of this. This is NOT my cross to bear! This is NOT the life I want to live, Jules!”
“It isn’t that simple.” Julia says with a little grin. “What you’re asking for is fantasy and you know it. Somehow you have to find a way to fight through the pain.”
“It isn’t fantasy.” She points a finger at her sister. “You do it. You do it all the time, or need I remind you of your relationship with Aphrodite?”
“That’s different.”
“How? You live in her fantasy. You feed into her fantasy of her being royalty and you being her daughter. You did that to help you kick the drug habit. But now I see you’re using it as a coping mechanism to help you with our real mother’s death.”
“I did not choose to become “play into Aphrodite’s fantasy” simply to cope with my drug addiction. Aphrodite helped me kick my drug habit. She paid for my rehabilitation and kept it quiet, secret, until I was ready to take it public. I was eternally grateful for what she did and I was willing to do anything to repay her. She is eccentric, I will give you that, and she wanted a daughter. So I gave her that. I’m not “eccentric like her, as you put it. I am just trying to repay someone who was kind to me. But what you are proposing really is to live in a fantasy world. You are proposing to take up a fantasy in order to numb your pain. That is…it’s…”
“Is it insane?” Glory asks. Julia is silent. “You can say it. And maybe I am going crazy? Maybe I should just give in to the insanity? Like I said, it will numb the pain.”
“I am not going to tell you what to do, Gloria, and far be it for me to tell you not to once again bend the knee to Aphrodite. She did help you once before. She taught you everything you now know about the business world. And you took that knowledge and built yourself a corporate empire in a very short amount of time. In exchange you spent two years appeasing her, giving her what she wanted in exchange for the knowledge she gave you. Are you prepared to go all in on what you once called insanity? Because you may not be able to pull yourself out if you do.”
“I don’t…” she shrugs her shoulders “...I don’t know…”
Julia rests her hand on Glory’s shoulder. “Just go to a therapist, Glory. Go to a therapist before you do anything rash. See what the therapist suggests and go from there. Promise me that, ok?” Glory sighs and nods her head.
“Fine. You win, Jules. I’ll see a therapist.”
Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
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It is the first good thing to happen to Braddock in quite some time. It seems as if she has been plagued with bad luck at every turn. First her new partner and student, Amelia Stone, got injured. Next she was forcibly teamed up with Danny Darko. She lost to Julian Savell in the finals of the battle for the briefcase in MWE. To add to her professional wrestling woes there were rumors being spread by certain members of her corporate board of directors that a hostile takeover was under way, trying to remove her from power. And lastly, on top of all of that, she learned that her oldest daughter, Melinda Braddock, had started dating Clyde Sutter.
Clyde Sutter, a ruthless man who Glory quickly identified as having an anger management issue and thus kicked him out of her wrestling school, dated Melinda once before. They broke up and Glory was convinced it was because Sutter sexually assaulted her, even though both Melinda and Sutter deny that was the case. Braddock spent over two years of hard work trying to blackball him from even getting a foothold into professional wrestling as punishment for what she believes he did. Yet now he is again dating Melinda, which creates for a very awkward and unsettling situation for The British Bombshell.
Thankfully she has one problem, namely that of Danny Darko, out of her life for good, she is on break from her busy wrestling schedule and can take some time to address the other problems she has been dealing with. All of these problems have been creating major stress for Glory Braddock. This stress cannot be good for anyone’s health and well-being. Perhaps a vacation from it all is exactly what Glory Braddock needs right now? One person who would definitely agree with that is Glory’s younger sister Julia Braddock.
Ever since she went on vacation, Glory has been in Boston, Massachusetts visiting with her mother, Mary Ford-Kurensky. Julia recognizes how vulnerable her older sister is right now due to the stress and pressures of her life and has flown in from London, England to also be with her sister and their mother. Perhaps if there is one person who is more concerned about Glory’s well being than anyone else, it would be Julia, for she is one of the few people outside of Glory’s therapist who is aware of the PTSD that Glory Braddock has been suffering from for many years now. There were times when the PTSD caused was more visible and apparent within Glory Braddock but most of the time she was able to hide it well.
“I don’t know why we could have let the uber driver drop us off right at mom’s doorstep.” Is the whining, complaining voice of Glory Braddock herself. She and her sister are walking down the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The two sisters have bags with bottles inside, mostly of wine and vodka. The wine is for them, the vodka is for their mother who, as a full blooded Russian, enjoys her vodka. Braddock is wearing an ankle length pink skirt, matching pink high heeled pumps, and a white t-shirt. Her long blonde hair hangs down to past the shoulders. The younger of the Braddock girls is walking next to her wearing a classy pair of tight form fitting black dress pants, a silver silk button up blouse, and simple black flats.
“What are you complaining about, Gloria? It’s gorgeous out tonight! The moon is bright, the stars are shining…”
“My feet hurt.”
“That’s your fault.” Julia smirks. “You are the one who wanted to wear heels.”
“That’s because I thought the uber would take us right back to mom’s house! If I had known that you had planned for me to get some unplanned exercise tonight, I would have wore appropriate footwear.”
“What’s wrong?” Julia shrugs her shoulders. “You just beat Danny Darko and Konrad Raab on the same night in the same match…”
“And Christy Matthews.” Glory quickly snaps back, correcting her. Julia rolls her eyes.
“Fine, all three of them. Although you only pinned the two. But you managed to do all that and you are going to let a pair of shoes beat your ass?”
“You’re a real comedian, you know that mate?” The British Bombshell sighs and nods her head. “But I guess you’re right, I just came off of a big win at Rise To Greatness. Why am I complaining?”
“That’s my point exactly. You won and now you’re on vacation. You should be trying to just relax and enjoy yourself.”
“I wish it were that simple, mate. I mean, I suppose things will be a little easier now that my wrestling problem has been dealt with…” she begins, referring to Danny Darko “...but I still have so many other problems that I have to deal with. Like my company for instance…”
“I don’t want to hear about it.” Julia stops her sister from speaking. “You are on vacation, young lady, you should leave your problems at the door.”
“Young lady? Mate, I’m older than you! Besides that, I can’t just leave this problem at the door. I had my company taken from me once before and now I am hearing from a prominent member of the board of directors that there is talk of a faction within the company trying to take it from me again.”
“Yeah, talk from someone who we both know has his eyes on a more prominent spot on the Board of Directors, and having you as his ally would help his bid immensely.” Julia answers back. “Don’t you see, Glory? This guy…Floyd Ryan? He’s just using you to promote his own agenda.”
“But what if he is right?” Glory asks. “I have to take this threat seriously. I have to at least consider the chance that he is telling the truth.”
“From what little you told me, he thinks that there is a group within the company trying to put Aurora Alan in charge of the company, am I right?”
“That’s the gist of it, yeah.” Glory answers with a nod of her head.
“You and I both know that Aurora is almost too pure to be true. She would never betray you like that.”
“She may not…but what is to stop others who are not pure from forcing me out of power? Aurora would be next in line to take over as a result. I agree that Aurora probably wouldn’t intentionally betray me, but there are people within my company still loyal to her brother who really was scum of the earth. They would probably settle for having his sister in charge over me.”
“Why don’t you just confront Aurora about this?”
“I did. That shows you how much I do trust her…but I still don’t trust her enough to just blindly leave this alone and let her handle this. I don’t trust Floyd Ryan, either. You make a good point, he probably has his own agenda.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I think I’m going to ask mother for her advice.”
“Oh well that’s a great idea.” Julia beams happily, seemingly pleased with her older sister. “When we’re done visiting the family here in Boston, you can fly back to Miami and see Mother. She did teach you everything you know about business and how the corporate world works. Surely she would know how to handle this situation.”
“Huh?” Glory now looks thoroughly confused, but only for a moment. She realizes what Julia meant and she chuckles softly. “Oh, no, no, no, not Aphrodite. I meant OUR mother. Not your ‘mother.’” Glory says with a smirk on her face.
“Why not Aphrodite?”
“I would rather not get her involved in this, Jules. And you know why. She did something to my mind, I don’t…” Glory shakes her head “...I don’t know what, but I do know a big part of my PTSD is because of her. I don’t want to involve myself with her and risk reigniting my mental issues along with all of the other problems I’m currently dealing with.”
Julia sighs and nods her head. “I suppose you’re right. I just thought that her knowledge of boardroom politics would help.”
“Maybe it would, but let’s face facts, Jules, she would be more of a hindrance than a help. I mean, the woman has convinced herself she is royalty, she lives in a god damn fantasy. And I have had to watch you live that same insane fantasy along with her and it makes me sick!”
“Yeah, I remember.” Julia’s face suddenly turns into a nasty scowl. “You had me institutionalized over it.”
“Yeah…and I’m sorry about that…” Glory sighs and shakes her head “...I thought I was helping you. But I was wrong. I just need to accept that if you want to live in that woman’s insane fantasy world then you can. But I tried once, and it drove me to the edge. I kept myself from falling off that edge. But the PTSD still lingers.” She shakes her head. “I have too many problems on my plate to deal with without the risk of adding that one as well.”
“I suppose you’re right, Gloria.”
“I know I’m right.” She sighs deeply. “You know I hate to admit it, and it is a secret that I keep closely guarded, but my mind is much more fragile than anyone would think. I just found out my daughter is dating Clyde Sutter again, my company may be plotting against me, my mind is already being stressed to its limits, Jules.”
“And that’s why you need to take a break.” She smiles again, trying to brighten the mood. “Forget about these problems. And definitely don’t put them on OUR mother’s plate.”
“I just need advice, that’s all.” Glory insists. “And our mother is one of the few people who I believe in, who I know I can trust not to lead me astray.”
There is a brief moment of silence between the sisters. Julia then approaches and embraces Glory in a hug. “Look, I’m sorry if I got angry there for a moment. It’s just that…”
“No, you have no need to apologize. If anything, its me who should apologize. You’re right, I tried to institutionalize you for a life choice you made. It wasn’t my right to do that. I’m just lucky you did forgive me.”
“Hey, its water under the bridge, Gloria. We live, we learn, we make mistakes, we move on. Right?”
“Right.” The siblings turn and continue their walk through the suburbs of Boston. The walk isn’t much farther. And in just a few more minutes after their warm sisterly embrace came to an end, they stop in front of a modest Victorian style home. All of the lights are on which tells the sisters that their mother is home.
“It looks like she’s home.”
“Come on, let’s go.” They approach the front door. Glory tries the door but it is locked. But the oldest of the sisters happens to know where Mary Kurensky keeps the spare key. She grabs a potted plant and moves the pot. Underneath is a small key. She picks it up and inserts it into the door. She unlocks the door and then opens the door. Glory walks across the threshold followed by Julia.
“Mom! We’re here!” Glory exclaims. “Your favorite daughters!”
“Your only daughters!” Julia chimes in. Glory giggles a little. They wait for a few moments for their mother’s response but they hear nothing. “Mom?” Julia calls out again. Again they wait but again there is no response. Glory motions down the hall.
“Let’s try the living room.” Julia nods her head in agreement as she follows her older sister down the hall and then into a room, the living room to be exact. “Mom? Are you in here?” Glory asks the question but a quick scan of the living room clearly shows that it, too, is empty. “Where could she be?”
“Wait…” Julia pauses “...I hear running water from the kitchen. She must be there.”
“Hold on, mom!” Glory calls out. “We have the alcohol right here!” They make their way out of the living room and over into another door that leads into the kitchen. They find that the water is running in the sink and, in fact, the water is running over. But then they see why…lying there on the floor, lifeless, is their mother.
“Mom!” Glory is stunned. Without thinking she drops her bag containing wine and vodka, causing them to hit the floor and shatter as a result. But at this point The British Bombshell doesn’t care. She only cares about getting to her mother’s side and checking on her. She checks for a pulse. “No pulse…” she goes to her mouth and then her chest “...she isn’t breathing…” she looks up at Julia incredulously “...CALL THE DAMN AMBULANCE! CALL 911! CALL SOMEONE!”
“Yeah…yeah…on it!” Julia rushes out of the kitchen to get a phone. Glory immediately cradles her mother’s lifeless body next to her.
“Mommy!”
==========
Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
==========
Everyone needs a vacation. Glory Braddock certainly needed a vacation and was lucky to have one long vacation following the roaster of great disappointment at MWE Barcelona followed by great success at SCW Rise To Greatness. She just wasn’t expecting to have to use it for this particular reason. She was not planning to stay in Boston with her family this long. She certainly was not expecting to have to prepare for her mother’s funeral while on vacation. But on the night of August 5th Maria Kurensky, who had her name changed to Mary Ford upon moving from the Soviet Union to the United States to escape persecution, the woman who gave birth to Glory and Julia Braddock, has now passed away from a massive and sudden heart attack. For Glory and Julia, this means that they have no parents left. Both are dead. They are alone.
One week has passed and the family are now receiving friends in the fellowship hall of Mary’s home church, Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Parish. Thankfully for the two sisters, they do not have to handle this terrible situation all alone. In this large fellowship hall you can see members of the extended family; Mary’s nieces, Angelica Jones and Kayla Jones. Angelica’s daughters, Marie, Kimberly, and Jessica are there. This is just as hard for them as it is for Glory and Julia. Angelica and Kayla lost their mother when they were both teenagers and their father almost never came around before he finally passed away. Mary was almost like a surrogate parent for them. One of the few people here to try and console Glory is her husband, Kurt Logan, who flew in from Florida as soon as he could.
The British Bombshell is wearing an all black dress with a hemline that stops at the knee, dark stockings, black patent leather high heel pumps, and a black blazer. Kurt stands next to her with his arm wrapped around her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.
“How are you holding up, babe?”
“Not very good.” Glory admits quietly. Kurt rubs her back.
“It’ll be ok. I’m here for you.”
“Thanks, Kurt.”
The priest, a balding man dressed in all black with a white clerical collar named Father Heiney, approaches the pair. Glory looks up with tears in her eyes. “I am sorry for your loss, Ms. Braddock. I promise to pray a rosary for the repose of the soul of your dear mother.”
“Thank you, Father. Everything you and this Parish have done for my family…” she sighs “...I appreciate it.” The priest turns and walks off. Julia Braddock is the next. She is dressed similarly to Glory, they almost look like twins in their matching all black outfits. Glory immediately leaves her husband and embraces Julia in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you stayed, Jules!”
“Where would you expect me to be?”
“I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “I just need someone right now. Anyone. Thank you for being here for me.”
“Of course, Gloria.” Julia clasps her sister’s hands tightly. She gazes lovingly into her eyes. “We both need each other right now more than ever but believe me, we can make it.”
“I’m not sure I can. I already told you about my mind. All the stress, all the pressure, and now this on top of it all.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” Glory insists. “You don’t know. You were making the phone call last week. I was there holding our mother’s corpse in my hands hoping against all hope, praying that God would breathe life back into her but my prayers were left unanswered!” Her voice grows in decibels. “I feel like I’m losing control.”
“You can survive, Gloria. You are tougher than this. WE are tougher than this.” She points to Angelica and Kayla, their cousins, over in a corner. “Look at them. They have had to survive this same situation for much longer than us and it only made their relationship stronger. We may have lost our dad and now our mom, but we still have each other.”
“No!” Glory pushes Julia away from her. “No! No! Shut up!”
“Glory, calm down…”
“No! You’re wrong!” She points an accusatory finger at her younger sister. “You are not alone! You have a ‘mother’, you claim Aphrodite as your mother because you choose to live that insane fantasy with her! You choose to be as crazy as her! But what about me?! I choose to live in reality but I have no one, not one single person, to help me through it because NO ONE understands what I’m going through!” Kurt tries to approach his wife from behind but Glory pulls away from him as well. “No! I want to be alone!”
Braddock rushes past Kurt, Julia, and everyone else. She quickly makes an exit out of the fellowship hall and outside underneath the moonlit night in Boston, Massachusetts. There she drops down to her knees and stares up at the moon. She lets out a wail of grief and anguish.
“God! If you’re there…if you exist…WHY did you take her from me?! One of the few people I trust and you took her from me! I have no one!” Glory shakes her head. “No one at all…” her voice trails off as she buries her face in her hands and begins to bawl. She is crying so hard and so intensely she doesn’t even notice someone approaching her from behind. She doesn’t notice that person kneeling down next to her and wrapping their arms around her to comfort her. Glory is in so much grief to notice that she is being held in someone else’s arms right now.
“She went outside.” Kurt says as she and Julia exit the fellowship hall in search of Glory. They luck up as they immediately find her right there, just outside the door, crying as she is being held by none other than her former mentor, the woman whose relationship with Julia she despises and detests.
Glory is being held and comforted by Aphrodite Noel.
==========
London, England
Off Camera
==========
It is a closely guarded secret of Glory Braddock’s that she has post traumatic stress disorder. And any stresses, any pressures that accumulate within her professional or personal life, are enough to potentially trigger The British Bombshell to potentially start acting out, to begin the process of a mental breakdown. Very few know of this mental disorder that Glory has been dealing with for much of her adult life. Due to her pride and reputation’s sake, she has kept it secret from nearly everyone. Only the closest of family knows about it. Even many of her close friends and extended family do not know about it. One individual who does know about her mental issues is her younger sister, Julia Braddock. Having deeply personal psychological problems that they have had to battle through is something that the siblings have in common. Julia, herself, had to battle addiction early on in her wrestling career. Unlike Glory, Julia was up front about her drug addiction battle. She does not hide from it. She does not try and keep her past problems, and potentially future problem were she to ever fall off the wagon, hidden from everyone. Julia acknowledges her past. She also recognizes that her sister needs help now more than ever.
Glory Braddock’s psyche was already beginning to show signs of weakness with the rapidly spreading rumors of a hostile takeover within her company and then the revelation that her daughter, Melinda Braddock, was dating Clyde Sutter again. Unfortunately now her psyche has taken another major hit with the recent passing of her mother, Mary Ford-Kurensky. Both sisters have taken their time to grieve, including Julia, but Glory has had the most difficult time of it. She has taken this loss the hardest and Julia is concerned for her older sister’s well being. Her psyche was already weak before, after now suffering the tremendous loss of her mother, how fragile is her state of mind? It must be severely cracked, and how much more hits can Braddock take before her mind completely goes?
It is for this reason that Julia has insisted that her older sister spend some weekends with her. In her mind this is the perfect opportunity for them to bond as sisters. Their own cousins, Angelica and Kayla Jones, grew closer after they lost their parents. Perhaps Glory and Julia can grow closer in the aftermath of the loss of their mother? But Julia also wants to use this opportunity to watch over Glory and get a feel for what her state of mind currently is.
This particular weekend was unique. The British Bombshell chose to stay an extra day with her younger sibling. It is Monday morning, the weekend is over and the plan is for the siblings to get some joint training in at their father’s famed wrestling academy. Both are active professional wrestlers and Braddock will need to be in top condition and training regimen could do her some good. That was the plan for this afternoon. But plans change and now Glory Braddock finds herself in her late father’s bedroom. She is staring at a bookcase which has several pictures on it…pictures of happier times, when she and Julia were just little girls, when Mary and their father Glenn were married and happy. Before they got divorced, before they both eventually died. Before all the pain and heartache. They were just happy.
Behind Glory is a king size bed where Glenn Braddock used to sleep. And resting on that bed is a loaded pistol that was once owned by her late father.
“Gloria, where the bloody hell are you?” Comes the voice of her younger sister from down the hall. Glory doesn’t even pay attention. She remains mesmerized at the pictures on the bookcase. “I called you nearly twenty minutes ago, where are you?” Glory still doesn’t listen. Eventually the door to the bedroom opens and Julia walks in. “Glory what are you…” the younger Braddock stops dead in her tracks. She notices Glory frozen in place, as if she were in a trance, almost hypnotized by the pictures. But what really bothers Julia is the weapon resting on the bed.
“Uh, Glory…” she points to the gun “...is that dad’s old pistol?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it loaded?”
“It is.”
Julia swallows hard. She knew her sister was taking the loss of their mother rough but she had thought she had made progress, she thought she was beginning to heal. This time together that they had spent, she thought it had helped Glory to move on. Julia had no idea Glory was still suffering, suffering to the extent that she was considering this as a way out. The younger Braddock slowly and cautiously makes her way closer towards Glory. She hopes that she won’t make a sudden movement towards the weapon.
“Gloria…you are not planning to use that, are you?”
“No, I’m not.” This answer from Glory causes Julia to let out a big sigh of relief. “I won’t deny it, there were time in the first week after mom died that I seriously thought about it. There was at least one time I had it all planned out.” She sighs. “I was just too weak to pull the trigger.”
“That isn’t a weakness. It is a strength.” Julia says as she gently wraps her arm around her sister’s shoulder. Then they sit down on the edge of the bed. With her free hand Julia moves the gun away from them.
“It’s funny…” Glory chuckles softly “...I used to quietly look down on Angelica for her suicide attempts. She tried at least three times, if I recall. But last month I tried to end it all myself. I suppose I’m just as weak as Angelica.”
“Angelica isn’t weak and neither are you.”
“Last month I wanted to take the easy way out.” Glory says as she looks at her sister with a stoic glare. “What do you call that?”
“I call that grieving. You were hurting and in pain. You lost someone so important to you, how does the mind cope with that?”
It is a good question. How does anyone cope with that kind of loss? For your average person, coping with the loss of a loved one is hard enough. For someone like Glory Braddock who has suffered in the past from PTSD, who is currently dealing with other stressors such as the threat of her company being taken from her, her daughter dating a man who Glory is convinced is a sexual predator, all of this combined with the death of her beloved mother, how does Glory cope with this trauma?
“How do you do it, Jules?”
“What do you mean?”
“You coped with father’s death fairly well. Even this, you have held up strong, much stronger than I have held up. How did you cope?”
“Honestly, Glory, I didn’t cope much better than you. I hurt as well, just like you. I just had my own way of coping.” She smiles at her older sister. “We always have dealt with our problems differently, sis. You will get through this just as I have.”
“Just do me one favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t tell anyone about the suicide attempt. And I mean no one, not even the people we usually trust like Sophie and Mark, don’t even tell your boyfriend JaMarcus.”
“Does Kurt know?” Julia asks curiously. Glory shakes her head.
“He doesn’t even know. This secret doesn’t leave this room, understand? If rumor got out that I attempted suicide last month, the board of directors would get the idea that I was mentally unfit to run my company. It would definitely be grounds to remove me from office.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep my mouth shut.” Julia says with a nod of her head. “But ONLY if you seek therapy.”
“I don’t need therapy.”
“Yes, you do.” Julia says sternly. She even gives Glory a rough shakes, almost as if to wake her up back into reality. “Look at you and all that you have dealt with lately. It is enough to make anyone crack. And yet not only are you dealing with that but you are still insistent on going forward. You have matches this week. All of this stress weighing on your mind is too much for you, Gloria.”
“I admit that there has been a great deal weighing on my mind lately.” Glory sighs deeply, reluctantly agreeing with Julia. “I have members of my board of directors spreading wild rumors about a hostile takeover…are these rumors true or are these individuals just trying to use me and manipulate me for their own gain? My daughter, sweet Melinda, has been corrupted by that monster Clyde Sutter. Our mother has died.” She shakes her head. “It would be just easier if I could forget.”
“Exactly, that’s what you need to do.” Julia gently rubs her sister’s back. “Forget it all, forget the company and Sutter. And try to move on from mom…don’t forget but try and move on. Push all of this stress out of your mind.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Glory shakes her head. “I want to forget all of it. I want to forget about every single bit of this. This is NOT my cross to bear! This is NOT the life I want to live, Jules!”
“It isn’t that simple.” Julia says with a little grin. “What you’re asking for is fantasy and you know it. Somehow you have to find a way to fight through the pain.”
“It isn’t fantasy.” She points a finger at her sister. “You do it. You do it all the time, or need I remind you of your relationship with Aphrodite?”
“That’s different.”
“How? You live in her fantasy. You feed into her fantasy of her being royalty and you being her daughter. You did that to help you kick the drug habit. But now I see you’re using it as a coping mechanism to help you with our real mother’s death.”
“I did not choose to become “play into Aphrodite’s fantasy” simply to cope with my drug addiction. Aphrodite helped me kick my drug habit. She paid for my rehabilitation and kept it quiet, secret, until I was ready to take it public. I was eternally grateful for what she did and I was willing to do anything to repay her. She is eccentric, I will give you that, and she wanted a daughter. So I gave her that. I’m not “eccentric like her, as you put it. I am just trying to repay someone who was kind to me. But what you are proposing really is to live in a fantasy world. You are proposing to take up a fantasy in order to numb your pain. That is…it’s…”
“Is it insane?” Glory asks. Julia is silent. “You can say it. And maybe I am going crazy? Maybe I should just give in to the insanity? Like I said, it will numb the pain.”
“I am not going to tell you what to do, Gloria, and far be it for me to tell you not to once again bend the knee to Aphrodite. She did help you once before. She taught you everything you now know about the business world. And you took that knowledge and built yourself a corporate empire in a very short amount of time. In exchange you spent two years appeasing her, giving her what she wanted in exchange for the knowledge she gave you. Are you prepared to go all in on what you once called insanity? Because you may not be able to pull yourself out if you do.”
“I don’t…” she shrugs her shoulders “...I don’t know…”
Julia rests her hand on Glory’s shoulder. “Just go to a therapist, Glory. Go to a therapist before you do anything rash. See what the therapist suggests and go from there. Promise me that, ok?” Glory sighs and nods her head.
“Fine. You win, Jules. I’ll see a therapist.”