A Fabulous New Ally (Summer Collins CD)

[admin]

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Palm Beach, Florida
Off Camera
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It isn’t often that Summer Collins travels back to her familial home of Palm Beach County, Florida. Typically she is traveling the world with Global Championship Wrestling or competing for the Chicago based company Millennium Wrestling Enterprise. Summer is quite busy as an active wrestler for both promotions, especially now that she is the co-holder of both the GCW Global Tag Team Championship and the MWE World Tag Team Championship with her best friend and tag team partner Jessica Lasiewicz. But recent news broke that has forced Summer to return home…

...her sister-in-law is out of jail.

Summer’s brother, former wrestler turned full time businessman “Mr. Money” Michael Dean Collins, married Meagan Collins. But Meagan was a bad influence upon the family. Summer by her own admission “knows every dirty trick in the book” and is quite the manipulative deceiver herself, but what Meagan has done puts Summer to shame. Meagan is an evil mastermind who up until several months ago had gotten away with involvement with organized crime. But every criminal ends up making a mistake that costs them their freedom. In Meagan’s case it was her decision to start working for Glory Braddock’s company. An anonymous source within the Braddock corporation found out about Meagan’s criminal dealings and then tipped off the federal authorities. Summer’s sister-in-law was promptly arrested and charged with several counts of kidnap, murder, rackateering, among other crimes associated with organized crime.

Initially she was to be held without bond but eventually that was dropped and the bond was paid. Still, the Collins family attorneys would have had no chance at successfully defending Meagan against the federal charges. But that changed as well. A new team of attorneys have stepped in with seemingly an endless supply of cash offering their support and they are incredibly optimistic that they can, at the very least, negotiate a deal with the federal government to get the charges reduced, or maybe even dropped altogether.

This sounds fantastical but Michael has told Summer that it is all true. Summer has her own suspicions as to where all of this new money, power, and influence is coming from. Michael wouldn’t say but then again, he didn’t have to; Summer is confident that she knows just who it is that has decided to “help out”. The question is, is this person helping out of the goodness of their heart or do they have an agenda?

The tag champion is hell bent on finding out as she enters through the doors of a swanky bar in Palm Beach County. She had already texted this person earlier and told her where to meet. This bar was the only place that made sense. Summer has had dealings with this person before, early in her career when she had just got her start. This person would take Summer here. At the time Summer thought that this was just their strange quirk, only later did Summer realize that this was part of the grooming process. This person wanted Summer to embrace the wealth and luxurious lifestyle, the power and influence, that she had been born into. This person is partially responsible for Summer going from the humble, at times naive, young bright eyed young woman with dreams into a ruthless cutthroat willing to do whatever it took to take whatever she wanted.

Collins walks to the back of the bar and spots a table in a far corner. The silhouette of a female is seen sitting there. Summer begins to make her way towards the table. She sits down at the table. The woman looks up at Summer and a warm smile forms across her face.

“Good evening, Ms. Collins…”

“It’s been a long time Coach.”

“Please. We are past the stage of our relationship of student and coach. You may address me by my name.”

“Ok...Sorinah Floreschu.”

“I hope you don’t mind but I took the pleasure of ordering our drinks.” The woman who sports a Romanian accent slides a glass with an alcoholic beverage contained within across the table to Summer. “I assumed your tastes have not changed so I ordered you some white wine.”

Collins takes the drink and sips. She sets it down and nods her head. “You were right, as usual.”

“I must admit that it was a surprise to receive a text message from you. To be perfectly honest, Ms. Collins, I had assumed you had threw away all of my contact information hoping that you would never hear from me again.”

“I would have had good reason because our relationship ended on a bad note. Besides, it isn’t luck that I’m here. You know why I contacted you. In fact, you were banking on it.”

Floreschu feigns innocence but it is clear that she is being sarcastic. “Whatever do you mean?”

“My sister-in-law…”

“Meagan Collins, yes...what about her?”

“She was arrested on charges of being connected with organized crime, charges that haven’t been seen since the old mafia trials. Racketeering, kidnapping, murder, conspiracy...you name it, she was charged with it. Held without bond and it appeared as if she was going to be on death row. But then just out of the blue the judge decided to drop the bond and even the money to pay the bond came out of nowhere to my brother’s bank account.”

Sorinah chuckles. “Not that Mr. Money needed it, I’m sure.”

“Oh but it gets better. Then a team of new attorneys come in and volunteer PRO BONO service to my sister-in-law, and they have been in contact with the federal government and they believe that they can get Meagan a reduced sentence at least or maybe even no time at all with the right plea deal.”

“I am connected with only the best.”

Summer smirks knowingly. “So it WAS you!”

“Of course. Now your sister-in-law will probably have to become an informant...or a ‘rat’ as they say on the streets...in order to get the good deal. I can do many things but even I am no miracle worker and Meagan Collins has done many terrible things. She deserves to be on death row, even you probably agree with that.”

“Yes, I admit she has done wrong. And if she had been convicted and sentenced to death then she would have definitely earned every bit of that sentence. But why, then, would you help her?”

Sorinah sighs deeply. “My dear, I am not helping her. I am merely helping you and your brother.”

“But why?” Summer asks as she takes another sip of her wine.

“Because we did end our relationship on a negative note. And I hate that it ended the way it did, especially when you consider how influential I was in your career. You do recall that you got yourself into quite a bit of trouble early on in your young career as a professional wrestler. You took gambles and risks that rarely paid off. And then you took one big gamble that nearly ended your career. You would have been forever pigeonholed as nothing more than an eye-candy valet for someone else perceived better than you but then I came into your life and slowly molded you into the person you are today. And now look at you, you hold the MWE World Tag Team Championship and the GCW Global Tag Team Championship. You are the heir to the powerful Collins corporate empire. I am proud of everything you have accomplished, Ms. Collins.”

Summer sighs and nods her head. “I admit, without you I probably wouldn’t be here today. But what do you want from me now? Are you calling in a favor? Because if you are you can stop now. I don’t owe you anything.”

“You misunderstand me and think too ill of me, Ms. Collins; again, we did end on a sour note so I will chalk it up to that. Try to believe me when I come here with the best of intentions. I come seeking to renew our partnership, but no longer as ‘student’ and ‘coach’ but now as client and agent.”

Summer is taken off guard by this question. She furrows her brow in curiosity. “You want to be my manager?”

“Yours and Jessica’s, to be precise.”

“You’re delusional. Even if I trusted you enough why do you think Jessica would agree to that considering how your relationship with her ended? I had to save her from you!”

“I recall, but you seem to be forgetting a certain part of the story. You did rescue Jessica from me a couple of years ago, but where did you get the information you needed to ‘rescue’ her? Think about THAT for a moment.”

Summer does ponder the question for a several seconds. Being wealthy comes with its perks including contacts in many industries, both legitimate and otherwise. One of her contacts told her and…

“It was you...wasn’t it?” Summer asks, a lightbulb going off in her head.

“Not me specifically but an associate, yes. I intentionally leaked the information. Jessica hated you, she wanted to rip you limb from limb. But I knew that you two were better together. You two were at your best when you were united. That’s why I betrayed Jessica and then sabatoged my own plan, so that I could bring you together again. And what happened after you supposedly ‘rescued’ her?”

“We teamed together. Under the name Fabulous.”

“You were a team before under the name Fame & Fortune but you rebranded yourselves as Fabulous. You went on to win the GCW World Tag Team Championship. A year later you won the GCW Global Tag Team Championship and MWE World Tag Team Championship. Like I said, you two are better off together.”

Sorinah offers her hand out for a handshake. “Ms. Collins, everything I have done to help you and your family is my peace offering. It is my way of showing you that I mean you no harm and only want what is best for you. As a businesswoman you know what I can offer you would make Fabulous even more powerful. I do understand your concern as a human being, your mistrust. Accept my hand in friendship and we can begin this relationship again. Otherwise, I will leave and you will never hear from me again.”

Summer stares at the hand for a long time as doubt runs through her mind. She isn’t certain how she should react. Floreschu does seem genuine. She appears as if she is telling the truth and if she is, then she would be a powerful ally. Summer finally shakes hands with Sorinah.

“Fair enough. But Jessica won’t be easy to convince.”

“I know. I have already tried reaching out to her but she isn’t willing to talk.”

“Oh really?” Summer arches an eyebrow out of curiosity.

“Yes. I’m not surprised that she hasn’t told you. But you must believe that I only want what is best for the both of you. I want to help you, both of you. Please try and convince her to hear me out. She does not have to agree to my terms, she does not have to become my client. I just want her to hear me out. That’s all I ask.”

Collins nods her head. “I make no promises.”