Aidan rummaged through her suitcase. After throwing everything out, she began the process of neatly folding and replacing all her dirty clothes. It was a needless task, but one that she was doing purposefully to avoid Dean. Things had been rather awkward since their talk the night before. He'd become somebody unknown to her. Instead of his usual brash and bawdy behavior he was strangely withdrawn. His conduct in the ring however had only become more violent. He'd been disqualified in his NXT match that night for mercilessly beating his opponent Derrick Bateman, an act that had chilling similarities to the beating he'd received from Punk the night before.

She couldn't stop thinking about the things he'd said to her. He was right. The lies had gone on for far too long. She was going to have to come clean with Punk about everything. It was a daunting task, and a ton of information to give to somebody who thought he knew everything about her. It was horrible timing too. Punk's birthday was Saturday and the Hell in the Cell pay per view was on Sunday. She was sickened by the thought that all of this could have been over months ago.

"Hey, Aidan!"

She turned around to see Brie Bella standing in the doorway of the locker room.

"Daniel is looking for you."

"Okay. I'll be right there."

After Brie left, she looked at the messy pile of clothes. Shaking her head, she picked them all up, stuffed them in the suitcase, and zipped it shut.

When she left the locker room, she did a quick scan of the area. As she suspected, she saw Dean lingering at the end of the hall. Her stomach fluttered when he looked up, his eyes meeting hers.

"Aidan, I've been looking for you!"

Daniel was walking over to meet her, his body acting as a shield against Dean's stare.

"Hey…what's up?" she said distractedly. She looked past Daniel to find Dean had vanished.

"I was just wanting to ask about the party for Punk this Saturday. It's going to be at the hotel?"

"Yeah. 8 PM on Saturday."

"Good."

He stood for a moment nodding in silence. He looked over his shoulder in the direction Dean had been standing moments earlier. She suddenly got the feeling Daniel had other topics of conversation on his agenda.

"Say…Aidan. I don't mean to nag you about this, but…I'm just worried is all and I've noticed a huge…change in Dean since that awful match last night with Punk. I've just seen him sort of…stalking you today and…I know it's not any of my business, but…did something happen between you two last night?"

Aidan took a deep breath. This would be the first step in sorting out her bed of lies.

"Dean and I passed through my hometown last night. It brought up a lot of memories…bad memories from my childhood that I've tried to forget for many years now. We talked about things that I've never told anybody."

"Like what?" Daniel asked curiously.

"Like the fact that my father was arrested for child abuse committed against me when I was twelve years old."

Daniel looked stunned. He was grasping around for words and coming up with nothing.

"Look, none of that matters now. The point is Dean encouraged me to come clean with Punk over all these secrets, and that's what I'm going to do."

He seemed to consider her for a moment.

"Well, it's good that you're going to talk to him, but I still don't understand why Dean is acting even creepier than usual."

Aidan sighed. She glanced around the hallway and lowered her voice.

"I told you he remembered me from some party years back. It turns out some things happened there…between me and him…that I don't remember."

His eyes grew wide.

"Please tell me you're not saying what I think you're saying."

She looked to the ground and nodded. Daniel kept on staring at her in disbelief.

"Now maybe you can understand why I haven't been especially motivated to tell Phil about all of this."

"When are you going to tell him?"

"Sometime after the pay per view. I can't do it now with his birthday coming up and the match on Sunday. It'll ruin everything."

Daniel nodded.

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks for the boost of confidence," she said with a smile.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Aidan. I've known Punk for many years and he's going to be absolutely pissed about this…but, I also know he's crazy about you. He may pout for a while but he'll come around."

"I hope so," she said.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The party had been underway for over a couple of hours and wasn't showing any signs of letting up. It seemed nearly everyone in the WWE had turned out to the birthday party that was meant to be a small gathering. Several of the NXT rookies had shown up but thankfully Aidan had not seen Dean. Still, she found herself wondering where he might be.

"Are you ok?"

Punk's question shook her out of her contemplation. She gave him a reassuring smile.

"I'm fine."

"You want to get out of here?"

"Whenever you're ready."

He gave her a kiss.

"I'm going to go say goodnight to a couple of people and then we'll leave."

"Sure. I'll just wait here."

Time passed by slowly. Aidan sat in the corner observing her friends enjoying themselves at the party. Many were fairly drunk by this point. It had been years since Aidan had touched a drop of alcohol. She sometimes missed the feelings of intoxication. She also wondered if she were to take another drink if she'd be strong enough to stop herself from wanting more. Her relationship with Punk had aided a lot in helping her to resist the allure of drugs and alcohol. She supposed she owed a lot more to him than he'd ever know. The time to reveal the secrets she'd been keeping from him was now nearly upon her. She only hoped his love for her was as strong as Daniel thought it was. It was the only chance she had at forgiveness.

It seemed like hours before she saw Punk making his way back to her. She stood from the little table in the corner, readying herself to leave, but Punk approached her, gripping her arm. She looked in his eyes and saw an anger that made her fearful.

"We need to talk," he said in a low voice.

"Okay…"

He began walking, pulling her along behind him. They exited the ballroom and walked out into the hotel's mezzanine. Punk looked around rather nervously before backing her into the wall.

"I'm going to ask you one more time and you'd better be honest with me. What is going on between you and Dean Ambrose?"

Aidan blinked in shock.

"…What?"

"Quit bullshitting me and tell me the truth. I know that you slept with him."

She was trying to breathe but the air seemed to be catching in her throat.

"It was before I met you," she choked out.

Punk turned his back on her, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" he yelled.

"I was going to tell you, I swear. I just didn't want to tell you now and ruin your weekend."

"My weekend?" he said incredulously. "You've just ruined my whole year! I can't believe you didn't tell me about that!"

She was trying to hold it together but his anger was unbearable.

"I was a terrible person back then…on drugs, drunk all the time. I didn't even remember sleeping with him! I was ashamed. I'm still ashamed! I was afraid to tell you because I didn't want you to see me any differently."

"Yeah. You were afraid to tell me about kissing him too, weren't you?"

Her stomach dropped. She was afraid she was going to be sick.

"I'm sorry."

Punk was shaking his head. His eyes were glistening.

"You disgust me. I don't even know you anymore."

With that he walked back into the ballroom leaving her standing there alone with all of her mistakes and the wreckage of the relationship she once thought was unbreakable.