Here I am again! I finished an essay and now have at least 5 minutes to rest and post lol. Yay...school... Anyways here we go!

WARNING: Some explicit content towards the end! If you don't want to read it, just skip it!

Enjoy!

Song for this chapter - Just A Stranger (feat. Steve Lacy) ~ Kali Uchis

Barry

~Lilly's POV~

Well, so much for Ian putting his foot down.

I groaned as I looked in the mirror at the skin-tight red dress I had on. "Don't you think it's too much cleavage?" I asked Christine.

"Yes." Ian answered. "You better be wearing a turtle neck with that."

Christine rolled her eyes, "You're fine. This is the only classy dress I had. And it is classy, before you say anything else." She growled at Ian. "And you're going to a classy, expensive restaurant. I think you should dress expensive."

"How much is this dress?" I asked, pulling it up to cover my breasts. I mean they weren't out, but they might as well be, this dress doesn't leave a lot to the imagination when it came to my chest. As of my body, it nicely outlined all of my curves, and if I didn't pay attention, you could barely see my rolls. I liked the dress, I just wished I didn't feel so naked up top.

"750." Christine said without a reaction, then grabbed a small tan cardigan and some tan high heels.

"You paid-" I was about to yell until I saw the shoes. "You got me messed up if you think I'm gonna wear those. Look how tall they are!"

"Lillian, they're only four and a half inches."

"I've never worn heels in my life!"

"Well now your gonna."

"With my flat feet? I don't think so."

"You know, your mother gave me permission to slap you if you ever annoyed me, and I've never done it..." She placed the cardigan on my shoulders then gave me the heels. "I'm starting to regret that decision." She wouldn't dare. "Put the shoes on."

I scoffed, shoving my fat ass feet into these heels. Did the make me look hot? Yes, my calves and butt look amazing. But I can already see myself struggling at the end of the night.

I was finally able to put the shoes on and was able to look at my entire outfit in the mirror. Nice curled hair, nice make up, 750 dollar dress, and cute shoes. I look pretty good. "Wow..." I said breathlessly, sucking in my gut when I saw a little bump. "Why do I have to do this? I mean I already like the guy."

Christine grabbed my shoulders, "The devil was an angel before he was the devil sweetie."

I nodded, "You're right." I know that better than anyone, I think.

"You have good judge of character. You can sniff out any imperfections if it's one to one." Christine said with a smile. "Look at how beautiful you look. You make a 750 dollar dress look like a million bucks."

Fuck yeah I do.

Tonight I have a secret weapon. Donnie messaged me all the information he got on Barry. I'm so going to use it tonight and if I scare him away, then I'll know he wasn't man enough to be apart of this family.

My mother came into the room, "He's here. Oh my gosh..." she gasped as soon as she saw me. "Oh you look like me!"

Ian and Christine snorted. "No." They both said at the same time.

Ian came over to take my hand, "She looks like Abuela when she was younger." She lifted my chin and kissed my forehead. "My little rag doll is not so raggedy anymore."

I scoffed, "I never was douche bag." I pushed him away. "I wonder where we're going."

My mother shrugged, "It's expensive. Bring me some left overs." I noticed just how fidgety she actually was. She kept playing with her hands. She would always move. She never stood still. She always had to move, fix her hair, bite her nails, play with her pants. She had to do something.

"What's the matter, mom? You nervous I might come home with bad news." Doesn't matter if I end up hating him, my mother is still going to date him because my opinion doesn't matter.

"No, I'm not nervous. What makes you-" there was a knock at the door. "Oh..." my mother sighed.

"You didn't let him in?" I chuckled, walking out into the hallway.

My mother nervously walked to the door, opening it to reveal Barry is a nice suit with flowers in his hand. I heard my mother softly say, "Hello, Barry..."

Barry nodded, his eyes intensely staring at her. "Aniya... How are you this evening?" This evening... This man is for real. He is actually this nice. Barry looked up, and as soon as our eyes met he smiled, "Oh wow, you..." my mother moved to the side to let Barry in. "You look..." he walked over to me.

"I think it's too much." I said softly.

"You look just like your mother. Young and beautiful..." He said before handing me the flowers. More Lilies. Yay...

"Thanks."

Barry looked over at Ian, then back at me. "Alright, we should get going. It is a bit of a drive away and I don't want to come back here too late."

"It's in New York City, right?" I turned around to hand Christine the flowers, I wasn't about to hold them in my arms for the rest of the evening.

"Yup! I wanted to get a good restaurant... I hope it's not too much." Barry said with a nervous smile.

I've only ever been in Manhattan. Don't really have time to really sight see in this town. "Oh, alright then." Barry held out his arm and walked me outside, patiently walked me down the steps to his car, then when I got to his car, he opened the passenger door and let me in. I turned around to wave at Ian, "Bye, I guess I'll see you later."

Barry smiled, "She'll be back around 11 o'clock."

Ian pointed at Barry, "I'm counting on it. And she's not going to go easy on you without me there so, good luck."

I rolled my eyes and closed the door. After a while we drove off.

It took us about 25 minutes to get to the place and 10 minutes we drove in awkward silence. All I wanted to do was look out the window and look at all the lights. If this man were to kill me, I'd at least die knowing I saw all these beautiful lights.

"So..." Barry said, halfway into the car ride catching my attention. "How's school?"

"Regular boring... I hate it." I sighed, my eyes never leaving the streets.

"How's life?"

I smiled, my heart sort of skipping when I thought about how good it was actually going. "Wonderfully abnormal..." I've never had a normal life and have always wanted one. But...now? I'm in love with my life and I wouldn't want to trade it.

"Really? May I ask why?" He said with a smirk.

"I have my reasons." I suddenly get the urge to cover myself as best as I could so I pulled on the cardigan to cover up my chest, then pulled down on the dress to cover up as much leg as I could. I knew he wasn't looking at me in that way, like John would, but I couldn't help but he paranoid.

He obviously saw that I got uncomfortable and decided to look straight. "I'm doing this for your mother. I genuinely care for her, Lillian. But..." he sighed. "She won't let me in."

"So you're using me?"

"In a way..." he sighed, running his fingers through his dirty blonde hair. "I'm hoping that you'll help me make sense of things. I'm hoping you have answers to some questions I have. If you don't that's okay. Or if you don't want to answer some things that's okay too. I just need help."

The rest of the ride was silent. Okay. If I'm going to test him I'm going to test him on the things John wasn't or things John didn't do. Like one: I wanna know if he truly cares for my mother. He says he does but I need proof. Two: John never treated me like I was my mother's daughter. I was just another person to disrespect. So, how well will Barry treat me tonight? Three: no drugs or alcoholism. Four- his goals, does he actually see a future? If he passes all these questions then I'll hit him with my full power and if he still can handle that, then he's good with me.

We arrived in at a nice looking building, it had a valet and everything. Barry helped me out of the car, handed his keys to the valet then walked me inside, where he told the lady behind the counter his name. The building wasn't super huge but big enough to fit a decent amount of people. A large booth stretched across the middle place, with lights embedded at the end of it. At least four tables were set to where the lady led us. Then behind us was about five tables set with another long booth stretching underneath the windows. A single candle was lit on each table while soft classical music filled the air.

I looked around for all the people, but found only us there. "Slow night?" I asked the lady, who smiled at me.

"No miss, you two are the only ones tonight."

Barry pulled out my seat so I could sit, then when I was seated he went over to sit in the booth. "Thanks Marleen. Two cokes and two orders of the regular meal I get."

Marleen nodded, and left us alone.

I chuckled, "Only ones? I guess everyone was busy."

Barry shook his head, "Well, the owner of the shop know me and my family. I asked him if we could just be alone tonight. So it's just us."

I blinked in confusion. "What?"

Marleen suddenly came by with two cokes in nice tall glasses. Damn that was fast.

Barry smiled, "Judging by your reaction, I can guess you're not used to these types of things."

I snorted, grabbing the straw and taking a sip. "Yes, I am poor." I joked.

"That's not what I-"

"I knew what you meant. No, I'm not." He grew up in Orange County. That's like...one of the riches neighborhoods in California, I think. I was born in San Diego, and not the good part.

Barry gave me a small smile, obviously caught off guard by my joke. He rubbed his chin, "So," he began clearing his throat. "Tell me about your family."

"My family?" He wants to know about my dad. I can tell. And for some reason my mom doesn't want him to know about my dad. But I'm not my mom. "I was born in San Diego, Palm City the neighborhood was called. My mother was only...14? I think, I'm not sure. My dad was around 18."

His blue eyes went wide, before he took a sip of his coke. "Really?"

"I loved most of my childhood. I lived with my mom, my dad, and my grandma. We all lived under one roof." I smiled at the memory of me in my fathers arms. "Never a dull moment. I remember my father was going to work and school, my mom would help my grandmother around the house. It's the least she could have done."

Barry leaned forward, intertwining his fingers together before he rested his chin on his hands. "Your father? How was he?"

"From what I remember... He was a man. He was the man." I chuckled, feeling my heart warm. "I don't know his back story that well. He came here illegally with his mother and father. When his dad died he had to work with his mother, then his mother couldn't work because of her...something with her knees. So he was the man of the house."

Barry just listened, staying silent and watching my reaction and occasionally smiling when I would really smile with pride as I talked about my father. That is until...

"When he died..." I stopped for a moment, memories of my dad being weak, passing out, throwing up, in pain flashing in my mind. "We all hurt. I knew I wouldn't ever see my dad again. My mom though..." I looked up into Barry's eyes. I needed to see his reaction. "She was never the same. She stopped raising me. She stopped loving me for a while. I know she did. That's when Ian came in. He took care of me. He was the almost same age as my mother at the time, at least 19. He took care of me from when I was 5 until I was 10 because my mom was out all the time."

"When you were 10, is that when he joined the service?" Barry asked, seeming to be completely hypnotized by my story, showing no reaction whatsoever.

I nodded slowly, "I still sort of hate him because of that. Only because that's when I actually had to grow up. My grandma was forcing my mother to work, to take care of me, to do this and do that. And around that time, my mom met John and Ian hated John because of the way he treated her and me, and so did my grandma. So my mother left, she took me one night and left to travel with John. So that's what we did."

"You traveled?"

"As much as we could. No money, barely any food. It was rough for a while. Somehow we made it here where we still are." Obviously Lillian.

"Hmm..." he sat back, but the look on his face knew that I was leaving details out, and yes I was. For obvious reasons. "John...what was he like?" I don't like talking about him. But I will.

I rolled my eyes, "Annoying. I hated his guts from the moment I saw him. He would...he was just so creepy."

"How bad did he treat your mom?"

I moaned, "He was just an asshole. Not only to her but to me. And at one point I thought my mother didn't care about what he did with me because when he'd get really angry with me she'd do nothing. I'd always fight back, I would never just sit down and take it."

"Would he-"

Suddenly a rage hit me, "He was always either high or drunk and he'd get my mother high or drunk. I had to take care of her because no one was going to. I had to be the adult at age fucking 14. I had to do everything. Even cook!" I leaned in. "Do you know how hard it is for me to cook? I can't even cook cereal. But I had to learn."

Barry chuckled softly, "I see."

"Be glad you didn't have to interact him." I snapped.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the waiter begging to get ready to bring us our meal. So I began to get ready too, placing the napkin on my lap and grabbing my fork. But I had to put it down as soon as I saw what we were actually eating.

"Sushi?" I asked, eyeing the raw fish oddly as it was placed in front of both of us. At least five pieces on one long plate. Chop sticks included.

"I have a little confession to make." Barry stated, "When your mother called me, I knew the charges were false because she'd never... Anyways, I asked CPS to hand me the file which they did, and there was a voice recording of the caller. He was anonymous. I showed it to your mother, and she told me it was him. So I paid him a visit... Asked him politely to drop the charges."

I listened, my mind flashing back to when Raph said someone got to John before he did. That's what he meant! Holy crap!

"Then, when he didn't, I paid him another visit. Then took him in." Barry easily picked up one of the rolls with the sticks and placed it in his mouth.

Man, I don't want to eat this. I like my fish cooked. Wait a second. "You arrested John and got him to drop the charges?"

"I can be very persuasive at times." He joked with a small smile.

"You're the reason...John's in jail?"

"Well, I'm not the reason. He did that all by himself. Making false accusations is punishable law depending how harsh the accusations were, and these were harsh. Plus he was drunk so I may have...placed a few more charges on him."

"You..." oh my god. I love this man. He is my savior. He is smart, handsome, fucking rich as fuck, loves my mother and is treating me like I'm a fucking princess who loves sushi! I don't but man... this guy was perfect. Alright be passed the first two questions, now to be upfront. "Have you ever used any sort of drugs? Herion, Crack, Coccaine, Meth?"

He snorted before shoving another piece of sushi in his mouth, "I'm the commissioner. No, I haven't."

Sober. Check. "Have you ever blacked out from being so drunk?"

"I've been drunk before, but never shit faced, blackout, completely waisted drunk."

No alcoholism. Check! "If you were to get serious with my mother, what do you intend on doing? What are your intentions?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to rush into anything. Your mother's last boyfriend was a poor excuse for a human being." No argument on that. "So I can see now why she's so apprehensive when it comes to commitment."

"All her life she's know abuse Barry. Her father was a dick who abused her, John abused her. My dad was the only person who ever treated her with respect. And he died. Then came you...this great guy who suddenly does these nice things out of nowhere. She's just scared. Not of commitment, or of you... Of being hurt." My poor mother, just like me.

"I'd never hurt her." He sighed. "Ever since I walked by that salon and saw her doing someone's nails. Ever since she gave me my first haircut. Ever since I heard her speak for the first time, I couldn't get her out of my head. She had me the moment we locked eyes. The moment she came over to me and said 'you can take a pic if you're just gonna keep staring but it'll cost you extra'." I saw his cheeks get rosy before he chuckled and looked away from me. "That night we had our first date, she told me she had just broken up with her boyfriend. And that she had a teenage daughter. Then she got real angry and made this cute little pout and told me she was crazy, I couldn't handle her."

His smile never faltered when he continued, "When I drove her home, and she said I was better off getting a rich girl than her, I knew I had to have her. And the more she pushed me away, the more I wanted her. Because she knew I was rich, she knew I had a big name to live up to, but she didn't care. I was in love once before her, but I've never felt like this before."

Do I really have to pull out the big guns? His whole story warmed my heart, it made me want him in our lives. It made me hope he'd be in our lives for a long time. It made me care for him. He was laying it all out for me to read, he want hiding anything and I respected that.

I took out my phone and began to look for the info Donnie gave me. I cleared my throat and began to read.

"Bartholomew Richard Anderson. Age: 34. Height: 6'4. Weight: 167 lbs. Home Address: 212 Allen Street. Manhattan, New York. Mother: Judith Hall. Father: Richard Anderson. No brothers or sisters. Born in Orange County, California to a wealthy family background. His father is the head of multiple companies while his mother is a well known college professor. Throughout his childhood, Barry constantly changed schools due to his fathers company. When he was in High School, he was in many sports- BasketBall, Baseball, Football, and wrestling. After high school, he attended college and pushed away his fathers aspirations of him carrying out the Anderson name. Instead he went off to the police academy. Now he lives alone and is now the Commissioner at NYPD headquarters. Rumors have it, that he bought his way to where he's at but nevertheless the public adores him. Crime rate has dropped 15% since he's become commissioner four years ago." I took a breath, then placed my phone away, then looked up at Barry with a serious look on my face.

His eyes were wide, and suddenly there was this tension that was thick in the air. I'm sure he takes things like this very seriously. He's a freaking police dude, of course he does. "How'd you get that information? Is that all from the internet?"

"Don't worry how I got it. The point is, I know a lot more about you than my mother. And so far, your record is clean. You don't have any arrests, you work in the fucking police department for Christ sake." I finally grabbed a piece of sushi and placed it in my mouth. And although it didn't taste bad, it wasn't the greatest taste in the world- I could tolerate it. "I only did it, because I'm worried about my mother."

"I understand why you did it, just..." he leaned back in. "I just don't want your mother t know about my parents."

"Um...I mean she knows they're really rich."

He cursed, "I know she knows I have money but I didn't want to tell her just how much. My parents are..." he sighed. "...picky when it comes to me dating. Even if I'm in my thirties."

Okay...red flag red flag! I'm definitely gonna take note of his reaction. I know about his entire life, but he only heard the part about his parents. Hmm... Interesting. "I see."

My mom is going to hear about this. Most definitely...

"How was it?" My mother asked, hurriedly as I stumbled through the door. "Is he in the clear? Is he okay?"

I sighed, my heels were killing me. And I barely walked! "He's..." I wobbled down the hall. "Don't talk about his parents, he gets weird about that."

"What?" My mom stopped. "That's it?"

"Yeah," I groaned as I inched closer and closer to my room. "He's perfect mom. Don't worry."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'd say stay with him. He's a rarity. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves. Real sweet guy and he genuinely cares."

"Then entire- damn, really?"

"Yeah, don't let this one go, mom. He's good for you." My mother stayed quiet after that. I hope she falls in love with him. I don't know what's wrong with her, why she can't fall. Maybe it's because of John, maybe it's because she's like me. She's just scared. But I don't know why she's scared. Of heartbreak, of abuse, of her hopes being shattered.

I sighed, "Where's Ian?"

My mother blinked, "He said he was going to walk Christine home, they left right after you left though..."

Hmm... "He hasn't come back?"

"No. It's been like three hours."

"Weird..." You don't think... Nah, as much as I would like it to happen, I'm not sure Ian and Chris have any feelings for each other...although... I do feel tension in the air every time they joke around or argue. And not the angry kind of tension either.

I walked into my room, shutting the door behind me. God, I wanna get out of these heels. Why did I ever agree to this?! I bent over and began to untie these cute stylish torture devices.

"Wow..."

I jumped when I heard Raph's voice, I looked up and found him just coming into my room from my window. "Raph, did you have to do that?" I finally took off the heels, throwing them off to the side. "Fuck my feet are killing me." I groaned.

"Babe, you look..." Raph came over to me, grabbing my hand when he saw how weird I was walking. "You look real good in red."

"Thanks." I let out a big breath as soon as my butt touched my bed and my feet no longer supported my weight. "Oh god..." I moaned. Raph kneeled in front of me, grabbing one of my feet and began to rub it. "Ew, my feet are gross."

"No, they're not." Raph chuckled softly.

I sighed, "That feels great." I laid back, shutting my eyes and enjoying the sensations of his hands. "How do you know how to do this?" I lifted my head. "You got another girl on the side teaching you these things?"

Raph rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I got five actually."

"Five!" I laughed. "Don't flatter yourself."

Raph scoffed, then after a while he set one for down and grabbed the other one. "So how'd that date go?"

I let out a small moan when he pressed his thumb on the palm of my foot. "Mmm...pretty good actually. He was very nice and sweet. I warmed up to him almost immediately. He took me to this restaurant in New York City. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves. He got money too."

"He got money?"

"He got money." I chuckled. "He told me how much he cared about my mother. Got weird when I mentioned his parents though. He said he didn't really want my mother to find out about how much money he had. But other than that I really like him."

"That's good. At least he treats you how you're supposed to be treated, you and your mom." He stopped rubbing my feet, his hand slowly traveling up my thigh.

"You lost something?" I laughed softly as he parted my legs so he could fit and hover over me. "Hey there."

Raph smiled, "I love the way red looks on you, I really do. But this dress needs to come off."

"Is that right?" I nodded. "Alright, we can finally catch up on things. But, this time...let me take the lead."