"Bye," Lily waved goodbye to Finn's parents at the airport. "I'm sad."

"Why?" Finn asked as they walked through the terminal.

"Because you'll never get to experience this feeling when it comes to my parents," she sighed. "Even if they do come to tolerate you the emotions won't be genuine."

"Yeah, you're absolutely right. They're always going to hate me and it's going to suck for both of us," he groaned which caused Lily to look up at him. "Oh, I was trying to match your depression."

"It's true though and I thought you were finally coming to terms with it…"

"The future remains to be seen," he replied.

"I wish I'd taken those cookies your mom offered."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I'd eaten the entire first batch myself and if I took the second batch with me your nieces and nephews would hate me."

"I doubt it. When we were leaving they kept asking if you were coming back for Christmas."

"Correction, they kept asking about the 'puppy' and if I was bringing 'her' back for Christmas. Frankie is the draw, not me," she laughed.

"So are you bringing Frankie back for Christmas?"

"We haven't been invited yet…"

"That didn't stop you this time," he teased.

"That's funny, I don't recall you complaining," she muttered. "In fact I distinctly remember you grumbling as you packed last night wishing Hunter gave you two weeks off instead of one so we could've spent more time together at your cottage. You actually asked me to punch you so you'd still have bruises that needed to be healed on your face when we returned."

"That is true. Here's your invitation, would you and Frankie like to spend Christmas with me and my family?" he asked.

"We'll think about it," she replied. "It may be a hard decision because if I go it'll be the first time I'm not home with my own family for Christmas. Who knows maybe by then you'll be invited to spend an awkward Christmas with us. I will miss Ireland though."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you always have a little piece of Ireland inside of you," he smirked.

"Little?" she raised a brow. "Speaking of that, wanna join the mile high club?"

"Absolutely...not," he laughed, shaking his head. "That'll be the perfect headline to finish off the week long saga. First it was: Lily flees ring. Then it was: Lily is the daughter of Shawn Michaels. Then: Lily Michaels is dating Finn Balor. Can't forget about: Shawn Michaels doesn't approve - Unfollows both. Finally: We approve of Shawn's disapproval - 'Fily' arrested by air marshals for mid-flight tryst."

When they arrived at Raw, they received stares. Lily felt uncomfortable under this new scrutiny. Finn attempted to make it better by holding her hand but that only made the gawking worse. She did receive more greetings than usual. Before, people would speak but for the most part she was still known as 'random local jobber who got lucky because of her looks' and didn't get much respect.

"My dad was advertised for this show so I'm sure he's around here somewhere," Lily commented. Sure enough they found him sitting alone eating in catering. She tugged Finn's hand. "Come on."

"Lily, I don't think this is a good idea," Finn whispered, looking around at the crowd building up.

"He's not going to do anything in public, at least I don't think so."

"Think being the operative word…"

"Where's that smile and positivity?" she asked.

"Sorry, PTSD has set in now that I'm a few feet away from my attacker," he said.

Shawn looked up as they approached. He didn't say anything or react even though they were openly holding hands.

Lily stopped directly in front of him. "Daddy, I'd like to formally introduce you to Fergal, my boyfriend."

Shawn's eyes snapped from Lily to Finn down to their interlocking fingers and finally up to the dark purple hickies that lined her neck. Lily cursed herself internally for forgetting to cover them with concealer. His face hardened and his eyes burned with angry intensity that caused Lily to take a step back. He stood and Lily gasped expecting him to attack Finn again but instead Shawn silently walked away.

"Well...that went well, I guess," Finn spoke. "At least in comparison to last Sunday."

"I agree. I'm glad he didn't resort to violence this time but the silent treatment isn't going to resolve anything," she sighed. "I'm going to the locker room and then I'm going to go deal with the other DX member…"

"Alright, babe. I think I'm going to head to the locker room, too," he replied, leaning down to kiss her lips briefly.

Lily knew she'd be met with questions when she entered the women's locker room but after the first ten, it was beginning to feel like an interrogation session complete with cross examination on things she'd already answered.

"How long was the secret supposed to go on?" Nattie asked.

"Evolution was supposed to end the secret and birth a new level to the feud but of course it didn't turn out that way," Lily shrugged.

"People are speculating that it was leaked on purpose to be dramatic since gossip, scandals and social media rule the world now," Alexa said.

"It was leaked on purpose alright but not by anyone involved with protecting the storyline," Lily denied. "Management wouldn't want me painted in a negative light this soon into my career. I'd have to go heel."

"Yeah, I can't picture you as a heel. You're kind of like the reverse Charlotte who sucks as a face," Alexa replied. Lily wanted to roll her eyes at the comment but refrained. Alexa played her role perfectly but it wasn't that hard to portray a bitchy high school girl. Lily was only a few months removed from that environment herself.

"Why hasn't Shawn said anything yet?" Bayley asked. "Is that part of the new storyline since the Michaels vs Hart thing was a bust?"

"Yeah," Lily lied, too embarrassed to admit that he'd disowned her.

"Let me guess, the dating Finn thing is a work to set up some kind of feud against Shawn as well with the unfollowing thing?" Liv inquired.

"Nah, we're actually dating but you know how overprotective dads are," she said. "And before anyone asks, no, I didn't steal him from Cathy."

"I didn't think you did besides he doesn't seem like the cheating type especially with someone in the same company as his girlfriend," Ruby responded.

"Has Cathy checked into a mental facility yet?" Della snorted. "Of course she has a job but if you ask the fanbase, 'who is Cathy Kelley?' 75% only know her as Finn Balor's girlfriend."

Lily was afraid of being known as just 'Shawn Michaels' daughter' but now she'd have to worry about being known as 'Shawn Michaels' daughter and Finn Balor's girlfriend.'

"When I originally heard the news about Lily it finally made since why you were so protective of her," Dolph started. "Then a few days later when I found out that you two were dating, it really made sense. You didn't want us around her because you were fucking her yourself."

"Or maybe I didn't want her objectified and treated like a 'let's see who can get her first' prize," Finn replied.

"And you won, good sir," Dolph smirked.

"By the way, Shawn knows about you cornering her and he wasn't too happy," Finn said which wiped the look off of Dolph's face. He shrugged on his leather jacket and walked out.

Shawn was walking down the opposite hall. It seemed he tried to avoid eye contact with Finn but it didn't stop his eyes from wandering to his prominent bulge. Finn couldn't imagine the thoughts going through Shawn's head right now. Whatever they were, Shawn's hands ball into fists. He mumbled something that sounded like, "motherfucker."

Finn stopped when they passed each other. "Shawn, I know you can't see it or at least don't want to see it but I care about Lily and I'm sorry about how things went down."

"If you were really sorry..." Shawn spoke which shocked Finn as he expected the silent treatment again, "...you'd stay the fuck away from my daughter."

"I can't do that," Finn shook his head. "She needs me."

"Lily doesn't need you or any other man. She foolishly wants you which is a mistake," Shawn hissed.

"How so? I've never disrespected, mistreated or hurt her," Finn argued.

"...yet," Shawn said. "You haven't done any of that yet. A naive girl like Lily probably looks at you like some hero but when you fuck up, guess who'll have to be there to pick up the pieces? Dear old dad."

"Actually, it was me picking up your pieces all week. You want to talk about a hero? That was what you are to Lily. Her love and admiration of you is what drew her to this business despite your reservations. She makes one decision that you don't agree with and you call her a common whore not to mention you blow her big break. Fans attacked her all week and you didn't say a word. Do you know how much they respect you? One support tweet would've stopped it. I can't think of anything I can do that'll compare to that fuck up, sir," Finn stated.

"Go to hell," Shawn cursed him, walking away.

"That's not very born again Christian-like of you, Shawn," Finn replied.

Lily entered Hunter's office without knocking. His head snapped up from his phone at the intrusion.

"Ah, Lily you've returned to US soil. I see you had a good time," he said, gesturing to her neck. "Were you not thinking about Shawn and how he'd feel when you posted those pictures?"

"Were you not thinking about Shawn and how he'd feel when you showed him those screenshots?"

"That's different…" he shot back.

"How? What you did was totally unnecessary."

"He deserves to know what was going on, Lily," Hunter replied.

"Two things. The first, I'm 18 aka a consenting adult. The second, as long as we weren't releasing sex tapes, embarrassing the company or doing drugs, it was none of your concern and you had no reason to step in or tell my father."

"Shawn deserved to know what was going on," he said. "Do you think I'd let him to continue to praise Balor like he was some kind of saint knowing what was going on? I get that you're an adult but my loyalty has been with Shawn since before you were born and while Finn was just some Irish kid with a dream," Hunter defended himself. "I couldn't allow him to be a fool."

"Okay, well if you had to do it, there were better options. You could've easily told him instead of showing him. I laugh at the fact that you tried to stop him in the office that night. Newsflash, his reaction was your fault. I'm sure he would've taken the news 100% better if he didn't have the visuals of our sexting swimming in his head. Do you know how embarrassed I am to look my father in the eyes knowing that he's read me say…" Lily trailed off to scroll up through her messages. "...'I get so wet thinking about alllllllllllllllll those inches. Don't stop next time, I want it even if it still hurts.' If I were him I'd go into a rage too. You could've easily spared him if only you said, 'hey, Shawn, I think you should talk to Lily. I heard that she's gotten close to Finn and not in a road buddy way."

Hunter mouth opened and closed as if he didn't know what to say. Lily could tell that he saw that she was right. "Lily, I-"

"Save it," Lily interrupted him. "What are you going to do about Cathy?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you going to fire her?"

"On the grounds of what exactly?" Hunter asked.

"Ruining my life!"

"Lily, what's done in the dark always comes to light so your secret love affair would've been exposed eventually anyway. Hell, I was actually on to you myself so it would've just been a matter of time before Shawn caught up."

"She also leaked the video which blew the storyline and technically she violated her nondisclosure agreement so she needs to be fined in addition to fired," Lily pointed out.

"No," Hunter shook his head. "There was a hack days prior to that and multiple unreleased videos were taken. That one happened to be the only scandalous one therefore it was the only one worth sending to the dirt sheets. Cathy had nothing to do with it."

"Of course multiple videos were stolen. If she'd only taken mine it would've been obvious especially on the morning after she brought those screenshots to you. Screenshots that were also stolen by the way so her hands aren't looking too clean right now."

"I'm sorry I just have a hard time believing that Cathy is capable of this," he replied in disbelief.

"Call a meeting and ask her face to face if she's behind this just to see her reaction. Better yet, I'll go down to NXT and ask her myself," Lily proclaimed.

"Lily, if you go anywhere near Cathy I will suspend you," he said.

"For how long?" Lily contemplated, wondering if it was worth the risk.

"30 days and once you return you'll be put on the back burner."

"I can not believe I'm the one getting in trouble for this. She really has you fooled," Lily scoffed.

"Fooled? No, Lily. I'm just going off what I know and what I know is Cathy has been a damn good employee and has never given us any trouble of any kind. She was in love with a guy only to find out that he's been betraying her behind her back!"

"Let's unpack what you just said. You just basically said you only know Cathy on a professional level. You don't know what that bitch is capable of when the cameras aren't around. She may have been in love but nothing happened behind her back. They were broken up when Fergal and I began showing interest in each other so there was absolutely no betrayal. I don't appreciate you implying that I'd be involved in some cheating scandal because 'she was in love with a guy only to find out that he's been betraying her behind her back' sounds more like you, Chyna and Stephanie than us. You as well as my father need to think about your own pasts before preaching on your high horses," Lily snapped.

"Okay, this meeting is over," he slid back in his chair and stood.

"Yeah, I bet it is," Lily also stood. "Do I have something to do tonight or what?"

"Yes, I've booked you in a match against Sasha tonight just to get a feel of how the crowd will receive you," he said. "You'll be going over."

Finn was waiting for her outside of the office when she opened the door. "How'd it go."

"Let's just say the catering confrontation with my father, who was the angriest of the two, went a lot smoother," she rolled her eyes. "Cathy has him under some kind of spell. He basically put a restraining order on me but that's a conversation that can be saved for later."

"I had a second confrontation with Shawn," he revealed.

Lily scanned him from head to torso. "You don't have any fresh wounds so I assume it went okay?"

"I wouldn't say okay but this too can be saved for later," he replied. "My match is next."

"I have a match later tonight too. At least Hunter isn't burying or depushing us," she said.

Lily hadn't been out there in so long she was surprised to find her ring gear still at the bottom of her bag.

"Hey, do you want me to take it slow out there and walk you through the match because you're still green and haven't been working in the ring consistently," Sasha said as they stood behind the curtain in gorilla.

Lily knew Sasha was asking out of concern but she knew that she couldn't allow anyone to take it easy or slow on her anymore now that the secret was out. She needed to prove she could hang no matter how much ring rust she had. "No, I'm good."

"K, I'm just trying to help. This will officially be your debut match and the world will be waiting for you to fuck up and botch so they can criticize you. But if you don't want to be carried, so be it. Everyone knows my work so whatever happens out there won't be a reflection of me," Sasha shrugged as her theme played.

"What the hell?" Lily wondered aloud as a new theme that she wasn't aware of played. It sounded like a feminine, dubstep instrumental remix of Shawn's theme.

The reaction she received was mixed but it was loud and that's all that mattered.

"Now approaching the ring from San Antonio, Texas: Lily Michaels," Jojo announced.

Lily resented this new roll out and felt it was tasteless of Hunter...or Vince to green light it knowing that Shawn wasn't acknowledging her at the moment.

The bell rang and Sasha was the first to confront while Lily stayed firmly in her corner.

"Are you going to run off again?" Sasha taunted her for the cameras.

"No, but you may want to," Lily stepped forward to lock up.

The match starts proper with some decent back and forth exchanging of holds, but Sasha quickly takes over as the more experienced of the two. She seems very confident, going for a cover by just putting her knee on Lily for a 2 count.

Lily is able to take advantage of Sasha's cockiness and knocks her outside of the ring with a flying clothesline. Lily tries to follow up with a dive between the ropes but Sasha dodges it and Lily hits the floor only to be dragged back inside by Sasha.

Sasha begins to unload all of her offense including a diving crossbody, arm drags and forearm chops. However, Sasha tries to go for her double knee dive from the top rope to the outside but Lily counters it into a powerbomb to the floor. She rolls Sasha back into the ring and got a 2 count out of the cover.

They lock up again, Lily gets Sasha into the ropes but Sasha punches her. Sasha kicks Lily down in the corner before flinging her to the mat by her hair. Sasha backed away to get a running start on a knee but Lily catches her leg.

Sasha wraps Lily's arm in the top rope and kicks it, Sasha picks up Lily and tries to Irish whip her but Lily hangs onto the ropes. Sasha tries for the whip again and was successful but when Lily's back hit the ropes on the other side she came back with a cartwheel dropkick.

The crowd was really into the match at this point, cheering for both and reacted to every spot.

Sasha was able to get Lily from behind with a backstabber and flip her into the Bank Statement. Lily struggled and barely made it to the ropes to force a break.

"You know what you have to do in order to blow the roof off of this place," Sasha whispered next to Lily's ear as she had her in a chinlock.

Lily sighed, whispering out of the corner of her mouth so it wouldn't look like she was talking with the cameras filming. "I know but I don't want to. I'm not trying to rely on a gimmicky move to get over."

"I'm pretty sure it's going to be required of you every now and then from this point on," Sasha returned. "If I have to lay down and take the three count for a rookie just because her last name is Michaels, at least try to make the finish memorable!"

"Fine, set it up for me," Lily relented.

Sasha released the hold and kicked Lily flat to the canvas. She went to the top rope and came down for a frog splash but Lily was lighting quick with Sweet Chin Music. The pop for it was massive. 1...2...3.

In a perfect world it would've been Shawn waiting for her behind the curtain but when she walked back there it was only Finn and that was okay.

"Poor Frankie is probably hiding under the bed wondering why we've abandoned him," Lily worried as they stepped onto the elevator at the hotel.

"Should've gotten a cat. He would've been glad to see you leave especially if you were as overbearing as you are with Frankie," Finn sunk into the right corner and began looking at buttons. "Which floor are we on again?"

"The third, I think," Lily replied. She was standing visibly in the middle when Shawn walked into the lobby. He looked up and when he spotted her, Lily saw what appeared to be a smile tugging at his lips even though he was fighting it. Even from so far away she could see how proud he was.

"What are you looking at?" Finn poked his head out and upon seeing him, Shawn lost his smile. The doors of the elevator began closing. "Oh, sorry. I kind of ruined your moment there, didn't I?"

"If I keep performing like I did out there tonight I'm sure they'll be many more moments to be had. Then he'll have no other choice but to ride the Michaels 2.0 wave," Lily replied.

"You miss him, don't you?" Finn asked sympathically.

"Of course I do. I never thought the day would come when they added Michaels to my name and he wasn't out there with me. I'm kind of on a high right now so enough of this depressing stuff," Lily tried her best to suppress her emotions as she stepped off the elevator. "Oh wait, I think we're on the fourth floor."

Finn grunted as he came, continuing to thrust as deep as he could inside of Lily. She followed him into orgasm, her nails digging into his back as she tightened around him.

"Good Morning, Gorgeous," she said groggily.

"Good Morning, yourself," he groaned, rolling over onto his pillow. "Tell your mom I said thanks for bringing you and I so much closer together."

"Careful. We finally gained her as an ally. Let's not risk losing her because you want to express how much better our sex life is without a condom. I'm pretty sure she's the reason my dad kept his hands to himself last night so yeah, let's try to stay on her good side," Lily yawned, tired from being up all night with him. They'd only gotten about two hours sleep before his morning wood poked her in the back and like a moth to a flame, she had to grab it.

"I'm going to shower, wanna join?" he asked.

"Seeing that body with water cascading down it sounds very enticing but no, you go ahead. My flight leaves 2 hours after yours and I'm going to take advantage of every second," she closed her eyes and fell into a half sleep, half conscious state where she was resting but could still hear everything he was doing in the bathroom.

"Come to my apartment in Brooklyn with me," he begged, sitting at the foot of the bed.

"Dude, we've been together since Wednesday, aren't you tired of me yet?" she asked.

"Are you kidding me? If the two of us got locked away alone in some secluded Big Brother type house only allowed out to wrestle, it'd be fine with me," he chuckled.

"We can't leave to visit our families?"

"Occasionally," he replied. "So how about it?"

"As much as I'd hate to leave your side, I have to. Frankie had the adventure of a lifetime but it's time for me to take him back to San Antonio where he belongs. The road is no place for a dog and he'd be lonely waiting in my apartment," she pouted.

He sighed, moving to stand over her. "Alright, Lilith, I love you."

"What?" Lily sat up on her elbows, blinking trying to process what she'd just heard.

"Yeah, it's probably too soon but I know what I feel," he replied, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I knew it when Shawn kicked my ass and I still let you into my room hours later."

"I love you too and I knew it when I sat on a 13 hour flight alone to be with you even though my dad was against it while holding a gun," she smiled. "He said if I loved you already I'm not ready for an adult relationship."

"Trust me, I'm enough of an adult for the both of us…"

Finn didn't immediately go home when he touched down from his flight to New York but when he did and walked in, he knew something wasn't right. The first sign was the heat blaring from the vents and he knew it didn't switch itself on. He heard a noise in his kitchen and because he left Lily in bed, he knew it wasn't another surprise visit from her. He heard heels clicking on the floor and Cathy walked out to join him in the living room holding a glass of wine. She was dolled up in clothes and full hair and makeup.

"Cathy? What are you… You know what, I don't care why you're here. Just leave my keys on the sofa and get out of here," he said, walking over to the door and opening it. "You've got a lot of nerve coming here after what you did to Lily! Your actions not only affected her, they affected me. I was beaten down over those screenshots and I could've easily been fired."

"You're a top 10 merch seller and you routinely receive one of the top 5 pops of the night despite having no direction. They weren't going to fire you," she replied, casually taking a seat on the sofa.

"What was your endgame?"

"I was hoping Shawn took his little brat back to preschool but unfortunately after last night's Raw it's clear she's here to stay."

"Yep, on Raw and in my life. Glad you've come to terms with it," Finn nodded confidently, still holding the doorknob. "Come on, you're letting all the heat out."

"I'm surprised you're alone," Cathy said, disregarding his words. "I came here expecting to find her clothes hung in the closet. Why not move her in considering you're doing everything else with her at lightening speed."

"Okay, I'll entertain you if it'll get you to the point and out of my house. What's that supposed to mean," he asked, leaning his shoulder against the door.

"We began secretly dating in late 2015 before I was even signed to WWE when I interviewed you for AfterBuzz TV. I didn't meet your parents until eight months later when they came to visit you at an NXT taping. You didn't invite me to Ireland until we'd been dating a full year. When a picture of us holding hands leaked you still didn't want to confirm our relationship because and I quote you, 'I've always kept my personal life personal and I want to keep it that way.' Every time I took a selfie or a picture you made sure you moved as far away as possible," she began wiping tears. "Why wasn't I ever good enough? Why did it take some fresh faced teenager to turn you into boyfriend goals? What is it?"

In a way, Finn felt sympathy for her. He never thought about how Cathy would feel after being an open secret for years about him going public with Lily so soon but the tears and ranting didn't move him. "Of course you were good enough and I meant what I said about keeping my personal life personal. I would've kept it personal with Lily too but after what you did to her, I wanted to be firmly and visibly in her corner. What were you thinking? I'm surprised you didn't leak her nudes just to take it a step further."

"I thought about it but that's tricky. The girl just turned 18 in July. Who knows if those photos were taken specifically for you or if she already had them in her phone from months or even years ago. I was not trying to land a child pornography charge," she turned her glass up to her lips but it was empty so she stood and walked back into the kitchen.

Finn walked forward to follow her. "Jealousy is a very ugly trait. You've always been jealous but now it's consumed you. You look so beautiful right now but I feel nothing. If you were upset about my relationship with Lily, you should've taken it out on me, not her!"

Cathy slowly filled her glass to the brim. "Would have cared if I came for you instead? Nothing ever affects you, Fergal. You just brush it off, smile and carry on. I was hurt and I wanted to hurt you so in order to do that I had to hurt her and look, it worked."

Finn cursed himself for not recording this. Lily told him how the conversation with Hunter went. Everything Cathy said thus far was plenty evidence that Lily wasn't talking crazy during their meeting. "I understand that you're hurt but it has nothing to do with me. We were already broken up and I made sure to break things off permanently when I was ready to move on with Lily. You didn't catch us in bed together and if you read through those texts, nothing negative was said about you at all. If you just walked out of my apartment that day without touching my phone we could've been cordial right now."

"You offered me friendship when I was on my way out and I told you something: they say if two former lovers can remain friends, it's because they either never loved each other or they still do," she repeated. "Which was it?"

"Of course I loved you, Cathy. You can't be with someone for 3 years and not. Loved, past tense. You pissed away any chance we had to remain friends when you took those screenshots and leaked that interview," he replied showing no emotion.

"If you loved me, past or present tense, it shouldn't be this easy to throw me away," she stepped forward, pressing her lips to his. He didn't react at first but soon he began trying to create distance without being rough and blatantly pushing her off.

"Good thing I'm not a killer because you left your door wide open," Finn felt panicked when he heard Lily's voice and footsteps in his living room. "Guess what? Frankie needed a way to San Antonio. After you left I thought about it. My dad! I showered, dropped Frankie off in his room and booked a flight to Brooklyn."

Cathy clasped her hand to the back of his neck, keeping him to her. She wrapped her leg around his leg.

Finn didn't know what Lily was holding but it dropped to the floor once she made it to the entrance of the kitchen. "What is this?"

"Lilith, it's not what it looks like!" Finn quickly blurted. She looked at him with hurt in her eyes and Cathy made it no better, reaching over to wipe her lipstick from the corners of his mouth. That look of hurt quickly reverted to anger.

"It's not what it looks like?" Lily asked. "Did I not just find you locked in a kiss with your ex as she dry humps you? The ex that ruined my life? If this is your version of love, you could've kept those three words."

"Three words? As in I...love...you? Those three words?" Cathy scoffed. "Another thing you've given her a thousand times faster than you gave me."

"Cathy please shut the fuck up and stay out of it because I'm trying really hard not to attack you but your voice and that arrogant expression on your face is really provoking me," Lily took a deep, calming breath. Finn noticed the grip she had on the doorframe.

"Attack me? That's cute," Cathy said, taking a few steps toward her.

"Cathy, I'd advise you not to do that," Finn said cautiously, grabbing his phone out of his pocket.

"What is she going to do? Cry to Shawn? Is he even speaking to her after reading all those dirty texts?" Cathy asked.

"Hunter said if I went anywhere near you I'd be suspended. He didn't say anything about if you came anywhere near me though," Lily threw a single punch that floored Cathy.

"Cathy, in case you try to flip this to Triple H to make Lilith the aggressor, I filmed it. You walking toward and taunting her," Finn said, playing the video back.

"Eh, it doesn't matter anymore," Lily shrugged. "Catherine Kelley, you win. I'm done."

"What the hell do you mean you're done?" Finn asked. "I told you it wasn't what it looked like."

"Even if it wasn't, why did you let her in?" Lily questioned.

"I didn't! She still had her key."

"Why didn't you take it back when you broke things off? Better yet, why didn't you change the lock? If my dad could change the fancy deadbolts on our door in a split second, I'm sure it would've been nothing to walk down to the hardware center to get a new lock for this regular door!" Lily angrily spat. "Okay, moving on. She let herself in. Why did you allow her to stay longer than five seconds? Looking at the counter she even had time to crack open a bottle of wine."

"I asked her to leave which is why I left the door open," he explained. "I wasn't going to physically remove a woman by force."

"How noble of you," Lily mocked. "I guess the same excuse will be applied to why you allowed her to get close enough to kiss you."

"Lilith, you're being unreasonable! How could you even think I'd do this to you intentionally after everything we've been through? You know how manipulative she is, why would you take any of this seriously. When I said I loved you, I meant it," he declared. "I wouldn't turn around a few hours later and sneak back with my ex."

"You're wasting your breath," Cathy said. "This is what happens when you decide to date an immature teen who is too young to process adult situations."

"Actually, Cathy, you're right. I am too young for this. I believe everything Fergal said about this encounter but I can't handle the drama right now. I think about the girls I graduated with and the only thing they have to worry about is not flunking out of college and occasionally monitoring their boyfriend's Instagram likes. Meanwhile, I've practically destroyed my relationship with my father, I have to try to go above and beyond to prove my worth as a generational Superstar to the fans and the girls in the lockerroom, I have to deal with online bullying and finally, I have a boyfriend with an obsessive ex who probably isn't going to give up anytime soon. We've gotten the cliche walking in on you two kissing scene out of the way. What's next? Is she going to fake a pregnancy to make you look like the bad guy for abandoning her and the nonexistent unborn fetus to be with me? My life is turning into a low budget Lifetime movie," she shook her head. "It's just too much pressure and added stress. I'm sorry Fergie, I can't do this."

Finn's chest felt tight when she finished and began turning around but he couldn't let her walk out on him without a fight. "Lilith, stop! You didn't let Shawn win, you didn't let H win but you're going to let Cathy and her childish games win? I don't understand this decision!"

"Agree or disagree: I'm going through a lot right now?" she quizzed.

"Agree but guess whose been by your side through it all? Me!" he argued and Lily blinked as if he was getting through to her.

"He kind of caused it too…" Cathy yelled from the kitchen.

"Fergal," Lily paused, sliding her hand to his cheek. Suddenly the room grew very quiet as the two stared at each other. "I love you. I'm not saying this is forever but right now I need space and time to get my life and emotions in check. I also have to make things right with my dad. If you love me you'll respect this decision."

"Okay," Finn nodded, feeling defeated. She paused when she made it to the door, he expected her to look back but she didn't. He punched his sofa out of angst when she was out of sight. He walked to the kitchen and found Cathy rubbing ice on her cheeks. "Are you happy now?"

"Oh, right," Lily mumbled, remembering that Shawn changed the locks when her key wouldn't open the front door. She began ringing the doorbell repeatedly. "Mom!"

"What's the hurry?" Lily's mom asked when she opened the door. Lily brushed by her in a hurry. "Wait, you have to tell me about your trip."

"It was beautiful. His family was lovely. We had lots of unprotected sex which he thanks you for and he told me he loved me," she paraphrased.

"Wha…" her mom's brows shot up.

"Is dad home?"

"Yes, he's in his museum but if you think you're going to go in there and tell him what you just told me, think again! I've finally got him to scale back some of his anger."

"I thank you for that and no, it's going to be an entirely different conversation," Lily informed. Frankie brushed up against her legs as she walked down the hallway. "Not now."

When Lily cracked the door open, she saw Shawn's back turned toward her but she could tell he was struggling with something. "Babe, why do you go out and buy these expensive picture frames that can barely open."

"What are you framing?" Lily asked which caused him to jump.

"Oh, it's you," he replied dryly without turning around to face her. "Didn't you abandon your dog with me at the hotel this morning so you could run off with 'Fergal, my boyfriend'."

"I did," she confirmed, approaching him from behind. She could see that he'd printed out a picture of her Sweet Chin Music last night and was framing it for her glass display case. "But I'm here to say that I regret the rift that this situation has caused between us. Can we go back to the way things were."

Shawn's eyes narrowed. "He fucked up, didn't he?"

"Technically, no, he didn't but the situation around him today was fucked up and I realized that I'm in over my head...at least for right now," Lily exploded into tears.

"Just like I told that smug piece of shit, I'd be the one here to pick up the pieces," Shawn pushed her head into his chest. "I forgive you."

"Wait, I think you're mistaken. I regret the rift that my relationship has caused between us but I don't regret my relationship if that's what you're forgiving me for," she clarified. "I won't stand for you slandering him. He did nothing wrong then and he did nothing wrong today. I'm just here right now to try to fix things. Leave Fergal out of it."

"Lily, I...okay," he sighed.