"Summer, don't you walk away from me!" Nick pushed the door open as he burst into the room. "We are still in the middle of a conversation and …" His brain seemed to empty of all thought as soon as he saw him standing there. The gall of him to even be there after what he'd done. "What the hell are you …"

"Wait a minute." Jack let his eyes wander around the room. "This isn't the place for this. We need to take this outside and …"

"Or maybe not. Maybe I should just go and we don't have to talk about this at all."

"Oh we're gonna talk about this," Nick said. "We're gonna do a hell of a lot more than just talk about it and …"

"Not here," Jack said again, his voice more forceful this time. "Phyllis doesn't need this right now."

Nick let his breath out slowly as he looked over at her. "You're right." He turned his head to face her. "I'm sorry. I'll come back and talk with you later. I just …" He shook his head. He had no idea exactly what he planned to do when he stepped out in the hallway. The words in his head were so jumbled, the thoughts so confused. He was furious with Billy but Summer certainly wasn't blameless.

"It's fine," she said quietly. People had tried to warn her about Billy, about how he'd hurt her, about how he'd betray her and she'd been so determined to prove them wrong. Now, in front of everyone who'd been so against their relationship, she was being made a fool of. She watched as Billy, Jack, Summer, and Nick all shuffled from the room.

Lauren stepped over to the side of the bed. "You okay?" she asked softly.

Phyllis sighed. "What's wrong? You don't wanna go watch the show outside?"

"I think I'd much rather stay in here and talk with my best friend. No offense, but she looks like she could use someone to talk to right about now."

"I haven't been a very good friend to you lately," Phyllis admitted. "I've been kind of a jerk and I certainly haven't been a very good wingwoman."

"Oh, we don't need to talk about any of that right now," Lauren smiled. "Right now, I want to know how you're handling all this. I know it can't be easy."

"You know, I've tried so hard to work through it in my head and I know I'm no innocent in this, believe me. I do. I know I made mistakes. I know I slept with Nick and I know that was a betrayal of trust and I get that Billy felt like I was the one person he could count on. When he found out that I'd lied to him, it was like his entire world crumbled, but I just …" She shook her head. "I can't understand why he'd jump to this, why Summer? Why my daughter?"

"He clearly just wanted to hurt you … and Nick and Summer was the one person that could do both at one time." Lauren stopped short as she saw the look on her friend's face. "I know that sounds harsh, sweetie, but it's true. Billy wasn't thinking logically or rationally. He was just being vindictive. He was looking for the most destructive, vindictive thing possible and that's what he went with."

"It's my daughter, Lauren. My daughter …"

Lauren shook her head. "I know … I can't imagine what that must feel like, but I have to ask … Summer had to a willing participant in this too, right?"

"That's a much longer story." Phyllis leaned back against the pillows as her head throbbed again. "Apparently that's been a thing for a while now."

"Summer and Billy?"

"Not anything serious, but Billy admitted that she'd been flirting and coming onto him a few months ago and, when I called her on it, she was pretty forthcoming. Maybe I should expected this, but I never thought he'd actually do it. I never believed Billy would have it in him to want to hurt like me like this."

"Honey, I don't think he truly wanted to hurt you, I think he was so hurt that he felt like he had to. I'm sure he feels terrible about it now."

"It certainly didn't seem that way earlier. He didn't apologize for it, Lauren. He didn't even seem sorry when he told me. He threw it in my face, wore it like some badge of honor. I've never seen him so cold to me. I've never heard that sound in his voice. I don't even know the man I saw today. I don't know what's happened to him."

"Start talking," Nick demanded as soon as they'd cleared the doorway.

"I don't owe you any explanation," Billy sneered. "I never made you any promises."

"No, you're right. You didn't make me any promises, but you sure as hell made Phyllis some and you go and sleep with her daughter, with our daughter?! What did you do? Get her drunk? Promise her some big promotion?"

"Really?" He couldn't stop the look of almost amusement that spread across his face. "Have you talked to your daughter recently. She's not the innocent little girl you might remember. Your daughter pursued me. Summer was a more than willing participant in all this, so I'm not sure what bull she's been trying to sell you, but …"

Jack held up his hand as their voices continued to elevate. "Can we just keep our voices down here. This doesn't need to be splashed across the front page of every newspaper in town tomorrow. Why don't you just start from the beginning? How does something like this happen, Billy? Why would you sleep with Summer? With Phyllis' daughter? I don't care how angry you were about her night with Nick … this is …."

"Sick, twisted, perverse …" Nick clicked the adjectives off on his fingers. "Any others you'd like to add?"

Billy stared directly into his eyes. "Actually," he breathed, "I'd call it brilliant."