A/n: Ok, I don't even know what to say to you all. You are without a doubt the most amazing people ever to touch a computer! Seriously, I'm actually speechless and completely humbled by the response I have had to this story. I can't even tell you how thankful I am to the people who are reviewing. I try to send a personalised thankyou to everyone of you, but sometimes I get confused and miss one every now and again, I do try though. But if I did miss you or you don't have an account thankyou so, so, so, so, so much!!! You guys are the reason for the quick updates...without you I would have no inspiration! So, here is the next chapter for you all....enjoy! :)

All Just A Lie.

Chapter Three: The Aftermath.

Mitchie Torres was sat, cross-legged on her bed, the tears falling thick and fast, much like they had done for the past few hours. But, they were almost normal to her now, she seemed to be getting used to the feel of the water sliding, unstoppably over her cheeks. What she wasn't used to, what she would never get used to, was the throbbing pain that was enveloping her heart, or the empty pit in her stomach that constantly had her feeling nauseous.

Mitchie had already given into that nauseous urge. The second Mitchie had burst through her bedroom door after returning from Shanes, her stomach had lurched with the agony, with the guilt and with the thought of never being with Shane ever again. It had all been too much. And that was why Mitchie had found herself curled up on the bathroom floor, her body shaking with dry sobs and her forhead resting against the toilet seat, her body weak and frail.

She kept reliving her meeting with Shane, she kept imagining his weeping face, his heartbroken eyes that were screaming at her to stay with him. Each time she thought of it a fresh waves of tears would cascade from her saddened eyes.

"I love you, so much. Please, please don't leave me."

Mitchie choked out a cough as his voice filled her ears, echoing around her head. The memory slashing through her like a cold, sharp knife. His normally soothing voice filled with agony and disbelief as he begged her to stay, pleaded with her not to leave him. Even after she had told him there was someone else.

How could she do that to him?

Mitchie cursed under her breath, remorse tearing at her throat and clawing through her entire body. She hoped to god that Shane was now at home, watching television quite contently, his tears forgotten, his Mitchie forgotten.

But however much she wanted to believe that, she knew it wouldn't be true, she had seen the distress and the suffering clearly in his features, he really did love her. And she had just trampled all over his heart.

It was for him. It had all been for him.

She reminded herself, but it didn't help, nothing would ease her pain or her guilt now. She didn't even think it was worth it anymore, her self-fish side bursting through her. Nothing was worth that, nothing was worth watching him cry. He had always been so strong.

"Mitchie, Honey?" Mitchie looked up, sniffling as her mothers head, poked around the corner of the door.

Her mother's face mirrored that of Shanes, on a much lighter scale, as she looked at Mitchie. Her eyes red and swollen, her face the colour of snow and her bed scattered with tissues and photographs of her and Shane.

It had been dumb and painful, but that was how Mitchie had spent her night, skimming through every photograph that she owned of her and Shane. They always looked so ecsatic, always smiling wildly and always embracing. It seemed like such a long time ago now. It seemed such a long time since Mitchie had smiled, since she had laughed, since she had felt truly happy. And the most depressing thought of all was that Mitchie knew that she would never feel happines ever again.

"Oh, Mitch." Her mother gasped. Mitchie pressed her lips into a hard line before turning her head away, trying to disguise her tears. Connie stepped closer to her daughter, wrenching her dressing gown a little tighter around herself. "What are you still doing up?" She questioned tenderly, Mitchie's eyes flickered to the glowing, ominous clock that rested upon her desk.

4:56 AM.

"Please tell me you've had some sleep?" She asked, Mitchie shook her head. She needed sleep, her body demanded it but she didn't want to try, she didn't think she could.

Even if she was able to fight through the tears and finally got her tight, shuddering body to relax and succumb to the fatigue that was chasing her, she knew she would dream. She would most likely dream of Shane, her and him, together again. She would dream of an alternate reality where they could be together, with no blackmail and no downsides. And if that happened Mitchie knew she would never want to wake up, would never want to leave her bed, and Mitchie didn't want to have to face leaving behind her sweet, loving dreams, so she chose not to sleep at all.

"Oh, sweetie. What happened?"

".....No...it doesn't matter.."She spluttered, wiping her face roughly. Her mother gave her a small sympathetic smile as she moved and sat on the edge of Mitchie's bed, her hand lovingly, brushing the hair from her face.

"I think it does matter. Come on, Mitchie, you can tell me anything, you know that." Connie stated. "I take it it's to do with Shane?" Mitchie hiccuped loudy at the use of his name. It was strange, unfamiliar and distant against her ears. But at first listen it filled her stomach with fluttering butterflies, but her mind and memories quickly caught up with her heart, the butterflies being torn of their wings as they fell, shriveled and dead to the bottom of Mitchie's stomach like a weight. How could a name cause one person so much pain?

"I can't. I can't tell you!" Mitchie exclaimed, her mothers hand still tenderly touching her face.

"Don't be stupid, of course you can tell me. I'll understand, I can help." Connie cooed softly, her brows furrowed in concern. "Did you and Shane break up?" Mitchie winced, snapping away from her mothers touch and edging away from her as if she had been burnt. Her mother had voiced the truth...and the truth hurt. "L-L-Leave me alone." She spluttered.

"No, not until you tell me why you're so upset." Connie retorted.

"I can't, I can't." Mitchie repeated, as she rose for the bed, her eyes wide as she continued to whisper "I can't." in a slightly deranged way. Seconds later and she had yanked open her wardrobe doors, clawing through the bottom compartment as she threw out random articles of clothing and empty shoes boxes.

"Michelle Rosemary Torres, you stop this this instant!" Connie ordered, rising from the bed, a look of sheer panic on her face as she watched her daughters manical behaviour. She continued to search through her wardrobe before extracting a pair of black converse and wrenching them onto her feet.

"What do you think you are doing, young lady? You are not leaving this house!" Connie declared a stern expression upon her face.

"Yes, I am!" Mitchie shouted back. "You can't tell me what do to. No one can. People should be able to do what they want, and not have to listen to others. Why should I do what other people want!? People have no right odering me around....It's not fair.....None of this is fair!" And with that, her knees buckled underneath her, her body collapsing to the floor as more tears pushed their way from her eyes.

"Mitchie!" Her mother exclaimed as she rushed to her daughter's side, kneeling besides her quivering body and engulfing her in a hug. "It's going to be ok, Sweetie, I promise you. Everything will be fine." Her mother soothed as the pair rocked back and forth on the bedroom floor. Mitchie's sobs echoing around the cold, lifeless room.

Shane stalked through the corridors of the recording studio, his entire body stiff as his feet thumped loudly against the tiles. His face was twisted into hard, uninviting expression of sheer disdain and his blood-shot eyes were framed with deep, dark circles. This was due to the lack of sleep and the many tears which would not be spoken of. It had taken some effort for Shane to crawl out of his bed this morning, he was exhausted, weak and hurting. Working was the very last thing on his agenda, yet here he was, by Mr Manson's orders.

"Shane, hey dude." Jason exclaimed as he burst through one last door. "What's up with you?" He added, his voicing growing softer as he deliberated whether to hug his slightly murderous looking friend or not. He chose not.

Shane turned to Jason whose face was twisted into a comforting, tender look of worry. He swallowed, his chest deflating, his shoulders softening and the hard, hateful expression dissapearing from his features. He opened him mouth to speak, but found his tongue dry and struggling to say the one name that he was thinking. The one name that he had not been able to stop thinking of since yesterday. It hurt him to think of her, but he could not stop himself, she was everything to him. And now she was gone...for now. Shane sighed a little before swallowing, pushing away his paranoid consipracy thoughts.

"Mitchie…" Was all he managed to mumble, after a few tries, his heart wrenching at the sound her of name.

"God, these bloody girls." Jason said with a slight laugh, his innocent and almost vulnerable soal preventing him from seeing the seriousness of the situation. "Look at Nate, he and Caitlyn have had another argument." Jason stated, pointing over to the temperamental looking Nate who was stood, arms folded over his chest in the shadows. "Something about Caitlyn hiding something." Jason added in undertone.

"Oh, really!? Well, yesterday Mitchie broke up with me because apparently, she's in love with someone else." Shane growled, his voice cracking and tears prickling his eyes. He mentally scolded himself before blinking them away. "Jason....I'm sorry....I didn't..." Shane started, knowing that Jason didn't deserve to be spoken to like that.

"It's ok." He interrupted with a small smile. "I'm sorry about Mitchie." He added quietly as he patted his best friend on the back.

"Yeah, sorry, man." Nate's voice piped up, his eyes wide with sympathy and concern.

"It's ok. I mean, she was holding me back anyway." Shane said with a small, unconvincing laugh, his eyes falling upon his bruised fist as her remembered his attempts to try and relieve his anger by taking it out on his bedroom wall.

"That's the attitude, Shane. Get rid of the old ball and chain, hey?" A deep voice declared, the speaker repeating Jason's actions and slapping his hand upon Shane's back, Shane stumbling forward from the strength.

"Mr Manson…hi." Jason greeted quickly, hoping to defuse the anger and hatred that seemed to be brewing in Shane's eyes, but it didn't work.

"She wasn't a ball and chain!" Shane snapped back furiously, turning to face the stunned man, who was easily twice his width.

"On the contrary, all woman are. When I broke up with my wife…happiest day of my life. And by the sounds of it, you're one was a bit of a whore." Jonathon Manson told Shane with a deep chuckle as he smoothed down his tight, black suit. Jason bought his hand up to his forhead, preparing himself for Shane's inevitable outburst.

"Don't you dare speak about her like that!" Shane bellowed, his nostrils flaring and his chest expanding with immense breaths.

"Now now, Shane, you can't honestly still be holding a candle for her. She dumped you….move on, my man." Jonathon told Shane, clearly unhinged by Shane's burst of anger. "There's plenty more fish in the sea and all that."

"I don't care about the 'other fish'." Shane shouted. "I care about, Mitchie."

"Oh come now, Shane. Enough is enough, she doesn't love you, she loves someone else….you need to get over it and get to work…this studio is expensive you know." Mr Manson ordered, looking down at his watch., his eyes beginning to show the panic that he was feeling.

"Come on dude, just leave it." Jason mumbled to the fuming Shane whose shoulders were beginning to shake with fury.

"No….no." Shane spat. "I don't have to listen to this." Shane exclaimed, her voice feeling his ears at Mr Manson's accusation.

"You don't love me anymore?" .

"Of course I do."

"She does love me, I know she does. And that's why I'm not giving up on her, theres something not right about this whole situation!" Shane declared, anger flashing through his eyes as he continued. You.." He prodded Jonathon harshly in the chest. "Don't know anything about her...so keep out of it!"

"Leave it, Shane." Jason said softly, grabbing Shane's shoulder and attempting to pull him away.

"No…I'm going." Shane exclaimed as he shook himself out of Jason's grasp and with one last deadly glare at Mr Manson, Shane stalked out of the room, leaving a bewildered Nate and Jason in his wake.

"Well.." Jonathon said stiffly, wiping the material of his jacket as if Shane had left a mark. "I hope Mr Gray knows this wasted time will be coming out of his pay check." He declared.

"DARLA!" He shouted, a young, anxious girl bolting to his side almost instantly. "Get Jane and Keith to meet me in my office. NOW!" The young girl nodded furiously before disappearing as quickly as she had appeared. "You better hope your little friend gets his priorities sorted." He warned before swooping from the room, leaving Nate and Jason to share a look of deep concern.

"What are we going to do?" Jane questioned stiffly, staring at Mr Manson who was cracking his knuckles dangerously behind his desk. She seemed a lot less confidant now she stood on the other side of his menacing glares.

"I don't know, Jane!" He cursed, thumping his fist on the desk furiously. "He knows, he knows theres something more going on...damnit! How can he bloody know? Bloody hell!" Jonathon cursed, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation, his face flushing a shade of deep red.

"If I could, sir…?" Keith uttered as he stepped forward, running a hand over his prematurely bald head. Jonathon tilted his head minutely, allowing him to continue. "Maybe if he had evidence that she wasn't in love with him anymore, then he would believe that she's over him and he could move on and get back to his job."

"But she isn't over him and she is in love with him....have you not been paying attention?" Jane gibed. "So, with those two factor's in mind, how do you plan on getting this 'evidence'?" She probed, her badly manicures fingers forming the quotations.

"Please, like we can't make it happen. All we need is one photograph, it's simple." Keith retorted with a roll of his eyes as if his answer was obvious.

"But she's in love with him, you half-wit, she's not exactly going to be entertaining for other men anytime soon, she's heartbroken." Jane scolded, Keith narrowed his eyes as he stared hatefully at her. before he flickered his gaze to Mr Manson.

"Sir, all we need is a few cleverly planned photographs, she won't even suspect a thing." Keith explained, ignoring Jane who scoffed beside him.

"Alton, I dare say you might be on to something there." Manson declared, a malicious smile appearing on his lips and his cheeks fading to a pale pink.

"But…"

"Shut up, Clarke." He hooted. Jane recoiled pursing her lips as she did. "Yes, I know this isn't the best of plans, we could easily be exposed and it's not exactly full proof. But..." He bellowed before the red-head could cut in. "It is the only plan we have. I trust you can take care of everything, Alton?" Manson questioned as he turned his eyes back to the smug looking man, who merely nodded. "Good."

"Do you think we ought to inform her of this?" Clarke asked bravely, gaining a gust of confidence.

"What? Tell me Michelle, don't be so stupid…"

"No, not her. Miss-"

"No!" Manson cut in furiously, his face instantly reddening once more. "We've taken enough orders from her, we will continue off of our own backs." He shouted, thumping his fist upon the table once again. "Now go…NOW!" The pair hesitated for a few moments before quickly dissolving from their spots, leaving behind a still seeting Manson.

He fingered a mug of steaming tea in his hands, careful to practise the breathing exercises his doctor had insisted on if he didn't want to suffer a severe and most likely, deadly heart attack. It was no wonder his stress levels were so high.

With every 'whooshing' sound he produced from his pursed lips Jonathon tried to reassure himself that the problem would be soon solved. All they had to do was break Shane's heart into even smaller pieces, then maybe, just maybe he would return to work.

Yes, it was a long shot, but it was the only shot they had.

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Let me know...all you have to do is press that little button and in doing so you would make me the happiest person on the planet!! Please and thankyou!!

I love you all!

Emma. x