Don't tell me you're sorry 'cause you're not
Baby when I know you're only sorry you got caught
But you put on quite a show
You really had me goin'
But now it's time to go
Curtain's finally closin'
That was quite a show
Very entertaining
But it's over now
Go on and take a bow

"Zoe, I can explain..." Teddy nervously said as he dropped his jacket and put his hands up, palms open. "It's not as bad as it might look, Zoe."

"Do you think I don't know what this is?" Zoe whispered with the pin clenched in her hand, fear still swirling in her eyes. The softness, the sparkle, and the pure love in her eyes from a few minutes ago was completely gone now. "You don't have to explain this to me, Teddy. I know exactly what this is and what it means. Probably... better than you do.."

"Zoe.." Teddy softly begged with a gulp. He was dying to be closer to her, to hold her, and reassure her that she had nothing to worry about.

"How long have you had this, Teddy?" Zoe asked, her eyes pooling with tears and her body still trembling. She was crumbling, piece by piece.

"Not long." Teddy cautiously answered. He was panicking but he tried not to show it. He had to figure out a way to explain this on the spot. He wasn't prepared for this yet.

"You're lying." Zoe's voice broke as a tear fell from her eyes. Teddy could feel his heart physically shatter inside of him at the sight of that fallen tear. "Everything you say is a lie, isn't it?"

"No. I promised not to lie to you, Zoe. Remember? We don't lie to each other." Teddy said, trying his best to repair this situation before it got too far out of his hands. "Let's just take a deep breath and sit down so I can explain this."

"You always have to explain everything." Zoe laughed passed her tears, the sound not filled with joy and humor but rather, broken disbelief. "Can you explain to me why you wouldn't tell me you had this?"

"Zoe-"

"Was all of this a trick, Teddy? Did you trick me into falling in love with you? Into having sex with you? Because of this?" Tears rolled down Zoe's cheeks as she looked at the pin in her hand. "Was any of it real?"

"It was all real, Zoe." Teddy said with the heaviest sincerity he could portray as he took a few cautious steps forward. "I promise you, on my mother's grave, I love you and the past few months with you in my life have been the best months I've lived in years, Zoe."

Zoe raised her eyes to meet Teddy's and she simply stared. He was closer than before but still looked like he was trying to keep his distance, for her sake, because he definitely looked like he wanted to be closer. Zoe was so lost in her thoughts, however, that she definitely did not want him closer. There were so many things running through her head. She was trying to retrace her steps through every moment she ever shared with Teddy, trying to pinpoint every moment that had possibly been tainted.

"You kissed me at that party and then you got beat up." Zoe thought aloud, staring at Teddy through her pooled tears. "It was a test, wasn't it? What did you do wrong? The kiss is what you needed, right?"

"No, Zoe. I didn't have the pin then. I got beat up because your mom wanted to warn me to stay away from you." Teddy explained.

"But then, my mother came to this house and wanted to talk to you. Did she give you a test then? Did she tell you to seduce me? Did she want a love confession out of me?"

"No. It was nothing like that. The night she came here was when she gave me the pin. When she forced it on me."

"You told me not to ask questions that night because you never asked me about Ezra." Zoe concluded, letting her frantic thoughts fall in line so she could speak coherent sentences. "Why? Why didn't you want me to know? Did you ask for something in exchange for the pin? Money? College funds? Scholarships? A car?"

"No, I didn't ask for a single thing, Zoe. That's not why I didn't tell you." Teddy explained.

A broken smile broke across Zoe's face again as another tear fell. "You're still lying. Wasn't the point? You got caught. Just fess up."

Teddy was taken aback by the amount of hurt and disbelief written all over Zoe's face and lacing her voice. "I'm not lying to you, Zoe. I swear to god. I wouldn't tell you I love you and have sex with you for a college scholarship or a car. Who do you think I am?"

"I honestly have no clue right now." Zoe's broken smile faded until she was left expressionless, emotionless, completely empty. "I thought I knew you better than anybody-"

"You do!"

"But the Teddy I know would never take this-" Zoe rolled the pin between her fingers. "Knowing all the sick, twisted shit that comes with it."

"I had no choice." Teddy defended, feeling as frustrated as he was scared.

"Yes, you did!" Zoe all but shouted. She wasn't emotionless anymore. She was angry. She was boiling. "I've seen the way my mother manipulates people into taking these stupid pins! She doesn't force it on them! She offered it and you took it! I know you did, even if you really didn't ask for anything!"

"She threatened me and my family!" Teddy barked back. He didn't want to turn this into an argument but he was so caught up, already, that salvaging this conversation was forgotten. "She was going to take you away from me, Zoe! I couldn't let that happen! I made a promise to you that I would always bring you home, you know that!"

"I would have come back on my own, Teddy! I would have brought Carmen back too! Who do you think brought her here in the first place?!" Zoe shouted. Teddy was speechless. He had nothing to argue that logic, which made him tense from head to toe. "This is the second time you have ignored everything I've done for you and convinced yourself that you can do it better! I bring your sister home, help her get a divorce from that psycho, and suddenly you're the one taking care of everybody? I had to shoot people just to earn the right to come home and you think you're the one saving me? Are you really that far up your own ass, Teddy?!"

"I don't want you to have to do shit like that for me or my family, Zoe! That's suppose to be my job! That's why I took the fucking pin in the first place! I don't want you to bring my sister back to me, I don't want you doing dangerous shit for me, I don't want to feel this small. What I want is to take care of you and my family myself. I want to be able to provide for you and I can't!"

"Oh, grow up!" Zoe spat. "It's the twenty-first century, Teddy! Us women can take care of ourselves and others just fine! Neither of us care what you bring to the table because we love you for you, not for what you have. But you and your broken ego just had to put everything I've done in vain!"

"In vain..?" Teddy asked, obviously confused.

"Yes. Because we were safe. Everything was fine. I had everything under control." Zoe sniffled. "But then, you decided that everything I did meant nothing because you could handle it all on your own. As if I failed.. As if what I did wasn't good enough.. because you don't believe in me.."

"I didn't want to undermine you, Zoe. I do believe in you, I swear. I just wanted to take the reins. You stayed by my side and you brought me my family, and in return, I wanted to be able to pull my own weight. I just wanted us to be safe and unbothered. I wanted this, what we have now, exactly as it is." Teddy more calmly explained.

"And you got scammed." Zoe said after snuffing out the last of her sorrow to let her anger simmer deep within her. "None of us, not even you, are safe with this stupid pin. And how long until you became bothered, Teddy? How long until you had to pay the price? Was it even worth it?"

How long until you had to pay the price?

The words of Teddy's father started replaying in his head again and he felt his heart ache. He had Zoe in his arms. Finally. After all this time of pining after each other. Teddy knew he would have to pay the price for this happiness at some point and suffer in misery and loneliness when Zoe left him. He just didn't realize the time would come so soon. With his luck, he should've known he could only have her for a few hours before she was ripped away from him.

"I wanted you so badly, Zoe..." Teddy solemnly confessed. "I could have run. Could have bolted after the night I got beat up for kissing you. Could have taken my family and simply abandoned you after you brought them back to me. But I wanted you. You, Zoe. I knew this part was going to be messy for us but you just have to have a little faith in me."

"How dare you ask that of me!" Zoe snapped and shoved angrily at Teddy's chest, disappointed that he only stumbled back a single step. She also hated how tall he was. It was hard to look down on someone when you had to look up at them the whole time. "You've never had faith in me, since the very beginning, and now you ask me to have faith in you... Why should I give you a chance when you've never given me one? I may be a fool but I'm not a clown, Teddy."

"I just... for once, Zoe, for once, I wanted you and Carmen to lean on me for a change."

"How the hell do you expect us to lean on a dead man, huh?" Zoe choked, nearly bursting into sobs at the image of Teddy dying at the hands of her wretched mother. The sadness was back again. "We get picked at, toyed with, and humiliated like pawns in my mother's game until you die and we have to suffer even more because you're gone. What good does that do us?"

"I'm not going to die. I promise you, I'm going to get stronger and work harder. You and Carmen won't get hurt anymore. I can protect you. I can do this." Teddy insisted.

"So can I.." Zoe seethed. Her eyes pooled with tears again, despite her internal struggle so stay composed. "But that wasn't good enough for you. Because nothing ever is.."

"Zoe-" Teddy attempted but cut his words short when she turned on her heels and stomped out of his room.

Teddy hurried to follow Zoe into the hallway and even into her bedroom, catching her door against his palms when she tried to slam it in his face. Teddy flexed his jaw out of frustration as he calmly stepped into her room and shut the door gently behind him. Zoe was already in her closet, changing into actual clothes after setting his pin aside. She was moving quick, which was worrisome.

"Talk to me.." Teddy softly begged as he watched Zoe shed his sweatshirt and walk half naked through her closet to find a bra and clasp it around her torso before she slipped the straps over her arms. "Please, Zoe. You don't have to assume the worse. I can handle this."

"You are delusional, Teddy, if you think my mother isn't going to put you through absolute hell. Even if you are telling me the truth and you do actually love me—not that I'm all that convinced right now—you're still a dead man. This game, my mothers game, is rigged against you. You are going to die. You should've let me take care of this before-"

Zoe froze when she got a shirt over her head, her eyes staring off for a moment as the wheels turned in her head.

"Before either of us got hurt.." Zoe finished, the puzzle pieces finding each other like perfect magnets in her head. Now she was stuck thinking about all the fishy moments that came after Teddy accepted the pin. "We've already been hurt... because you've already completed the tests given to you... and they used me to test you..."

Teddy gulped as he watched Zoe do the math in her head. "I protected you, Zoe. Your mother tried to hurt you and I was there to protect you. I did everything I had to do to make sure you came home again."

"Don't, Teddy! Don't try to shift the blame on to somebody else! My mother does terrible, terrible things and she has a lot of blood on her hands! I already know that! But in classic you fashion, all your selflessness is overshadowed by your idiocy's!" Zoe seethed but calmed just enough to lower her voice, her eyes glued to Teddy's. "This is her fault, Teddy, but you're not without yours either."

"I know, Zoe.. You have no idea how badly I wanted to come clean to you."

"You didn't want to come clean, Teddy. You never do, because you're a liar. You lie and you hide things and you cower, even when everybody else is being completely open and honest, because that's just who you are. Because you're scared."

"I was scared. I am still scared. Because all I want to do is protect you and I was scared you wouldn't let me if you knew. I know I can do this, Zoe." Teddy sighed. "Let me prove it."

"No, Teddy!" Zoe barked and more frantically grabbed clothes to shove on her body, swapping her shorts for panties and a pair of leggings. "I will not wait around for another person to come kidnap me just to see if you can save me. I will not be your damsel in distress and watch you fail one of these rigged tests because I don't want to see you get shot, Teddy. I don't want this, Teddy! It isn't suppose to be like this!"

"What do you want from me, Zoe? It's not like I have a lot of options here." Zoe ignored Teddy and shoved a pair of fuzzy boots on her feet before she snatched his pin and stormed past him. "You have to understand, Zoe, being Rin's punching bag for a few more weeks or months is a small price to pay to keep you and my family safe."

Zoe spun on her heels in the hallway, nearly causing Teddy to collide with her before his steps stuttered and halted. "I don't want you to be my mother's punching bag, Teddy! I don't want you to be a fucking henchmen or a bodyguard or a killer! I just want you to be Teddy! My Teddy! Not hers! Mine! And now that's ruined. You're tainted.."

Teddy stared down at Zoe, awestruck and flattered by her possessive rage. It filled his chest with warmth at the same time that it filled him with worry. He liked that Zoe wanted him all to herself, that she was this protective of him and cared this much. However, it absolutely crushed Teddy to know that Zoe saw him differently now. In her eyes, Teddy was not hers. In her eyes, Teddy was a monster, just like the rest of them. It was a potential reality that Teddy feared ever since Zoe met Kim.

Out of all the things Zoe wanted all to herself, for once in her life, it was Teddy. In hindsight, Zoe knew she should have never assumed the universe would just give her a simple high school romance. She didn't have luck that favorable. It made her feel even more foolish. Still, she would rather be a fool that got cheated on—like every other normal girl in her school—than the girl that has her dead boyfriends blood on her hands.

It was a twisted reality to wish for, but Ze currently lived in a reality where such a thing was the simplest, least painful, least traumatic fate she could hope for her relationship.

"Zoe, please calm down and think for a second.." Teddy whispered and gently held Zoe's face in his hands, wiping her falling tears away with his thumbs. "I have a strange feeling you're going to go to your mother and make a mess of this, and that's a bad idea. You realize that, right? She will take you away from me if you act out like this in front of her. She's going to punish us for handling this so poorly."

"There you go again, thinking I can't take care of myself. I am not her little dog, Teddy." Zoe shoved Teddy's hands off of her, both hating and missing his touch. "Not like you are."

"I'm not saying you are, Zoe. But she wants to tear us apart and she will jump on the opportunity to if she sees us break like this. So, please just.." Teddy cautiously reached for Zoe's arms and gently caressed her skin as he stared into her eyes. "Trust me, Zoe."

Zoe held Teddy's stare, despite the trembling she felt through her entire body and the paranoia in her head that was convincing her that nothing Teddy said was true. "Do you honestly think I can look you in the eyes right now and see anything other than a soulless robot ready for it's next command? And you want me to trust you?"

"Yes, trust me. Let me prove to you that I'm doing this because I love you. I am yours, Zoe. I will lay down my life if it means protecting you." Teddy softly and sincerely reassured.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." Zoe whispered.

The tension in the air grew so rapidly that even Teddy was finding it hard to breathe, and he wasn't even the one breaking down in tears right now. To avoid a mental breakdown, however, Zoe pulled out of Teddy's grasp and rushed downstairs to find her abandoned phone. She never left her phone out of her sight, since she always seemed to have an important call ready to interrupt her day. But tonight, Zoe wanted it to be just her and Teddy. She didn't even remember she had a phone when he had his lips on hers.

Everything was different now.

Teddy followed Zoe downstairs but couldn't think of anything else to say. He watched Zoe wipe away her tears as she sent someone a text, his shoulders slack and facial features hanging low on his skull. There was nothing Teddy could say besides how much he loved her and wanted to protect her. Judging by the fact that she was storming around the house and even put on shoes, Teddy had a feeling she was leaving as well. He hated that. He didn't want to let her go.

"Please, Zoe.." Teddy softly begged as he cautiously stepped towards her. "Don't run from me. Stay. Please.."

Teddy's hand barely closed around her wrist before Zoe pulled out of his reach and shoved his hands aside. Zoe didn't want to be touched by him right now. She didn't know what was real or fake, didn't know the depths of his secrets, and couldn't figure out if she was going to fight to free Teddy from her mother or simply run from him. After all, Zoe had absolutely zero desire being with someone that was affiliated with the moral and legal crimes that her mother committed on a daily basis.

Teddy was not Teddy to her right now. And Zoe shamed herself for not seeing that sooner.

Zoe didn't even know how many of her misfortunes were results of Teddy's tests, but she didn't even want to think about it right now. She couldn't look at him, couldn't talk to him, couldn't be touched by him. It was too much. Everything that Zoe ran away from was everything that Teddy was bringing back into her life. How ironic of her to have just told him that she wanted him and nothing else. Only Teddy. Not a lifeless husk that her mother could pilot to do her dirty bidding.

Zoe didn't care that Teddy thought he was protecting her and his family. She didn't need anybody to protect her from anything. Zoe was not the lost, little girl that everyone thought she was. And she was doubling offended that Teddy would doubt her ability to protect his family herself. He had once called her a coward after she secured his sisters safety, completely disregarding the things she risked for him, and it was happening all over again.

Teddy didn't have any faith in her. He saw nothing but a pretty face, just like everybody else. Why had she ever given him more credit than that?

"Who the hell is that?" Teddy asked from the living room as he watched a car pull into the driveway, it's headlights flashing through the windows in the front of the house.

Teddy could tell that Zoe was waiting for somebody to pick her up as she sat on the bottom steps in the foyer and stared numbly at the front door. Neither of them spoke for over ten minutes, both of them trying to collect their thoughts. Now that somebody was here, however, the reality of this situation was hitting Teddy like a violent storm. Zoe was going to leave. She was going to walk out and disappear and he wasn't sure he was prepared to lose her, even though he had been anticipating this moment since the beginning.

Zoe didn't answer Teddy's question as she pushed off the stairs and strutted towards the front door, her phone in her hand, purse over her shoulder, and clothes on her back. She was leaving with nothing else. That's how badly she wanted to escape this place.

"Zoe, please!" Teddy panicked when he beat her to the door, gripping the doorknob and blocking her path with his body. "You can't just run away from me, Zoe. Talk to me, look at me."

"Get out of my way, Teddy." Zoe seethed, her eyes never lifting to meet his..

Teddy was still shirtless, still had scratch marks, still looked godly. Zoe hated that.

Teddy reached to caress Zoe's chin in his hand and tilt her head up to meet his gaze. "Please, don't walk out this door, Zoe. Please, don't leave me."

"I can't figure out what is the truth and what are the lies, and the worst part is, it doesn't matter." Zoe stated, venom dripping off every syllable she spoke as she stared fearlessly into Teddy's eyes. "I don't know which way is up and which way is down. I don't know if this is my fault or yours. All I know is my mother. She has twisted my life to her will so much that I have no choice but to only know her."

Teddy's heart clenched in his chest. Zoe sounded so numb and defeated and he couldn't blame her. It was all true. No matter where Zoe ended up in her life, there was a chance that she would never know if any of it was real because Rin was always behind the scenes, rigging the system in her favor. It didn't matter what school Zoe went to, what jobs she had, who her friends were, or even her significant other. Zoe was only allowed as much freedom and success and control as she was granted.

Teddy could only imagine the kind of twisted, mental toll that would take on Zoe. Especially after realizing that the boy she fell in love with was secretly working for her mother. Whatever freedom and control Zoe thought she had was yanked away from her once again.

"So you're going to run to her? To the woman that's trying to sabotage every good thing that lands in your path?" Teddy asked, his voice quiet and hurt.

"Where else am I suppose to go?"

"Don't go anywhere. This is your home, Zoe." Teddy moved his hand to hold Zoe a bit more possessively, his hand desperately cupping the base of her skull, with a frown on his face. "I love you. That's the truth. That's the realest shit I've ever said in my whole life. I was even warned not to fall for you but I did anyways because.. I couldn't hide how I felt about you any longer."

"How brave of you to go against my mother's wishes when she could slit your throat for it. Didn't anybody ever warn you not to bite the hand that feeds you?" Zoe asked with the same bitterness as before. "Or was all of that not true either and you're just trying to butter me up for a test?"

"Zoe!" Teddy frustratedly growled, abandoning all thought of blocking the door behind him to cup Zoe's head in both hands and stare intensely into her eyes. "This is not a game to me, Zoe. I've told you no lies. I have done nothing to try and deceive you. This is real to me. I love you."

"Stop it!" Zoe shoved Teddy's hand off of her.

"You have to believe me, Zoe! I wouldn't tell you I love you if I didn't mean it because I didn't even know what love actually meant before you came along! I told you I'd die for you! That's real, Zoe!"

"Move, Teddy!" Zoe shouted and shoved at his huge frame.

Teddy had yet to understand that his willingness to die for her was the complete opposite of a compliment and it made her bones chill as her blood boil. Luckily, Teddy was out of Zoe's way and she could stomp outside without hearing anything more from him. Teddy wasn't just going to let her walk away, though, so he shoved on a pair of sneakers and raced outside to follow her and hopefully catch her.

"You still have my pin, Zoe. You know what that means, don't you?" Teddy panicked as he followed her outside.

Teddy had two pins, technically, thanks to his fight with Brian, so Teddy didn't actually feel like he was in danger. But that wasn't the point. Zoe took it assuming it was his only one and she probably knew what it meant if someone lost their pin, yet she still took it.

"Of course, I do." Zoe shot back.

"And you're angry enough to let me die? You want your mother to kill me? Isn't that what you've been upset about this whole time?" Teddy called after her.

Teddy was suddenly struck, his feet halting in the snow, as he watched Abe emerge from the parked car in the driveway. He was walking around the car and looked like he was going to open the door for Zoe but she beat him to it and nearly hit him as she threw it open.

"I'm taking this." Zoe said before she got in the car, flashing Teddy's pin at Abe as her eyes locked with his. "And if any of you lay a finger on him, I'll kill you myself."

Zoe knew she was disowning her own moral pride of not being a killer by making such a threat but it was only a bluff, and even Abe knew it. That didn't mean there wouldn't be repercussions if he didn't listen to her, however. Zoe still had power over Abe and the other men in the Mission Z crew. If she didn't like any of them, all she had to do was share her grievances with her mother and she'd take care of them. Which was exactly why Zoe wanted Teddy nowhere near her mother. She did not care about killing the men that surrounded her daughter.

Teddy didn't know why but he assumed Zoe didn't know about Mission Z. The men Teddy talked to said nobody had worked so closely with her besides Kenneth, but now Abe was picking her up from her home. Although, they did say that they didn't interact with her unless they were given orders. Maybe Zoe had texted Abe when she grabbed her phone. They were on-call henchmen, after all, waiting in the shadows for Rin and Zoe to boss them around.

Abe turned his gaze from Zoe to Teddy, carefully eyeing him with a heavy glint of disappointment in his eyes. "You told me she was not your Bella, Morgan. This situation says otherwise."

"She's not my Bella." Teddy's hands balled into fists at his sides. Every time Abe was around, something bad happened. His very presence put Teddy on edge. "She just threatened to kill you if you hurt me while your Bella wants to kill you for hurting her."

Abe fished his gun out of his pants and let it sit impatiently at his side. Teddy didn't look down at it and only maintained Abe's stare, showing him no fear. "You've fallen for the girl and now you've suddenly got balls big enough to shit talk me? It's like you're just begging me to kill you, Morgan."

Zoe held her breath as she also stared at Teddy. If Teddy's love confession was a part of a test or some kind of trick or manipulation, he should have no problem telling Abe that he wasn't in love. She was already halfway in the car, Abe had pulled a gun, and he was caught red handed. He should just give up and surrender to save himself. But if his love for her was true and this was not a test or a game, Zoe feared that even more.

With Rin's leash still firmly wrapped around Teddy's neck, love could get him killed. If he was just Teddy, Zoe's Teddy, she would have at least been able to protect him herself by keeping him away from this gruesome world she lived in, but instead, he could die right here before Zoe had any say in it.

Knowing the dangers of Abe's threats, Teddy held his chin high and nodded. "You don't have the authority to kill me just because I've fallen in love with her. That's not how this works, Abe."

"She's got your pin, Morgan. I have more than enough reason to kill you." Abe calmly said and cocked his gun as he raised it to Teddy's head.

Abe knew Teddy had two pins in his possession, so technically, he could afford to lose one. Even if Zoe thought she was making a point by taking one, Teddy was still safe. Abe didn't care about that, though. It wasn't like Teddy was bringing up this second pin, so if he died because of his pride, that would only be his fault.

Zoe didn't even listen to Abe as she reached into the car, popped open the glove compartment in front of her seat, and retrieved the gun and magazine hidden inside. A second gun cocked just after Abe's and his finger hovered cautiously on the trigger of his own at the sound. Shifting his eyes towards Zoe, Teddy gulped at the sight of her fearlessly aiming a handgun at Abe's temple. Abe didn't look away from Teddy, though, trying his best not to look phased by Zoe's threat.

Zoe's previous threat of killing him herself was a bluff. They both knew that. However, he had called her bluff and she proved them both wrong. Zoe knew she was willing to shoot a man for Teddy since she had done so with Ezra, but now she was growing more and more certain that she was willing to kill for him. And that wasn't what Zoe wanted. It was Teddy's fault that she was here, pointing a gun at a man's head to protect him, instead of being a normal teenage girl in a normal high school love story.

"You heard me, didn't you, Abraham?" Zoe warned, her cold tone sending a chill down Teddy's spine. She was definitely related to Rin, no matter how much she and Teddy wished she wasn't. "Put the gun down and get in the car."

"You took his pin and he just said he's in love with you." Abe said, his gun firmly sitting stationary in the air, still trained on Teddy's forehead. "I have every right to put a bullet in his brain. If I don't, I'll have to deal with your mother and I would rather be shot dead by you, right now, than suffer that bullshit."

"I'll take care of my mother." Zoe said. "But I swear to Christ, Abraham, if a single hair on his head is harmed, you will pay for it. I will not allow anything else to happen to him."

A smile itched at the corner of Teddy's lips but he tried to stay as composed as possible. Although the guns were scary, Zoe's seething anger and dangerous threats were hot. She was unbelievably sexy when she was angry. Especially when she was angry with someone other than him. She looked like a total badass making threats and demands like the boss she was. And Teddy somehow thought he couldn't fall anymore in love with her. Just how wrong he was.

Abe finally dropped his gun and safely returned it to his belt before he stepped away to return to the drivers seat. Zoe also dropped her gun and ripped the magazine from it as she held Teddy's gaze. He looked awestruck by her, completely head over heels and hopelessly smitten. She could even see a hint of a smile on his face and in his eyes, which only made her angrier. Teddy didn't get it. He didn't understand. Every time she thought he did, he turned around and proved her wrong.

She shouldn't be doing this right now. This is not what she wanted. Zoe ran from the horrors in her life and Teddy was dragging her back into the fray again. How did he not understand that she despised him for it right now?

"Don't take this the wrong way, Teddy." Zoe warned as she tossed the gun and magazine back into the glove compartment. "If I could ring your neck myself, I would, but I have a bigger mess to clean up thanks to you. As if I haven't done enough already."

"You have to understand why I did this. You can understand, can't you? I did this for my family. I did this for you. That's not malicious or stupid, Zoe. When you're in the position I'm in, you only have so many options so you have to take risks sometimes."

"I honestly don't care what your motive was, Teddy. Pure intentions or not, you're not the person I thought you were and I can't even look at you the same."

"You know I've always wanted to protect my family. How does this make things any different?"

"Because you don't even feel bad about it!" Zoe snapped, her chest suddenly heaving with anger.

Zoe held Teddy's stare like she had a knife against his neck. That's what it felt like anyways, as he nervously gulped. He could see Zoe trembling and there was a wildness in her eyes that scared him. It was the wildness he saw when they were rolling around in his bedsheets. It wasn't playful, it was murderous. She was pissed beyond her control and he could see it in her twitching facial features and balled fists.

"You sold your soul to bad people so those bad people could use you to do bad things and you don't care! You don't care that I'm getting hurt because you think you can put a bandage on the cuts and bruises I get and everything will be all better! You let go of your dream of carrying the world on your shoulders so that you could carry somebody else's world! And it pisses me off because that's not the person you showed me you were! I thought you were brave and ambitious and independent! I guess I was too blinded by my lust for you to realize everything you've ever said was bullshit..."

"Lust?" The word fall off Teddy's tongue in a faint whisper as his shoulders fell.

Before Teddy could get out another word, Zoe slipped into the car Abe was waiting in the drivers seat of and slammed the door shut. Teddy crashed against her window, causing Zoe to flinch and a tear to fall down her cheek. He tried to shout at her and beg her listen to him but Zoe didn't pay him any attention as she demanded Abe drive. She couldn't take anymore of this. She felt like her head was about to explode.

The car lurched backwards and caused Teddy to trip as Abe thrusted the car down the driveway. Teddy was in a panic. He couldn't lose Zoe. He was doing all of this so he didn't lose her, and it was backfiring horribly. Teddy's worse fear was coming true and it was all his fault. There was nothing worse than that and it was haunting him already. He could feel the bile tickle the back of his throat as the Sensation disappeared down the street and away from the house.

-

Carmen helped Malik walk inside by holding his hand over his head as she struggled to follow behind him with two bags over her shoulders. Once she was inside, Bailey ran in after her and threw her own heavy bag on the floor. Carmen helped her babies get their shoes and jackets off as she looked around at the quiet, empty house.

Since it was almost noon on a Wednesday, Carmen assumed Zoe and Teddy would be at school by the time she got home. It wasn't until she spotted Teddy's and Zoe's backpacks laying in the foyer that she curiously tilted her head. Had they not gone to school today? Did they actually end up having sex last night and had so much fun that they stayed home from school to do it all day long? That idea made Carmen cringe but she wasn't going to rule it out as being potentially true.

"Teddy? Zoe?" Carmen shouted as she stood up with Bailey and Malik's jackets in hand. "We're back!"

Carmen got nothing in return, which made her frown. Dear god, please tell me they're not still going at it, Carmen mentally prayed.

Carmen let Bailey entertain herself in the living room as she put Malik in his walker and then decided to head upstairs to search for the two teenagers. She was cautious as she took slow steps down the hallways, listened for any disturbing noises, and called out for Teddy and Zoe to let them know that she was in the house. Everything was silent though, and nobody was responding to her call.

Maybe they were asleep, Carmen considered. If they spent all night doing it then it made sense that they'd sleep in until the afternoon. It didn't take much work for a teenager to sleep that long anyways.

"Teddy..?" Carmen called as she knocked on his door, since Zoe's bedroom door was wide open and her room was vacant.

Carmen still wasn't getting any response and that worried her. Still, she was cautious as she opened Teddy's door. As the door slowly swung open, Carmen looked towards his bed as it was being revealed and didn't see any bodies tangled together in sleep or play. It wasn't until the bed was fully revealed by the open door that Carmen spotted Teddy, alone. He was sitting at the edge of his bed with his head in his hands as one of his legs anxiously bounced in place.

"Teddy?" Carmen frowned. She could tell just by Teddy's body language that he was hurt somehow, emotionally. "Are you okay?"

Teddy shook his head but didn't look up at Carmen as he began to tremble from trying to hold back his emotional breakdown. Carmen moved a lot quicker now as she stepped into Teddy's room to tend to him. She hurried to Teddy's side and sat on the bed beside him to pull him into a hug. She didn't know what was wrong but he was already crying in her arms, his bare shoulders bouncing and his mouth sputtering restrained sobs.

"What happened, Teddy? What's wrong?" Carmen softly asked as she stroked Teddy's head and arms. "Where's Zoe?"

"She left..." Teddy choked out, inhaling a broken, staggering breath. He could barely hold himself together. "She found out I was working for Rin and she ran. I'm not even sure she's coming back."

"She will. She'll come back." Carmen reassured. "It's Zoe.. She wouldn't just leave, Teddy. She'll come around."

Teddy broke out of Carmen's grasp and jumped up from the bed, no longer able to sit still. Carmen could finally see Teddy's face and she was heartbroken at how shattered he looked. He had slightly bloodshot eyes, wet cheeks, a red nose, and quivering lips. Even his hands were shaking as he anxiously rubbed his face.

"I hurt her, Carmen. You have no idea what this means to her. She looked at me like I was a monster, like I betrayed her, and I don't blame her. I have fucked up every single chance I've had with her." Teddy said, his chest heaving as he found it harder and harder to breathe. "Why would she give me another one? After this?"

"Because she's Zoe." Carmen said, staring confidently at her brother. "She's forgiving and she knows you have a heart worth her forgiveness. She'll come to understand why you did what you did and she'll come home."

"I told her I loved her." Teddy said and sniffled, ignoring the tear that fell down his cheek. Carmen's expression turned to shock as her spine straightened. "She said she loved me too but she still ran."

Carmen sat in silence as she marveled at her little brother. She was awestruck. He was in love. Carmen could tell this wasn't momentary puppy love either. She knew how much Zoe meant to her little brother. She figured that out long ago and it was reaffirmed when he told her he would do anything for Zoe. And now he was a sputtering, sobbing mess because she left. There was no doubt in Carmen's mind that Teddy's love was real and it was intense.

Still, Carmen was shocked. Love was a pretty serious thing. She had never even been in love. She had only ever seen true love from her parents and even that looked terrifying considering how their father ended up after their mother died. Because of that, Teddy looked very brave in Carmen's eyes. He saw the same fate of love that she did and that didn't stop him. Clearly.

"I'm sorry she left, Teddy." Carmen said as she stood up and carefully pulled Teddy into her arms. Teddy rested his head on Carmen's shoulder as he tried his best not to sob uncontrollably. "But you didn't lose her. I promise you, this isn't the end."

"I've been calling her. I've been texting her. She won't talk to me, Carmen." Teddy choked.

"It's okay, Teddy. She'll come around. I know she will." Carmen cooed as she hugged her brother. "Have you gotten any sleep since she left?"

"Barely any. How can I sleep? Twelve hours ago I was in bed with her. We were in each other's arms, and now everything just feels so empty.. This bed, this house, my fucking head.." Teddy sighed. "I need her back. I need her to understand. I need her to accept me."

"Give it time." Carmen said. "Zoe will come back. We are her family and she is ours, she knows that. She'll come back."

-

By five-thirty in the morning, the day after losing her virginity to the love of her life, Zoe Yang was throwing open the door to the New York apartment she hated even more than her home in Los Angeles. The dark walls and floors and furniture did not give it a very welcoming atmosphere. It didn't help that all this darkness made the henchmen scattered around the inside of the apartment and the apartment complex seem even more ominous.

Every time Zoe locked eyes with one of them, she could almost swear she saw Teddy for a brief moment. It was driving her crazy.

Besides that, it seemed Rin and Hiro were home for Valentine's Day considering the state that the apartment was in. From the kitchen against the far end of the apartment to the living room nestled against the giant windows towards the middle of the apartment, and the piano and bar by the front door, it was a complete mess. It looked like this place had been ransacked.

Glasses from the bar had obviously been thrown as broken glass glistened all over the dark floors. A bottle of wine had also obviously been thrown, in the direction of the piano, as a faint red liquid stained the walls and pooled around the shards of the wine bottle. Cushions from the leather couch were in disarray, the glass coffee table was cracked but not shattered, and various items of suits were thrown haphazardly about the kitchen. It was Rin and Hiro for sure.

Stood confused and mind blown in the kitchen, Zoe looked from the discarded clothes to the hallway leading off from the kitchen and leading to her parents bedroom. Zoe almost assumed there had been some fighting going on in this house but the trail of clothes leading down the hallway said otherwise. It made Zoe cringe and hug herself as she carefully stepped over the broken pieces of glass and turned over plates of uneaten food to get to her parents bedroom.

Good thing she hadn't taken her shoes off. Zoe would've have made it one step into the apartment if she had.

"Mom? Dad?" Zoe reluctantly called as she knocked on the closed door of her parents bedroom.

"Zoe?" Rin's voice yelled back. She sounded wide awake. That made sense. Rin wasn't the type to sleep in.

"Yeah! I'm home!" Zoe yelled through the door. "Can I talk to you?"

Zoe waited only a moment before Rin threw open the bedroom door, causing it the blow back her short silver hair and nearly blow her robe open if she wasn't holding it closed. Zoe stepped back to let her mother step out of her room and bowed politely in greeting. Zoe glanced briefly passed the door as she bowed to see her father still passed out in their giant bed, laying naked on his stomach with the corner of a blanket covering just enough of him to protect Zoe's eyes.

"What happened to the apartment?" Zoe asked as she followed her mother towards the living room.

Her mother was only wearing slippers to protect her feet and fearlessly kicked away the bigger pieces of broken glass that could penetrate the foam of her slippers. Rin didn't look as concerned by the mess around her as she repositioned a couch cushion and relaxed into it with her legs elegantly crossed. Zoe decided not to sit, finding herself too anxious about the conversation they were going to have to sit properly. Besides, she didn't trust there wasn't glass everywhere.

"Your father and I got in a fight last night. He can be a fool sometimes." Rin said, leaving out the part that explained why their clothes were everywhere. "And then we got distracted, to say the least."

Never mind.

Zoe tried to put the puzzle pieces together but she never understood her parents relationship. Usually, they were nothing more than business partners. And sometimes they would end up in these fights that created huge disasters. But very rarely did Zoe walk in on discarded clothes and them in the same bed. Seeing Hiro passed out naked in a bed was normal but there were usually other girls laid beside him, not his wife. Even Rin enjoyed other men's company.

"Why are there such heavy bags under your eyes?" Rin frowned as she squinted up at her daughter. "You didn't come all the way here looking the way you do, did you, Zoe? You look disgusting. Your face is all swollen and red, your hair is beyond messy, and you're wearing leggings. You better not have ran into paparazzi, Zoe."

Zoe sulked, wishing that her mother had maternal strong enough to realize that Zoe looked heartbroken, not disgusting. Being nagged about her appearance and whether she gave her mother a bad public image was not of Zoe's concerns right now. It was actually very, very low on the list.

"No, mother. I didn't see any paparazzi on my way here." Zoe said. "I'm here unannounced, after all."

"Did you come through the sewer system? You look like this and nobody snapped your picture?" Rin smirked, finding her own humor funny. When Zoe didn't laugh, Rin scoffed and gestured toward one of the chairs across the coffee table. "Sit, Zoe. What is it you crawled here to talk about?"

Zoe gulped, carefully studying her mother to make sure this wasn't a bad time to bring this up. She seemed relax. That wasn't saying much, though. Rin's attitude could flip on a dime. There was probably never going to be a perfect time to bring up this topic so it didn't matter anyways.

"Teddy.." Zoe gulped. She could feel her heart pounding and she never made any attempt to sit, despite how much she could feel her legs begin to tremble. "You recruited him.."

Rin eyed her daughter in a tense moment of silence before an eerie, cocky grin spread across her features. "Of course, I did, sweetheart. How long did you think I'd let him run rampant with you following him around everywhere? He was a liability. I tamed him. For you."

"Tamed him?" Zoe breathed, her expression twitching with shock and disbelief. She already felt like crying. "I didn't want him tamed, mother. He's just fine the way he is. I like him because of who he is. Turning him into one of your puppets is not how I want him."

"So your feelings for him change based on whether he's mine or not?" Rin's eyebrow popped up in question.

Every single word Rin spoke was a test to poke at Zoe and see her reaction. Zoe knew that her mother was prepared to use everything she said against her so she was careful in responding. Although, it was hard for Zoe think straight when Rin tried to lay claim on the love of her life. The added lack of sleep in the past few hours also made Zoe feel lost and delirious.

"If you knew I had any feelings for him at all, why would you take him? You're going to turn him into everything I don't want." Zoe said, her voice weak and eyes glistening.

Rin's smug smirk turned a bit more sarcastic as her eyes narrowed, her stare patronizing and piercing. "I go out of my way to help your little boyfriend more easily integrate himself into our lifestyle, where you grew up and belong, and you're upset by that? Everything we have, that I am instilling in that boy, is everything you don't want?"

Yes.

Zoe's heart was thumping anxiously in her throat at this point. She wanted to scream. She couldn't say anything without her mother twisting it into a reason to shame her. Zoe couldn't just tell her mother that she hated her life here and everything in it. She couldn't tell her that she went to Ohio to escape the constant trauma that her parents and her lifestyle dragged her through. She couldn't tell her mother that Teddy was perfect just the way he was and any ounce of her influence would smudge and destroy the work of art that he was.

The frustration was building so quickly and intensely that Zoe couldn't help but sputter a few sobs as tears rolled down her cheeks. Zoe dropped her head into her hands but tried to collect herself as best she could. It was hopeless. She felt so tired, so frustrated, so betrayed, so lost...

"Can't you just let me have him? Please?" Zoe begged through her tears. "He's the only thing I want. He's the only thing I'll ever ask you for again."

"You can't have him if he's useless, Zoe." Rin retorted, her tone filled with annoyance as she rubbed her forehead in frustration. "I let you keep your boy toy and gave him the opportunity to grow and improve. Don't be ungrateful. And stop blubbering like a baby. You know how much that pisses me off."

He was perfect because he was growing on his own, Zoe wanted to yell.

Teddy didn't need Rin to make him better. He was just fine. Zoe knew Teddy wanted to be stronger but he didn't need all of this to do that. Teddy used to hate everything and everyone. He used to have no friends. He missed his sister because he never got to see her. All of that had changed now and Teddy went through it all on his own. He was changing. His life was changing. But it was growth.

Whatever Rin wanted out of Teddy was not growth. She was going to reduce him to ash and build him up as an entirely different person for her own benefit and amusement.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Zoe asked and began wiping away her tears in an attempt to collect herself. "Everything would have been different if you would've told me."

"He asked me not to." Rin shrugged.

"And since when do you care about what anybody else wants?" Zoe choked.

"Would you have left him if I told you then?" Rin asked.

There was some suspension in her voice that hinted at the follow up question yet to come. Zoe sniffled, folded her hands in front of her, kept her head down, and gently shook it. If she had known Teddy got caught up in her mother's web the day that it had happened, Zoe would have intervened and stopped it before it got out of hand. She wouldn't have left.

"Do you plan on leaving him now?" Rin asked, staring daggers into her daughter even if she wouldn't meet her eye.

Zoe paused a bit longer this time. She gave her heart to Teddy and she knew he wasn't going to let go of it so easily. Even so, that didn't mean she wanted to fight him for it. Not that Zoe was planning on running home after this conversation with her mother. There was still a lot for her to consider based on how this conversation ended. And no matter what happened here, Zoe still had to think about what Teddy had been doing since he got that pin. Rin wasn't the only guilty party here.

"No.." Zoe sighed.

Zoe would find her way back to Teddy eventually. It wouldn't be the same. Maybe she wouldn't even be in love anymore. Maybe he would come to his senses and realize he was never in love in the first place. Maybe she would miss him so much while away that she would rush home an hour from now. Zoe didn't know. She wasn't in the right mindset to make any solid decisions. It didn't really matter. She still knew Teddy and herself were not done with each other yet.

This was not where their story ended.

"Exactly." Rin said as she stood from the couch, drawing Zoe's attention up with her. "You misunderstand, Zoe, because you're upset. What you don't realize is that I'm doing all of this for you, my precious daughter."

"How is this for me?" Zoe whimpered, her eyes following her mother as she rounded the coffee table and stepped in front of her. "I don't want this."

"It's not about what you want, darling. It's about what you need." Rin cooed as she fussed with Zoe's hair, putting all her strands exactly where she wanted them. "I am not doing this to hurt you. You know that, don't you? I'm only looking out for you and laying down a red carpet with every step you take, always making sure you're well taken care of. You're my daughter, Zoe. It is my duty as a mother."

"Shouldn't you care about what I want? As my mother?" Zoe sighed as she stared up at her mother.

"And what is it you want?" Rin asked, leaving her daughter to strut towards the nearly destroyed bar. "A smelly, clumsy, noisy high school boy that is slowly sabotaging your reputation, despite the fact that he has no successful future ahead of himself or for your relationship with him?"

Zoe slumped into one of the chairs in the living room after brushing it clean of glass. "That's not who he is. He might look like that on the outside but he's a good person. People simply refuse to dig deeper."

"Sit up, Zoe." Rin chimed from the bar as she grabbed half of a broken win bottle and poured herself a drink.

Zoe groaned and wiggled in her seat until her spine was straight. "Teddy was growing, mother. He was in a dark place before I came along and brightened up his world. That's what you trained me to do, right? I bring light to every room I enter and person I meet."

"Yes, and you do that very well." Rin said matter-of-factly. "But bringing light to this boys life isn't going to benefit you in anyway. He makes a mess while you try to fix him and then he walks off a new man while you are left with the damage he dealt."

"I'm not trying to fix him. It's different." Zoe argued. "And I can clean up any mess he makes, no problem. Damage control. We did that on that radio show and then we paid for the school trip. Everyone was happy. The mess was gone."

Run rolled her eyes from the bar as she slammed her drink and poured herself another glass. "Zoe, if you want to do charity work, go to the beach and clean up the plastic mess there. That will at least do something good for your reputation. Don't waste your time on nothing but a handsome face."

Zoe groaned in pure defeat and doubled over to hide her face in her hands. Her mother wasn't listening to her. Everything she said, Rin argued against. Zoe felt like everybody refused to listen to her. Nobody in her life cared about what she was saying or how she felt or what she wanted. It was driving her crazy. Where did she have to go and who did she have to talk to to be heard? How was she suppose to keep herself from pulling her own hair out?

"Frankly, Zoe, I am glad that you are not done with Teddy because I have a lot of plans left for you and him." Rin added.

"He's not going to work for you anymore." Zoe muttered, still doubled over with the heels of her palms buried in her eye sockets.

"Excuse me?"

"I have his pin."

"You took Teddy's pin? That I gave him?" Rin asked, intrigued by what she was hearing. So intrigued, in fact, that she left the bar with her wineglass between her fingers to approach Zoe. "Prove it."

Zoe sighed and sat up to dig through the purse she brought with her. She pulled the pin out of her purse and slapped it into Rin's outstretched hand. Rin carefully inspected the pin as a smirk pulled at the corner of her lips. She looked so amused, it was giving Zoe chills.

"You took this from Teddy?" Rin chuckled, her eyes falling from the pin to her daughter.

"Yes." Zoe confirmed once more.

"But you know what happens when someone loses their pin. You're willing to let that boy get killed, with no mercy, yet you grovel to me about recruiting him?"

"I warned Abe not to touch him before I left."

"Abe listens to me, not you."

"Not when he has a gun aimed at his head."

Rin lit up with even more amusement as a smile spread wildly across her face. Zoe was not having as much fun. She hated every second of this.

"You?" Rin asked, pointing a sharp nail at her daughter.

"Yes." Zoe said.

"I'm so proud." Rin leaned down and planted a kiss to Zoe's forehead before she pulled back and booped Zoe's nose. Zoe sighed and watched as her mother strutted away again, making her way towards her bedroom. "I see you're trying to set your boy toy free, Zoe, and I didn't want to be the bad guy keeping him trapped but it doesn't look like I am after all."

"How do you mean?" Zoe asked her mother as she sauntered away.

"This is Brian's pin, darling. Teddy took it after he killed him, so Teddy still has his own pin in his possession, which means he's still mine. Him and Abe let you take this." Rin stopped in the kitchen, just before the hallway leading to her room, and turned to see Zoe's eyes wide with shock. "I told you I am not the bad guy, Zoe. I don't lie to you like that boy does. So you should be careful about who you show your loyalty to."

Zoe wanted to be shocked by the information just given to her, but the more she thought about it all and processed everything that had happened in the last few hours, Zoe was still stuck on one thing.

Nothing was real.

Phase Two is COMPLETE!!!

AND I HAVE SO MUCH PLANNED FOR PHASE THREE!!

This story will be going on a short hiatus but don't forget about this story because it will be back!! I promise!

It would mean THE WORLD to me if you guys left a little comment here to share how you felt about this phase of the story and what you want/predict will happen next! I always enjoy hearing what you guys think and suggestions are very helpful! Go nuts!

I love you all dearly! Thank you so much for reading and voting and commenting and going on this wonderful journey with me! It literally makes my heart do things in my chest when I think about it! You're all so awesome!❤️❤️❤️