“Uh… what are you doing here?” Lily asked. She looked much calmer than she actually felt. “As you can see, we are going somewhere. We don’t have time for this.” This was said to the brother and sister pair. Then Lily turned to Katherine. “We still have some packing left to do, right? Will go be a darling and finish that?”

Katherine blanked for a moment. What was that supposed to mean?

Yes, lesbian parents of a teenage girl.

Take the opportunity to make Angelina stay in her room.

She quickly made her way to Angelina’s room. Not bothering to knock, she barrelled in and locked the door behind her.

Angelina heard her door bang and jumped in fright.

“What the **?” she swore. Katherine lurched forward, pressing her palms against Angelina’s mouth, muffling her words.

“Shut up,” she hissed. “Damon is here. He brought his sister.” Her protests vanished and she quietened down in record time. “We’ll handle the situation. You remain in the room. Ask Stephen and Cage to not come up. I’ll try to contact Jared and ask him to wait for us downstairs.”

Angelina nodded dumbly. Katherine slowly let her mouth go and then moved to her bed.

“I’ll help you pack. Don’t worry. We’ll get through this.” They slowly packed and heard the voices come from outside.

– – –

“Sit down,” Lily said politely after she saw Katherine close the door behind her. She sighed as the two kids sat down. “I know Damon. What is your name?” She put on the fake smile that helped her handle difficult clients and bratty models.

“Sophia,” she said. There was an arrogance about the girl that made Lily want to smack her lips.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“I’m eighteen,” Sophia said proudly. Lily calculated the siblings’ expressions. Either this girl had just turned eighteen or she was lying.

“Ah, good. What brings you here? My spouse and I already made it clear that we don’t want our daughter in any relationship.” And she had to pretend to be in a relationship with Katherine. It wasn’t like they could bring out Angelina and have her talk. The kid would probably recognize her voice immediately.

“I was hoping to change your mind. Damon and I wanted to come to H city for the long weekend. I haven’t told my parents anything yet, but we were hoping that Angelina and Damon could meet each other formally.”

Thank god. At least the parents didn’t know yet.

“I’m sorry. We really don’t want any contact with you or Damon. It’s just uncomfortable for us if you keep pressing for them to meet.” That sounded reasonable and motherly, right?

“That’s not for you to decide!” Sophia protested. “They are old enough to decide for themselves what they want to do.” If only that was the case. Angelina was, but this child? He could barely be allowed to go out and buy his own pencils for school.

“When you get to my age, you will realize that is not the case.” It hurt Lily to say this. She had been on the receiving end of such sentences and hated it completely. She had even sworn to never say such things to people who were younger than her. But here she was, preaching this ageist bull**.

“If it is because our family is not open to homosexual relationships…” Sophia trailed off. “We understand. I will talk to my parents and we will find a solution. Please don’t let two people in love be torn apart because of different world views.”

Lily gaped. What was this little girl spinning the story into? Was this some sort of tragic romance that she was writing in her head? Wasn’t it just two teenagers who had met online and it didn’t work out?

“She’s the love of my life,” the boy squeaked.

“Damon, right?” Lily asked. The boy nodded. “Thank you for thinking that way, but it’s not really my decision. Angelina herself doesn’t want to be with you.”

Damon frowned. Sophia looked infuriated.

“Because you are keeping her hostage!” she shouted. Lily’s eyes widened as she looked at the pair of siblings.

“Please keep your voice down. Angelina is not here.”

“She is! When your wife opened the door, we saw someone inside the room. That had to be her. You must be taking her somewhere else so that we can’t find her.” Sophia’s nostrils flared.

Lily pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose and cursed Lily in her head. Did she have to open the door so far? But that was not the point.

“I’m sorry you think that way. The luggage is here because we have a five-day vacation and we are going to have some family time.” Sophia scoffed on hearing that.

“Lie all you want. I am not leaving until I see Angelina.” The girl crossed her arm over her chest. “Anyway, how do you manage to look so young? How old are you?” she asked indignantly.

Lily rolled her eye.

“Old enough. Keep sitting here. We will just leave you in here and lock the door behind you. We are in a rush, you see.”

“Like you would do that, old lady.” Lily gasped. This little bitch.

“Hey, Damon?” Lily asked. “Do you really want Angelina uncomfortable because of you? She would have contacted you if she wanted to, don’t you think?” The boy’s head snapped up. He glanced at his sister helplessly.

“I’ll just talk to her and leave. I need to explain some things to her.”

– – –

“Stephen,” she said calmly even though she was not feeling it. “Don’t come up,” she pleaded.

“What happened?” he asked, concern lacing his voice. He had never heard her so vulnerable and it worried him out of his mind. He started to speed and saw Cage look at him questioningly. Stephen shook his head.

“This **ing child and her sister barged into our apartment,” Angelina hissed.

“Who?” he asked, but Angelina had already hung up the call.