Oliver heard sniffling just as he was about to knock on the door of Lucille's office. He took a step back to re-evaluate the situation.

If it was a Shane thing he didn't want to interfere. It would only complicate the work relationship they had became comfortable with over the last few weeks. But he didn't know what else could make her cry. He cared too much about her to leave her in there crying alone.

He knocked on the door loudly.

"Come in", Lucille said trying to compose herself before the unknown person would enter.

"Good morning", Oliver greeted.

Lucille smiled up at him but put her head back down to read over some paperwork.

"I was just coming in to discuss more ads that were scheduled to run this week", he said taking a seat in one of two chairs in front of her desk.

He cleared his throat. "Lucille is everything alright?"

"What?", she asked.

He pointed to his own eyes.

"Oh, I'm fine", she lied waving it off. "My allergies get really bad around this time of year."

"I'm here if you need to talk about anything, you know that right?"

She stared into his eyes for a second too long before nodding in understanding.

Oliver walked closer to her desk. "I know we ended things on a bad note but our friendship doesn't have to end too" he said. "I will always be here for you Lucille."

She nodded once again. "I will for you too, Oliver."

He placed the stack of papers he'd come in with at the corner of her desk.

"Take it easy for now but let me know when you're ready to go over these."

And with that said, Oliver turned and left.

As much as they both wanted to be in one another's arms, he comforting her, she feeling safe, they both knew it couldn't happen.

Lucille glanced down at the paperwork, coming to the conclusion that she wouldn't be able to get anything done until she cleared her head. Her mind was racing a thousand miles a minute and she needed answers. There was only one person who could give them to her.

While Lucille was on a hunt for her own answers, so was Oliver. He managed to find Shane at the pub near the airport. The two weren't exactly getting along these days and one can only wonder why.

Oliver strolled in and took a seat next to Shane at the bar. Shane turned and saw it was him and scoffed.

"What is it?", he asked.

"I should be asking you that", Oliver said. "What did you do to her Shane?"

"Nothing worse than what you did to her", Shane countered.

They both remained silent for a few seconds until Shane spoke up again.

"Your dad has been pretty positive about your numbers lately and so we started discussing what your official staff would look like after the transition", he said. "We ran extensive background checks on every one of them. Lucille was one of those people."

Oliver nodded for him to go on.

"We found out information about Lucille's family. Her father is-"

"Her father? Lucille doesn't know her father", Oliver said.

"Yeah but her father knew her", Shane followed. "Lucille has an inheritance that will be signed over to her on her 30th birthday."

Oliver was confused. "What's so special about an inheritance?"

"It's not so much about the inheritance as it is about where the money came from."

Shane pulled out his iPhone to show Oliver some of his findings.

"The money came from Lucille's mother. Turns out the story Lucille tells about her mother dropping her off at her grandmother's house and never turning back isn't true."

"So what is then?"

"Lucille willingly went to live with her grandmother at age 11 when her mother got married. She wasn't abandoned. Years later, Lucille's mother divorced filing irreconcilable differences and changed her name. We assumed the ex-husband cheated but when we dug deeper it got ugly."

"What do you mean by that?" At this point Oliver felt like this was all unreal. This sounded like some soap opera drama not Lucille's life.

"I feel that's best kept private, in fact I wish even I didn't know that ugly truth." Shane pondered for a moment shaking his head.

"Anyway, Lucille's mother knew she'd never take the money from her being that Lucille had refused to speak to her after all the years of trying. The inheritance coming from her father was supposed to be her way of introducing them under not-so-proper terms. Unfortunately, this didn't happen as her father passed away."

"So where does the brother come in?"

"I care about Lucille a lot and I thought finding out about her brother would mean something good being that she never had family growing up."

Oliver nodded, a little in agreement.

"After the father's passing, her brother went looking for her but he didn't even have a name. He didn't know much since his father had kept Lucille a secret since she was conceived while he was still married."

"So you think Lucille should meet him?"

"Honestly, yes", Shane answered.

-------------------

Lucille lied on the couch in her office with a glass of Stella Rose in her right hand and a photo of her with her mother in the other hand.

She was 9 years old in the picture. She wish she'd known their relationship would deteriorate within months after that photo, she would've savored the last moments.

A single tear traveled down her cheek followed by a soft sniffle.

There was a light knock on the door. She hurriedly stuffed the photo into the couch cushions and sat up straight.

"Come in", she said.

Oliver smiled at her. "Allergies again?"

She chuckled softly and nodded.

"Were you working late tonight?", she asked before taking a small sip of her wine.

Oliver almost lied and said yes but he decided to be honest with her. He owed her that much, at least.

"I left but I came back because I wanted to check on you."

Lucille stared down at the floor. "I guess Shane told you about the whole dead-dad-new-brother-thing right?"

Oliver nodded.

She brought the wine glass to her lips and finished off the rest. She stood up from the couch and went to the bottle of Stella Rose at her desk and poured more into the glass.

"Would you like some?", she offered.

Oliver shook his head no.

Lucille downed the entire glass and then decided on taking the entire bottle with her to the couch.

"This whole time, I've had a family", she said. "I've had a real family. Not that my nanna isn't family because she is but I could've lived in a family home with a picket fence or something who knows, ya know? But I didn't. And I don't know if I want to face the reality of that by meeting this man who is my brother but not really my brother, ya know? Because a brother is someone who you're like best friends with and who you grow up with and I was cheated out of that by my whore mother so", she rambled on.

"Lucille how much have you had to drink?", Oliver asked.

"Not enough", she answered.

She went to bring the bottle of wine to her lips but Oliver walked over and took it. It didn't matter because there was only a swig of it left.

"Okay, I'm taking you home", he said walking around to her desk to retrieve her items.

He grabbed her keys and her cellphone and tossed them into her purse and walked back over to her.

"Alright, lets go", he said extending his hand to help her up.

Lucille could barely stand up on her own, let alone walk so Oliver did what any man would have: carried her bridal style all the way to the parking lot.

The walk was long and silent, mostly because Lucille had fallen asleep in his arms.

Antonio was standing near the car and opened the door as Oliver neared with Lucille cradled like a baby.

He placed her inside and then went around to get in on the other side.

The car ride felt so different from the many others they'd shared. The ones where they couldn't keep their hands off each other, the ones where they could look at each other without feeling a sense of regret. Not regret for their affair but regret that it ended, and neither felt guilty for feeling that way.

When they pulled into her apartment complex, Oliver retrieved Lucille's keys and helped her into her home.

"You don't have to do all of this", she said as they got into her bedroom.

"Well I just wanted to make sure you get home safe", he answered.

"Don't act like you care", she said in a lower tone as she started taking off her jacket.

"I do care", he said. Lucille shook her head as she removed her shoes.

"Just because we didn't work out doesn't mean I stopped caring", he continued. "Or stopped loving you for that matter."

"Oliver", she said shaking her head.

"I know, I know, I'll go", he said heading for the door.

"I wanna meet him", Lucille said just loud enough so that he could hear.

"Then you will", he said. "I'll make it happen."

-------------------------

Oliver got home at around 2 in the morning after contacting everyone possible to find out more information on Lucille's brother. Sadly, he'd had no luck so far. For some reason, he was beginning to think Lucille's brother was hiding his life on purpose.

He trudged down the hallway, creeping into his bedroom. No matter how quiet he was entering, it didn't matter because Anne Katherine was wide awake. He already knew an argument ensued.

"What're you doing up so late?", he asked sitting at the edge of the bed. He started to take his shoes off.

"I waited up for you", her voice cracked. "I waited just to ask you about these photos."

"What photos and what about them?", Oliver questioned as he began unbuttoning his shirt.

"Today you plugged your phone into the desktop iMac to charge, right?" Anne Katherine flashed a sadistic smile. "Haven't you ever heard of the Cloud, Oliver?"

Oliver's heart beat sped up as he stayed sitting on the edge of the bed, facing away from her. He immediately knew what pictures she was talking about. He still looked at them when he was feeling down or when he just wanted to remember the short time he had with Lucille.

"Why the hell do you have photos of Lucille on your phone? Sleeping in a hotel room", she questioned raising her voice. "Wearing your fucking clothes", she practically screamed.

Oliver finally stood to face her. "Let me explain."

"Explain what", she yelled getting out of bed. "You were screwing this woman, no this girl, while I was at home thinking I was making these things up in my head."

"Anne-"

"No", she cut him off. She stood right in front of him. "You made me think I was crazy!" She was screaming so harshly her throat started to burn.

"You're going to wake Noah", Oliver said sternly.

Anne Katherine shook her head. "No, he's at your parents house which is where he and I will be staying indefinitely."

"Anne Katherine", Oliver warned. "You know I don't want my son there."

"What? Is he supposed to be better off with you?", she yelled in his face. "You want him to stay with you while you're out cheating on me? Cheating on us? You want your whore to play mom to my son? I don't fucking think so", she said pointing her fingers in his face.

Oliver grabbed her by the wrist. "She's not a whore. She's more of a woman than you've ever been and will ever be." He let go of her wrist forcefully. She brought it back powerfully to slap him across the face.

She spoke slowly but frighteningly. "When this is over, I'm filing for divorce and I will get full custody."