Rufus writes a note to the kids, explaining that he's going out of town but it's "all good" and that they'll have much to talk about when he returns, but to enjoy Hudson. He signs it "Love you guys!" (with completely different handwriting from the rest of the note) and there's a knock at the door. He opens it, and snarls. "This can't be good." CeCe nods and he tries to brush past her, but she's not fucking with him this time. She's being honest. "There's something you need to know." Rufus resists, pointing out there always is, from her, and she backs up, snorting at his usual lack of class. "Throughout my whole life, the only thing I have ever wanted is my daughter's happiness. Now, the means to achieving this might shift with time, but my goal remains the same." Rufus hatefully tells her to stow it: "Uh, since this is about Lily? She can be the one to tell me. Or not tell me. I won't allow your meddling to come between us again." CeCe protests that Lily was given the chance and didn't take it: "In fact, she asked me to pay a lot of money to make the problem go away." Knowing this will prove something to him, will break the spell of love just long enough: that's what they do in the UES, throw money at problems instead of truth. That's the part of Lily that scares him.

Rufus nods, still thinking CeCe's the enemy. "The real problem is that she's in love with you," CeCe begins, and further to this issue, "So long as she holds on to this, the two of you don't have a chance in hell of making it work." Rufus realizes she's trying to help, and nods. Well. If that's what she's doing, I mean, what's scary here is that you wouldn't put it past her to have set this all up, and tried all of this "just come clean" stuff for the express purpose of Rufus finding out, and eventually just throwing up her hands and bringing it to him herself. If you were trying to game Rufus you couldn't do it better than this: "I want her to have that chance. Don't you?"