Liberate • Harry Styles

eight.

I woke up in the morning still cradled in Niall's arms. I had cried myself to sleep the previous night. Nothing had changed since then; I'm still afraid of Harry and I feel betrayed that he would ever raise his hand at me.

I climbed out of Niall's grasp, crawling out of bed. I went into the bathroom, looking at my reflection in the mirror. My mascara-streaked face was pale, my eyes puffy and red from crying. I washed my face with water and rinsed my mouth out with mouthwash. Running my fingers through my hair, I took one last look at myself before going into the bedroom.

Niall sat on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands. He looked up as I sat beside him and he placed a comforting hand on my thigh.

"Last night," I started. "I was attacked after I left the show, around 11:30."

"Violet-"

"It's okay," I said, tears starting to form again. I blinked them away. "I need to do this."

He nodded and put my hand in his as I continued my tale of last night's events.

"He was disgusting. I called Harry and shouted my location. He got there just as the man was...starting to put his hand down there. He beat him up, Niall. Pretty bad. I didn't even recognize his eyes and I had to yell multiple times to get him to stop. It was like someone else had taken over his body. The man was hurt so badly, not that I care. I just didn't recognize Harry at all.

When we got back to the hotel, Harry was pissed, I saw him punch a wall. I yelled at him to stop and when he turned around - I saw the darkness in his eyes again. Niall, he...he almost hit me."

Niall's face was a mask of realization. He took my body in his arms again and kissed the top of my head. "It's happening again."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Does this have anything to do with all those girls leaving him?"

"How do you know about that?" He asked.

"Liam told me last night."

Niall nodded. "Yes, it does. I don't know why but when he feels threatened or mad, he goes to that place. You're right - it is like someone else takes over his body. I think it was his way of coping with the women. It used to come up a lot, whenever he was in a relationship. It kind of stopped when he started sleeping with more women in a non-committal way, but it did come back a couple times. It's why all our publicists and social network people keep quitting - they find it too stressful to always try and keep the problem under control in the press. So far, the public hasn't found out about it."

The information took a couple minutes to sink into my brain. Harry had so many secrets, too many. I was finding out about them from other people. I felt guilty that he hadn't told me about them, but yet I knew anyways. He was truly troubled, more than I could ever imagine.

"Jackie wanted to tell you, and Harry didn't." Niall continued. "That's why Harry kind of hates her, I think."

I gulped. I know that wasn't the only reason why they were feuding, but I knew I had to keep my mouth shut. If Liam or Jackie wanted anyone to know they were fooling around they would have told people by now.

"It's okay," I said. "What makes Jackie different from the other publicists? Why hasn't she quit?"

"I don't think she has anything to lose," Niall shrugged. "I don't know if you know this, but her reputation is already kind of ruined - people don't have a nice opinion of her."

"I know."

"That's why I jumped at the chance to hire you. You're new to the business, and I thought you would feel like you have more to prove. Harry's made such an impression on the PR world that everyone know about his issues. No one wanted the job."