Zessa

chapter 10

Harry

"You need to either calm down or get out, right now," Liam tells me, his tone cold. "It's two o'clock in the morning. Ken has a meeting in the morning with the Board of – "

"I don't care about his fucking meeting," I snarl, swaying slightly. "Call her right now, or I swear I'll – "

"You'll what?" He challenges, taking a step closer to me. "You'll beat me up?" He assesses the bruises on my face and hands. "Who was it this time?"

"It doesn't – "

"Exactly," he snaps. "It doesn't matter. You need to wake up, Harry. You can't solve every problem you have by beating it black and blue. The world doesn't work like that."

"I know!" I shout, shoving him back. I almost lose my balance. "Alright? I know!"

He folds his arms. "If you have something you want to say to Tessa, you have to say it to her yourself. I won't help you."

I falter, taking a step back. "She's really not here?"

He studies me closely for a moment, his eyes guarded. Then he admits, "She hasn't been here since Friday."

The truth was already in my hands. But his matter-of-fact words throw it back in my face like a bucket of ice cold water. My head clears slightly.

I know where she is. I know who she's with.

"I don't believe this," I say with a brittle laugh, closing my eyes and pressing my fingers into my temples. "I don't fucking believe this."

"Go home, Harry."

I press my palms into my eyes to hold back the sudden urge to cry. I'm not going to fucking cry in front of Liam.

So instead, I laugh again, dry and humourless. I can still feel the burn of whiskey in my chest. "I don't have a home," I tell him, leaning against the doorframe and knocking my head against the wood. "I don't have anywhere to go."

He frowns. "What about your apartment?"

"That's not my home," I grit out between clenched teeth. "I can't go back there. She – she's not there." I look up at him, fighting back a scream. "She's not there anymore."

Something akin to pity softens his eyes. He relents. "You can come in if you keep quiet." He steps aside to let me pass. "Sleep it off, alright? Whatever happened, it can wait until morning."

Should I believe him? Everything tells me not to. I should find her right now. I should find her and kill him and bring her back with me, because I need her and she needs me and that's the only thing I know for sure. I can taste my fury like bile in the back of my throat. I should break his neck and gouge his eyes out. He stole her from me. He stole her.

"It can wait," Liam repeats firmly. "Whatever you're thinking, stop. It can wait until morning."

But that bitter fury was what blinded me tonight. It ruined everything.

It's not enough to apologise. Not anymore. Slowly, I step inside, and he closes the front door quietly behind me.

"It can't," I say quietly as I follow him up the stairs. "It can't wait. It's too late."

He smiles at me, a flash of white teeth in the darkness of the hallway. "It's never too late," he reassures me. "Just go to sleep. Things will look better in the morning."

As he turns and makes his way back to his own room, a surge of guilt floods my chest and constricts my throat. He doesn't know what I did. I don't deserve his kindness. If he knew, if he knew what happened tonight . . .