Freedom with Styles (Harry Styles Fan Fiction) [COMPLETE]

Pain

CHAPTER TWELVE - Pain

Harry’s intense gaze looked over at me, as I sat across from him on the armchair, while he perched on the couch.

“Are you sure? Mine isn’t a pretty story” Harry murmured. I snuggled deeply into my seat, getting comfortable with a stubborn look his way. He sighed, before settling himself against the back of our lumpy couch.

“My father, Des and mother, Anne met at a concert in London. My mother used to say it was love at first sight and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. 2 years later they were married, and 9 months further into it I was born.

Everything was great for a while until the accident.” He paused, gathering his thoughts. “I was 10 years old, and at school at the time, but when my aunt came to pick me up instead of my dad, I knew something was wrong. My dad had surprised my mum with a romantic lunch and I guess they got distracted and knocked over something that was cooking…and long story short, the house burned down. My dad, he…he managed to get my mum out in time, but he must have remembered something. He went back in and the gas in the kitchen exploded…with him still inside.

The paramedics found him, and he was lying on the floor with a singed metal box. They handed my mum it and inside was a white gold necklace, with a little plaque in the centre, with the inscription ‘My Sweet True Love Anne’”. Harry let out a low sob, and I stumbled over to sit beside him, and took his hand. He inhaled slowly before continuing, his eyes downcast.

“It took my mum 2 years to accept the fact that my dad was gone, and another year before she started dating again. It took me a little longer than her, and I hated every single one of the guys she introduced to me. They were all mean, arrogant *ssholes that dumped my mum every time she told them she wanted to take things slow, and it broke my mum a little bit each time.

But then she met Steve Hannigan. He was nice, treated her well, and took care of her. The evening before she introduced him to me, she told me that he made her happy. Never once had she said that about all the other guys. So I grudgingly accepted him. But he really was everything my mum described him to be. He took all my threats against him, and he took everything into his stride.

He helped me with everything, and didn’t push me about my dad and I finally accepted him.

Worse mistake I ever made” Harry growled out, his hands clenching on mine, before he gently released my hand with a light pat.

“It was slow. He moved in and made little remarks and offhand comments about our lifestyle. We’re a pretty relaxed family, and we didn’t make an effort to keep the house spick and span when there weren’t people over. Steve would make little suggestions about tidying away our things, and cleaning up our house every so often. It’s not as if we lived in a pig sty, it was more that we settled everything, and made our home lived in. In retrospect, that should have been my first clue.

Then Steve proposed. He didn’t go to me like I thought a respectable man like him would, but I shrugged it off since my mum was so happy. The wedding was simple, and we only invited close family and friends. Steve invited a bunch of his friends and they made a horrible scene at the reception. If it weren’t for the fact that I was only 15, and they were twice my height and triple my weight, I would’ve taken them all on for ruining my mum’s special day.

She was so upset, but Steve told them to leave and apologized. They left for their honeymoon, and I stayed at my friend’s house. A week later, they came home…and my mum had a black eye. I was so angry, and demanded to know what the hell happened. Steve brushed it off as some *sshole who couldn’t hold his liquor, while my mum stood there and said nothing.

Steve left us in the living room, and my mum just smiled weakly at me and followed him. I should have known something was wrong then. But I just went on and a few weeks later, I walked into the house to find Steve and mum fighting and screaming. As I stood there, the b*stard slapped her. I ran forward and started yelling at him.

He stood there for a moment, his hand up and ready to hit me, before my mum went up to him, whispered something and he backed up, and walked away. I was tempted to run after him, but my mum begged me to leave him be, and that he hadn’t meant to hit her. So I left it alone.

But it didn’t get better. The yelling continued and my mum started to look worse every day. Steve was regularly beating her by then, and I begged my mum to leave him, but she was adamant, and stopped me from beating the crap out of the guy.

But one day I snapped. He’d thrown my mum on the ground while she crying and begging for Steve to leave her alone and I happened to walk down the stairs right when he ripped her skirt off and…raped her” Harry rumbled hoarsely. I gasped, my eyes watering.

“I ran forward and pushed him off her, and threw my fists as hard as my 15 year old self could do. I’d been taking boxing classes, and I was pretty tall for my age. But he was still bigger, meaner and he threw me off him, and…to save you the gory details, he broke 2 ribs, fractured one, cut my lip, gave me a black eye and dislocated my shoulder.

That’s when my mum finally decided to leave. She couldn’t stand seeing me hurt, so she gathered mine and her things and we ran a week after that incident. We hopped across England and even over to Scotland, and but he found us everywhere we went. That went on for 3 years. So we moved here.

But he found us here too” Harry finished darkly. I thought back to the last few months and let out a stifled gasp.

“So…a couple of months ago…?” I asked, trailing off when he nodded solemnly.

“He only allowed us to leave for school and work to make it seem like everything was normal. He didn’t really care about what I did but my mum…he beat her so bad. So I went to the police. They arrested him. But the bloody b*stard had friends and well, he came back today and…he killed her. My mum” Harry’s shoulders shook, and he buried his face into his hands.

“The neighbours called the police because of all the screaming next door and they took in Steve again. I buried my mum and ran off into the nearest pub before the police could grab me. That’s all until I woke up here, on your couch” Harry whispered, raising his head, tears still running down his pale face.

I stared at Harry, before curling my arms around him in a hug. He buried his face in my neck, his shoulders shaking, and his arms wrapped around me tightly.

Oh Harry.

A/N: Well there you go guys...Harry's secret is revealed...poor guy...I've almost finished writing up the story...I just need to upload everything...