Niall’s P.O.V.

Aria had just switched off the last light in the house, only the sun shine as a source for light. My mum had just called to say that they were on their way home. Little kids were giggling in the corner and Aria came over to sit beside me. Corryn squatted down on the other side of me, looking over the kitchen island. Aria’s phone vibrated with a text message.

“Okay everyone!” she whispered loudly. “They’re walking up to the house right now.”

The house went silent.

The front door was pushed open by my mother, who held the hands of both my children.

“It’s dark in here,” Nate noticed immediately.

“SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Aria flipped the lights on and Nicolette screamed clinging to my mum’s leg. Who knew my daughter could be scared of something, that little daredevil. Nate looked around at all the people, startled.

“Who are you?” Nicolette mumbled quietly. Everyone burst out laughing and even I stifled a laugh. I grabbed Aria by the hand and pulled her towards the kids and my mum. Nate’s eyes lit up when he saw me.

“Daddy!” He reached up, as a signal for me to pick him up. I held him tight, until he made a fake choking sound, startling me. Aria handed me Nicolette, who I held just as tight.

“Okay, okay!” Corryn shouted, clapping her hands together. “Enough family time. It’s time to party!”

So that was it. People dispersed, and Nicolette was pulled away by Valerie and Will. I watched closely as Will grabbed her hand and pulled her outside to where the “big kids” were playing. When I turned back around, Eleanor and Danielle stood in front of me, grinning.

“Hey you two!” I kissed both of them on the cheek and gave them each a hug.

“Long time no see,” Eleanor laughed. “How’ya been?”

“Pretty great. Just an FYI, Louis misses you more than you know.”

“Well,” Eleanor sighed, “he can join the club. Already pretty full though.”

“And how has traveling around America been? Liam told me it’s been a bit of a hassle, but he still loves it.” Danielle piped up.

“It’s been pretty smooth.” Then I noticed someone missing. “Where’s Perrie?”

“Apparently poor Jordan got sick. Shes at home taking care of him.” Eleanor answered, a pout appearing on her lips.

“Ah, yeah. I think I heard Zayn telling Perrie to get him medicine or something over the phone.”
Eleanor and I talked a bit more and Danielle wandered off to go talk to some other people. Then, my mum pulled me aside and we talked about life, and she gave me a heads up on how Greg and Denise were doing. Afterward, I roamed around, looking for Aria. I didn’t see a hint of her blonde hair anywhere, only kids running around with grass necklaces they had managed to make. I glanced outside where Nicolette was on the swingset and Will was pushing her with all the little amount of strength that he had. Valerie, two kids from a few houses down and Nate sat in the grass laughing about something Valerie had said. There were a bunch of other kids inside the moonwalk that Aria and I had struggled hard to set up and others were running around, chasing each other.

It was a happy day.

Someone tapped my shoulder so I turned around to see my wife staring back at me.

“Creep,” she snorted. “Why are you staring at them?”

“Just making sure they were okay.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “Though I’m not exactly happy about Colette and Will hanging out.” I gestured to the window. Aria peered outside and put a hand to her chest.

“Aww,” she cooed. “Thats so adorable. Just wait until they’re old enough to date.”

“Not until she’s twenty-one.” I muttered under my breath. “No one will touch her.”

“Loosen up, Ni,” Aria smiled. “It’s not like she’s gonna get killed.” Aria thought over her words almost immediately she had said them and her smile dropped. She cleared her throat and pecked my cheek.

“I’m going to go set lunch on the table.”

She turned around quickly and walked away from me towards the kitchen.

I looked outside again to see Nicolette, laughing loudly as she tried to push Nate. They had switched spots. She looked so happy, and so alive. It’s not like she’s gonna get killed.

She won’t get killed. All I needed to do was keep telling myself that and then maybe, just maybe, I would start believing myself.

---

“Yeah, so then he just completely stopped coming to my room. It was weird, how he’d stare at me while checking my blood pressure.” Chrissy laughed, telling me about a male nurse who had been hitting on her.

“How he react when he saw you flipping him off?” I smirked, amused at the conversation. I wasn’t surprised though, that someone would be hitting on Chrissy. She was a pretty, smart girl.

“He almost looked like he was going to cry,” her face scrunched together at the thought. “I almost felt kind of bad for him. Almost.” She re-adjusted her crutches, which were leaning against the counter as she sat in a chair.

“Well was he good-looking?”

“Sort of.” Chrissy shrugged. “But the way he kept staring at me like a freak kind of ruined his good looks. So note to you, don’t stare at Aria too much. She’ll probably start thinking you're creepy.”

“Oh, she knows I’m creepy.” I chuckled back. Chrissy grinned and took a sip of her lemonade.
“It’s okay though,” I continued. “She and I are a pretty creepy couple. We get used to each other after a while.

“Thanks for the heads up,” Chrissy nodded her head sarcastically, pushing her hair back. She then smiled at something behind me. I turned to see Aria coming towards me.

“Niall, tell everyone it’s time to go cut the cake,” she instructed. “I’m going to go call the kids inside.”

Yum, cake.

“Okay everyone!” I announced as loud as I could getting on top of a chair. Chrissy started giggling which made me laugh which caused me to almost fall over. I gained most people’s attention and told them to head towards the living room, where the cake sat in the middle of the coffee table.

Aria came inside, wiping the sweat off of Nicolette. I followed her, Nate and Colette to the living room and Nate and Nicolette weaved through the crowd of people to get to the center, where the table was.

Corryn asked everyone to make a clear path to the table so that she could take pictures and Nate and Colette kneeled down by the table. Every began singing after Eleanor counted down.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”

Nicolette looked extremely shy and Nate just stared at everyone, watching them sing. After a few seconds, he started moving his mouth, pretending he knew the words to the “Happy Birthday” song. I chuckled quietly.

“Happy birthday to Nate and Nicolette….”

“Happy birthday to-”

Glass shattered on the spot and a bullet flew right through the blessed minimal space between my childrens’ shoulders. Nicolette screamed and people gasped, the singing stopped, kids backed away. The bullet had gone straight through the wall.

“Holy fucking shit.” I whispered.

It had missed my children by a mere inch.

“What the hell?” Aria gasped, her eyes wide. Corryn’s mouth had dropped open and everyone was staring at the shattered window that the bullet had come through. Soon, people were asking questions. What was that? Was the house safe? Where did that bullet come from?

People started leaving after that. The party was over. Just like that.

And I just stood there because I had no clue what the fuck had just happened.

Aria didn’t even try to get the guests to stay. She thanked them for coming and said she was sorry for the interruption.

She was shaking.

I snapped out of my daze and grabbed Nate and Nicolette by the hands.

“Are you two okay?” I asked them, holding them close to me.

“What would have happened if that thing hit me?” Nate asked instead, tilting his head to the side. Nicolette’s lips were trembling as she stared at the hole in the wall. I didn’t answer Nate’s question, instead cupped Nicolette’s cheeks and made her look at me.

“You okay, princess?”

“W-Where did that thing come from?” she pointed to the hole in the wall. I guessed she was referring to the bullet.

“I don’t know, babe.” I said softly, still shocked by what had just happened. In less than ten minutes, the entire house was empty. There were balloons still hanging, and streamers still dangling above our heads, but suddenly, a hint of terror raged through the house.

My mum and Aria came into the living room, the shivering of her body completely visible. She ran to the kids and grabbed them, hugging them tight. When she pulled away, she was crying.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered the both of them, then hugged them again. She cried into their shoulders and soon, I had wrapped my arms around the three of them, and I was crying too. This made it official. Someone was trying to get to our children, kill them for revenge. I didn’t know why anyone would take revenge that way. This wasn’t a movie. This was real life. Bullets didn’t just fly through windows during a birthday party in real life. Yet one did.

My children almost died today.

The four of us huddled together in silence, embracing each other, because there was nothing else to do. Because I realized now that every moment of every day, my family was in danger. I noticed my mum watching us with a sad look. She gave us our time as a family, going into the guest room. I felt like a terrible host to my mother, but right now, I needed to be a father.

There was only one room in the house that didn’t have windows, and that was my office. We put the children in there with a tablet and a laptop to entertain them. Nate took his coloring book as well. Arai broke down again, when we were seated down on the bed in our room. She couldn’t say anything, but her eyes told me everything. They were dark, dark blue and her fingers were trembling. Slowly, she tipped over to the side and shoved her face into the duvet, hiding her face from me.

My breath was shaky. Even I couldn’t think straight. There was no way I could continue press touring if this could happen any minute. I hadn’t realized things were so serious. I hadn’t realized someone wanted the lives of my kids taken away so badly.

Within the next hour, I had confirmed my withdrawal from the rest of tour. They were pissed at me, the management. They threatened to take my job away but I could honestly care less. I didn’t fully explain the situation, only told them that my family was in danger and that I needed to be there for them. I figured that would be enough, that management would get off my back afterwards. They didn’t. They pressed on and interrogated me until I started yelling at them and Aria came out of the bedroom. I cursed out one the the management guys before hanging up.

“Who was that?” Aria asked. Her voice was weak and she was still shaking. I didn’t want to answer her, put more pressure on her. Instead, I pulled her close, breathing in the smell of her hair. Her nose pressed against my neck and her arms fell on and around my shoulders. She cried softly, the figure of her body melting against mine. This was tearing her apart, tearing her world in two. I hugged her tightly because there was nothing else I could do.

“This time was t-too close.” she stammered, putting her hands on my cheeks. “That bullet was too close.”

“What matter is that they are okay.” I whispered, trying to keep her eyes on me. She looked really pale, and it wouldn’t be good for her or for the baby inside her if she passed out.

“We can’t keep them in your office room forever,” she said, her voice hoarse. “They’ll have to sleep with us. I’m not letting them sleep in their bedrooms. It’s not safe. There is also a broken window downstairs.”

“Come on,” I pulled away and laced our fingers together, leading her downstairs.

We entered the living room, where glass pieces from the window lay scattered on the floor. It was pretty bad. The glass would take a while to get fully cleaned up. Aria examined the window, where the bullet had created a ripple effect in how the glass cracked. Her close examination was interrupted by the vibration of her cellphone. She looked at me, gulped, then pulled her phone out.

I approached her and looked over her shoulder as she read the message.

Mom: Got pretty close this time, don’t you think?

Aria turned around to face me, with her eyes squeezed shut.

“Tell me it isn't another message from Mom.”

“I wish I could.” I muttered, taking her phone from her. Aria opened her eyes and watched as I scrolled through the other messages. I was trying to find any sign of a clue as to the gender or quantity of people that could be involved in these messages. Whoever was sending the messages was good at hiding their identity.

I was about to hand Aria’s phone back to her when it powered off.

“Charge your phone, babe.” I sighed, handing it back to her.

“No,” she frowned suddenly, shaking her head. “That’s not it. I charged my phone right before the party. It just keeps shutting off randomly.” She turned to phone back on and showed me the battery sign to prove herself right. According to her phone, the battery was still eighty percent full.

“That’s weird.” I said. “Same thing happened to my phone just the other night.”

“Maybe its just bad connection to the company or something.” Aria shrugged it off, setting her phone on the table. She went into the kitchen and came out with a broom and a dustpan.

“Can you go make sure Nate and Nicolette are okay? I’m just going to clean up a bit.”

“Sure.” I kissed her lips softly and headed upstairs towards my office.

“Hi daddy!” Nate grinned when I opened the door to my office. They looked strangely happy as they watched whatever movie was going on the laptop.

“What’cha guys watching?” I asked, standing in front of them. Nicolette reached over and paused the movie, then turned to screen towards me.

“We found your face and uncle Zayn’s face, and uncle Liam’s face, and the other uncle’s faces.” Nicolette giggled. “ You have a movie? Why you didn’t tell us? It’s funny.”

“You have a lot of girlfriends,” Nate said very seriously, sticking his hands in between his thighs.

“No,” I laughed. “Those are my fans.”

“What?” Nicolette asked, tilting her head to the side. “They make air?”

“No,” I stifled a laugh. “Those are people who like the music me and your uncles make.”

“Oooohh,” Nate said. “So I am a fan then, too.”

“Why?” I grinned. “Do you like daddy’s music?”

“There’s other kinds of music?” Nicolette questioned. “I’ve only heard your music, daddy.”
Oh, ouch.

“Maybe when you’re older, you can find out what kind of music you really like.” I laughed. “So, do you like the movie?”

“Yeah,” Nate nodded. “You look like a grandpa now. You used to look so much nicer in the movie.”

“I do not look old.” I gasped. Nicolette cracked up and soon the two of them were laughing in my face. Yeah, they were absolutely fine. I walked out on them laughing at me, closing the door loudly to act like I was mad.

It was a relief, I guess, that they hadn’t really realized what could have happened to them just an hour ago. They didn’t know what a bullet was or what it could do to a person, to anything. If they had known, they wouldn’t have been laughing, or teasing me.

I pushed open the door to the guest room where my mum sat on the bed. She looked up at me, her eyes sort of droopy. I knew then that she was worried.

“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” my mum sighed, resting her head on my shoulder once I had seated myself next to her.

“What’s happening again?”

“Someone is targeting the kids because of Aria.” Mum said. “The last time it was Aria who almost got killed and now it’s the children.”

“But it’s not Aria’s fault.” I answered quickly. My mum looked up at me with a doubtful look.

“I think you need to need to her.” my mum told me. “You’ll keep denying it, but I think part of this is really Aria’s fault. As much as I hate the idea of that, it’s the truth.”

“No, mum.” I stood up, shooting her a warning look. “Aria went through alot five years ago and you can’t use her suffering to turn on her like that. She would never purposely hurt our children because she loves them and I love them. Do not accuse her of committing harm to our children. She has no fault in any of this. She can not control what happens. The last time she tried to stop someone from torturing her, she ended up weak and hopeless in a run down house half way across the world. So don’t accuse my wife because I love her and I know her better than you ever will.”

My mum bit her lip, but remained silent.

“I’m sorry,” I lowered my voice. “It’s just… she's going through a lot, too. We’re a family. We go through hell together.”

“I understand.” my mum nodded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have accused her.”

“She was crying.” I gulped. “Aria was crying so hard and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry that much in my entire life.”

My mum shook her head slowly, as if she were in disbelief at everything that was happening.

“I guess I’ll go help Ari clean up the glass.” I hesitated to get up. “Love you, mum.”

“I love you most.” she smiled back. I opened the door to leave and stepped outside, closing the door behind me. I was about to go find Aria when the tiniest hint of movement caught my eye. I cursed when I found her back pressed up against the wall right outside the door.

“What the hell?” I hissed, running a hand through my hair. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“S-she thinks its my fault.”she whimpered, and then I realized she was crying again.

“Oh no no no,” I took her shoulders and squeezed them gently. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything princess. You heard me in there. So you know that you couldn’t have controlled the bullet in any way.”

“No,” she pushed me away. She was bawling now. “This is my fault. All my fault.” She walked past me, furiously wiping away tears. She went into the kitchen and I followed her, trying to stop her. I literally had a heart attack when she grabbed a kitchen knife and pressed it to her wrist.

“Aria! Stop it!” I rushed towards her and grabbed the knife from her hands. She yelled at me through tears.

“Give it back!”

“No,” I said sternly, catching her wrist in my grip. I set the knife back in it’s holder and took both her wrists, holding her still. She screamed and yelled, struggling to get out of my grip. I kept hushing her, telling her to stop, think about what she was doing. A second before she collapsed, I caught her knees starting to give in. I caught her just as she fell, her back hitting my thighs. I slowly knelt down on the ground and let her head rest on my folded thighs.

“The kids aren’t safe as long as I’m here.” she whimpered. “I have to l-leave.”

“No,” I shook my head. “You are not going to go anywhere. We are going to get through this together.”

“You’re waiting until the kids die for you to hate me.” she whispered weakly. “Why don’t you just hate me now?”

“I will never hate you.” I breathed into her ear, kissing her cheek. “I will always love you.”
“You should've just let me die when my dad had the chance to kill me. You shouldn’t have saved me. You could be living with some beautiful wife with two kids who could have a normal fourth birthday. You wouldn’t have had to deal with my shit and you wouldn’t have had to worry.”

“First of all, I’m already living with a beautiful wife and two amazing kids,” I pointed out, bending down so our lips were just centimeters away. “Second of all, I love my life with you. You have such an effect on my life that I will never forget. I would never let you go for another women.”

“You’re crazy.” Aria turned her head away from me. She was so doubtful of my love for her because of just this. Nothing could ruin our love.

“Yeah. I’m crazy in love with you.”

“No. You’re just crazy.”

“Aren’t we all, princess?” I chuckled softly. “Aren’t we all?”

“Just you.”

“But you love me anyways.” I shot back skillfully. Aria turned back towards me, her head still on my thighs. She reached up and grabbed my face, bringing her lips to mine. We shared a long, sweet kiss before her lips hit my ear. Her voice was low and serious and nothing pleasant when she spoke.

“You should have let me die.”

Notes

So, that was an intense chapter. What do you think? I'd love some feedback and some votes. :)

-Do you think Niall will second guess his feelings for Aria as things get worse?

-Why does Aria's phone keeping shutting off?

-What do you think will happen next?

I see alot more crying and blood and just plain terror in the future. Just a hint to all you readers. By the way, I have some happy news! I've decided that there will be a third book to this, making it a triology. I think it's going to be good! :) Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.