“Louis? Louis is she alright?"

Eleanor’s voice held nothing but fear and exhaustion. She didn’t know how Annie did it. Between Ivy’s constant stream of questions and Noah’s desire for milk, sleep, changing, cuddling, or whatever else, she could hardly hear herself think.

“I don’t know. They took her straight to I.U.” Eleanor heard shuffling on his end of the line and knew he was palming his face. “Has Harry landed yet.”
“No,” Eleanor breathed, quietly. “No, not yet. Anne has gone to get him.”
“I can’t..” Louis shook his head and bit down on his thumb, watching the scene outside of the huge Royal Hospital. “He’s going to be devastated.”
“I know.” Was all she could manage back. “Will you call me when you know anything?”
“Yes.” Louis said, his voice throaty and damp with complication. “But I’ll probably leave when he gets here. I don’t want to see him like that- He won’t want anyone to see him like that.” He corrected himself.

---

Harry’s P.O.V.

“Since when have you ever come to collect me in person from arrivals?” I smirked as I walked over to my mother, glad for the lack of paparazzi presence thanks to the early morning. I watched as her face contorted the closer I got to her. “Mum?”
“Let’s get to the car, shall we, poppet?” I saw by the twitching of her fingers that she was about to hold my hand. She never stopped treating me like I was a child. Maybe because she only got to see me as one for sixteen years.
“Mum? Are you crying?” I stopped in my tracks and she spun round, agitated.
“The car, Harry.” Was all she said.

“Are you going to tell me what this is all about?” I pulled my seatbelt over my shoulder and frowned deeply. “Is it Annie? Is she alright?"

My mother stopped what she was doing and burst into tears. My heartbeat quickened because I already knew the answer to my own question.
“Mum!” I barked, getting irritated with her.
“Harry,” She sighed, defeated. “Something’s happened with Annie.” She had started driving again, and with some urgency. She was taking the motorway straight into the nearest city and I felt myself breaking out in a cold sweat. “It’s him, it’s Will.”
“What?” I breathed, almost slamming on her breaks for her, if I could reach them.
“He’s hurt her, darling.” She shook her head and I worried for a second whether she could even see the road in front of her through those bleary eyes. “I don’t know what to say to you, Harry, I’m supposed to be strong, I know, but I’ve just seen you hurt so many times and this time-“
“I don’t.. I don’t fucking understand-“ I paused. “Sorry. I don’t understand what you’re talking about!”
“I don’t know much myself. Just that she was home alone with the kids and he.. broke in."

My mouth was literally agape and I could feel myself about to pass out. Black spots were appearing across my vision. I wanted to cling to my mum for comfort and cry into the soft fleece of her jacket but I wasn’t ten years old anymore and she couldn’t even protect me from this.”
“I wish I could help you, I feel terrible.” She shook her head. “Not even I can help you."

Her words haunted me and I know it was terrifying her even more that I wasn’t speaking. I didn’t speak until she pulled up at the traffic lights and I realised we were only metres from the large, ornate building. The largest hospital in Manchester. I knew then he had hurt her and badly.

I jumped out of the car, unable to wait any longer for the traffic lights that seemed to take an age or a lifetime to change. I ran across the different lanes of traffic and straight into the main entrance. Some bizarre thought in my head had me running up the corridor as if it was a small place and I’d just see her somewhere. I came to my senses when I realised I needed reception.

“Help me, please.” I had never felt so weak and now was not the time to have the nurse in front of me’s eyes widen at the sight of me. Probably recognising me from the T.V. or her daughters iPod playlists or something trivial like that.
“Name?”
“You know my fucking name, fuck!” I smacked my palm on the surface in front of me and watched her jump. I didn’t mean to scare her and it made me feel even worse. “I’m sorry. Styles. My wife.”
“I know.” Was all she said. She whispered to the security guard beside us and he nodded at me. I followed straight away.

“Is she alive? Is she alright? Fucking hell, why won’t any of you tell me what’s wrong?” I was bombarding this man with questions, even though I knew he had not one ounce of medical responsibility. Even though he probably had no clue who I was or who Annie was and what had happened to her.
“Harry.” A weak voice had me look straight ahead when we made it to the top floor. The height off of the ground in the forty story building had me feeling more than dizzy, combined with my fear and longing just to see her. The knot in my stomach twisted and choked my insides at the thought of him. The thought of me, leaving her.
“What are you doing here?” My eyes were welling up at the sight of the familiar face. He practically ran up to me and encapsulated me in the biggest embrace in the world and then I knew that he was really feeling for me.
“I’ll explain. Later.” He shook his head, his own eyes welling up as he pulled away. “I’m so sorry, I got here as fast as I could, but there was so much blood.. I had no idea, Harry, no idea-“
“Where is she, Louis.” My voice cracked and split all over the floor. My heart went with it.
“She’s alive, she’s alive.” He shook his head at himself, realising how morbid his words had sounded. “I don’t know much, but I know it was Will. Eleanor was there. She’s got..” He stopped to compose himself and swipe at his eyes while I hung onto every word. “She’s got Noah and Ivy at your mothers."

Talking of mothers, mine was quickly by my side after leaving her to park and make it up to this floor alone.

“What did he do to her?” I pressed.
“I think he stabbed her.” He coughed, trying not to set himself off again.

I heard the air leave my chest. I felt my heart crack. I felt the guilt wash over me like I was being suffocated or burned alive. My mother tried to contain her sobs for fear of agitating me. It was like everybody around me felt guilty for crying, knowing how much hurt I was feeling. Ten thousand times more than both of them.

“Can I see her?” I bit my lip.
“Mr. Styles, you are the spouse, correct?"

Not another fucking important looking doctor using that tone with me. The last time I’d heard it was when they basically didn’t have a clue if Annie could deliver Noah safely or not. I had grown to hate these places. To despise them.

“Yes, he’s her husband.” Louis said, looking at the floor.
“Will you come with me, Mr. Styles? Alone.” He was looking straight at my mum and she immediately took five steps back, seating herself on one of the cold metal chairs. Louis looked at me, anticipating my reaction. All I could do was nod.

He took me to the corner after I refused to go all the way to a private room, not wanting to be any further from seeing her than necessary.

“She’s in theatre.” He said, as if he was answering my thoughts. “She is undergoing quite the surgery. Her liver was perforated in the attack."

I felt vomit rise into my mouth and it was everything I could do to swallow it back down. This was so unfair. It was setting us back so many paces when we had come forward so many more.

“There are police outside the suite we have waiting for her, there are police outside the surgery. I can assure you, she is safe here.”
“My family isn’t safe anywhere.” I spat, full of self-pity.
“Mr. Styles, I need to be realistic with you here.” He pressed his glasses further onto his nose and it mirrored the way Annie always did just the same thing. “She’s comatose, as it stands. We’ve induced it to reduce stress on her body. She is not going to wake up for some time.”
“What do you mean wake up for some time? I need her, don’t you get that?” I wasn’t ashamed one bit when the sob left my throat. I knew I was red and tear stained and falling apart in front of this stern, put-together man but I didn’t care at all.
“I’m only talking maybe one, two days if all goes to plan.” He sighed. “She’s very petite. The size of the wound alone-“
“How big is it?” I sniffed, leaning on the wall next to me for support.
“It’s large, Mr. Styles. It was a large kitchen knife.”

That fucking..

“I understand your anger.” This guy was great at reading me. “I do understand your situation, I have been briefed. But I must remind you that it is of utmost importance that you stay calm and strong for her. This is going to be quite some recovery, Mr. Styles.”
“Will she make it?” I watched his face for any hints. The side of his mouth curved in an expression that mirrored his small shrug.
“I’ve never seen a wound that needed surgery to that extent, with quite such deepness and quite such blood loss.” Oh my God, this guy wasn’t even trying to sugar coat it. “But your friend here brought her in as soon as possible. He bought her some time, pressurising the wound like that."

I looked back over at Louis and had assumed he had used his coat, since he was standing there in only a t-shirt and I knew he wouldn’t have left his house like that.

“I believe in her. I know she has had a lot of medical difficulty, in birth especially. She overcame that fantastically and I’m optimistic for her recovery. I just can’t tell you how difficult it’s going to be. Even if we close all of the entry wounds tonight and have her stable, it’s really anybodies guess as to how she will react to many things, the blood transfusions, the surgery itself.”
“But she will make it.” I reinforced, not making my statement sound like a question.
“The surgery will continue for two, three hours at most.” He ignored me and looked down at the notes he had been studying. “I need to make sure she is completely stable before I can let you see her, do you understand?"

No, I don’t fucking understand, at all. I don’t understand why we had been doomed from the start by this evil psychopath. I don’t understand why he was so obsessed with her. He had been her first love but she had certainly not been even close to his. Yet his hate for her, for us, consumed him. He resented two beautifully innocent, adorable, happy children. He resented the fact that Annie had two warm arms to fall asleep between every night. Any normal cheating scoundrel of an ex would hold their hands up in defeat and watch from the sidelines as somebody better for the person they claimed to have once loved, took care of them with everything they had. Not Will. He had set out to destroy me, to destroy us, and that is exactly what he had done.

I didn’t excuse myself or wait to be excused from the Doctor. I stumbled down onto the floor and felt my body heave with sobs. Jolting violently with guilt, fear, sadness. I felt ringed fingers wrap around the back of my neck and kisses in my hair but it wasn’t Annie, it was just my mum, trying to reassure me and save me from something that she had no control over, just as she had been doing for the last ten years.

Notes

Okay so it may go on longer than three chapters more...

Is she gonna make it?!

Please leave more feedback! And I’ll update as soon as I can. x