Ambition || Harry Styles

*47*

"There is no word on whether Patterson's only daughter, Alexa, who joined the company almost eight years ago, will also be charged."

My ears are ringing, the pain in my chest almost suffocating me and I can barely see through the blurry wall of tears that is clouding my vision.

Betrayal and fear stand out amongst the myriad of emotions coursing through me at lightening speed, my lungs gasping for air that feels too thin. 

My first thought, the one I can distinguish above the others anyway, is of my father, my brothers, their wrongdoings and the disappointment and shock surging through me when I think of them running the business illegally for so long.

How could they do this? How did they think they would get away with it?

My father is an awful person...to me.  Everyone else, on the other hand, fucking idolises him.  How did no one know, all this time, that he was a fraud, a criminal, conducting his company on the basis of such low morals and appalling ethics?

My mind shifts to my own part in this ordeal with sickening fear.  I didn't know this was going on. I would have quit. They have to believe I'm not guilty. Does Harry think I'm guilty?

Harry.

Anger pushes through and drowns everything in its path. He was in on this, I know in my gut without any reservations. He has been setting me up, waiting for this moment to bring down my family, and perhaps me.

My worst nightmare becomes reality when I realise he has, in fact, been using me to get to my father all along. I thought he wanted a job, but this is so much worse.

Only then do I catch a glimpse of his tall figure standing to the side, shock crossing his face when his eyes dart between me and the TV and he takes a long stride towards me.

I see Harry's lips wrap around a string of curse words as the reporter recaps what I have just watched but my pulse is thumping so loudly in my ears that I can't hear what he is saying.

He tries to reach out to me but I shove him back in anger, the look on my face causing him to stumble, the green eyes staring back at me belonging to a stranger.

My hands tangle into my hair and I start to pace, not really sure how I am meant to deal with this tidal wave of information that, in no uncertain terms has changed my entire life.

The game is over, Harry's secret is out and now I am left to face the traitor in my house that I was stupid enough to fall in love with.

I have a million questions and even more accusations, but it's when I see two familiar faces on the TV that I feel like I may faint.

Niall, the Irishman I met at the house party who Harry introduced as someone he worked with was apparently head of the investigation team, as well as that woman from the same night, the one who told Harry to be careful... of me.

They had tricked me, they were watching me, all of them. Maybe the party was set up precisely to lure me into a false sense of security and I had fallen for Harry and his web of lies all so easily. Like a fucking lost little sheep, the perfect victim, the simplest of targets.

"How could you do this to me?" I choke.

"They told me I would have time to explain everything before they were charged," I hear Harry say desperately, but my emotions are bubbling over at a rapid pace.

"And that would have made everything okay?" I scream as I flick off the TV and my voice echoing through the room.

Harry's face crumbles in anguish, guilt, worry, and his hands try and reach me again but I smack them away.

"Please, baby, just...just sit down," he begs when he sees my palm pushing down on the pain in my chest and I actually laugh callously at his misplaced concern.

"You can drop the loving boyfriend act now, Harry, you're off the hook!" I spit and he physically recoils. "You said I wasn't in danger, Harry. You lied!  All of this has been a lie!" 

The thought of how intimate we have become starting to make my skin crawl and I feel sick with the realisation I have no fucking idea who the man in my bed really is.

Harry is shaking his head furiously as tears start to well in his eyes the moment mine trickle down my cheeks.

"You're not in danger, Lexi, I promise you.  You aren't being charged, the reporter is speculating. I made sure of it. That's what I've been doing this whole time," he swears and there is a slight release of the pressure slamming into my rib cage.

"Oh great, just my whole family!" I yell. "I don't even know who you are anymore, Harry. Are you a cop? A detective? A private investigator?"

"No! Lexi, I'm still me!" he promises but I can no longer stand the sight of him.

"I just fell straight into your trap, huh? Poor little, stupid Lexi. What was your mission? 'Get Alan's pathetic daughter into bed to distract her and the rest will be as easy as she is?'"

"No!" His fingers pull at the roots of his curls. "Fuck, that's not true."

His heavy breaths puff through the air as he tries to compose himself but the emotion gets caught in his throat.

"I didn't expect to meet you, Lexi," he says softly, defeated, wiping his tears with the back of his hand and then it hits me, my mind racing back to one of our first conversations.

"I was the one who said business is business, right?"

We both stand there, neither of us speaking, our chests heaving and our eyes stained with tears. I have no idea where he lives, who his family is, who his real friends are and as I start to think about how he hasn't left my apartment since he got back from New York, it dawns on me that he probably wasn't even in New York to begin with.

"Leave," I croak, pointing to the door.

Harry's face contorts with pain, as if he never considered the fact I would ask him to finally get out of my apartment at this very moment.

A heart-wrenching sob breaks from the depths of his stomach and yet for some reason, I feel it in mine.

"What?" he splutters. "No, Lex, please."

"I want you to leave, Harry."