Permanent [H.S. || A.U.] - Book 2 - ON HOLD

Chapter 13

I can't help but laugh. "Never going to happen."

"I'll pay you." She is quick to reply before I get to tell her how absolutely crazy she is to think that I would do such a thing. Does she not realize that she abused him and trapped him, chained to her like some pet she could play mind games with? She's a despicable human.

"Sweetheart, I'm the CEO of a multimillion dollar tech company. I'm rich. I don't need your money."

"I want him back, so I'm going to get him back." She whines like a spoiled brat.

"It doesn't work like that, Lindsey. Harry is mine, my boyfriend." I drop my voice to sound stern, make sure she gets that I'm not fucking around here. "You're the pathetic one, really. He will never go back to you, especially after what you did to him."

"You say that like what I did was a bad thing." Her disgusting voice echoes through the phone. "I was just trying to make him better."

"Better how?" I retort. "By making him think his tattoos are something he should hide? By trying to make him dress to your satisfaction? By telling him that he's chubby? By shaming him for his sexuality?" I list off. "Please, give it a rest, Lindsey. Harry's perfect just the way he is. If you ever really loved him you wouldn't be so eager to mold him into something he's not."

"I loved him and I still do. He was so good to me, always did whatever I wanted. I miss that."

"You don't deserve that." I reply, not missing a beat. "Harry's too good for you. And you don't love him. You clearly just love the idea of having someone be your pet."

"Whatever." She scoffs. "Harry will realize soon that he misses me and that I'm what he wants. He will leave you and come crawling back to me."

"Yeah." I laugh dryly. "Good luck with that."

"Why do you even want him?" She growls, obviously getting irritated that I'm not cooperating. She's changing her strategy. "Do you really want to deal with all of his insecurities? You don't need someone so unstable in your life. I would just hate for him to hold you back."

Being with someone who struggles with their mental health, as much as Harry does, isn't a walk in the park. That much is obvious from when he tried to push me away the other day, psyching himself out and thinking that he isn't worth it.

But just because someone has anxiety, depression, OCD, ADD, ADHD, bipolar, PTSD, autism, or any mental illness, doesn't mean that they don't deserve love.

Yeah, it can be harder to manage, and both people in the relationship will have to jump through a few more hoops, but everyone deserves love. Someone having a brain that isn't fully 'well' doesn't mean that they have to live life in solitude.

I don't care about the extra hoops we have to jump through because Harry's brain is so unkind to him and puts up mental blocks. We will jump through the hoops together. I don't care how many times I have to talk Harry down from a panic over his inner demons spewing lies to him about our relationship or about himself. I will do it time and time again because I love him and he's worth it.

Fuck, he is so so worth it.

"Honestly, Lindsey," I sigh, mentally checked out of this conversation. "Listening to you talk is making my ears bleed. You know nothing about my relationship or Harry, so stop acting like you do. Leave us the fuck alone." With that, I hang up the phone before she gets another word in.

That bitch.

What she did to Harry is enough for me to want to knock her teeth in.

But calling me at work and trying to convince me to leave him, to convince him to go back to her...is the girl mental?