Zayn Malik's Long Lost Sister (Unedited)

81. Calm

"We can't lose you," Patricia says after Zayn went silent. "Not again. Not after you've won our hearts over in a way that was entirely different from what we thought. But we understand that we hurt you in ways that we will never be able to apologize enough for. Which is why we've decided to allow you any amount of time you may need before you're ready to forgive us, or begin to. And we want to earn your trust back."

At the mention of my trust, my eyes finally lifted to look over all of them and their expressions shifted back to calm again. I caught their saddened eyes before they corrected themselves, and I couldn't stop wondering what they were doing.

Yaser nodded his head once before he spoke. "We all know what we did to you and your parents back in Florida was wrong, and we all grew to know just how senstive you truly are no matter how tough you make yourself seem, so keeping Zayn's secret- well, we should never have agreed to it. He should've never done it. We should've been honest from the start. If we had, we could be a family and we wouldn't be here."

"I, uh," Landon cleared his throat. "I know that hurting Marley is the point to this, but I'm glad it happened. Had it not, she and I wouldn't have met again after all this time." His blue eyes fall down to mine and his smile is warm and soft. "Of course, I'm sorry you're going through so much, but I got you back in my life. Not as your uncle anymore, but your father. You always have me, no matter what they do or say."

I saw a shift across the table and Patricia's hand had moved to caress Yaser's, but their faces were still a calm mask.

"And me." Liam says softly, leaning closer to me and wrapping his arm around my waist.

And suddenly, the calm broke and fists were thrown down on the table.

"Fuck this shit," Edward yells, his eyes glaring down Liam as he stands. "She doesn't need you!"

"Looks like she needed me last night more than she needed you, mate." Liam responds, his arm tightening around me.

"Don't-" I try to warn Liam, not up for confrontation.

Edward shot forward beofre I could finish what I was saying and grabbed Liam by his shirt, pulling him from his spot next to me so he was standing, the only thing between them two was the table.

"Edward." Zayn says, just as I was standing and placing my hands on Edward's arm. "Calm-"

"No, I'm not gonna keep pretending I'm fucking calm while idly sitting back and watching this twat put his hands all over her. I don't care what they said." Edward's grip tightened on Liam, pulling him closer over the table.

"Edward, let him go, or so help me I'll-" I try to threaten, but his teary eyes finding mine cut me off.

"You'll what?" He asks, his voice broken. "Did you sleep with him?"

"What? No, Liam didn't mean it like that when he talked about last night." I say with a shake of my head.

"You know I did, Marls." Liam says with a smirk.

I threw my fist out at Liam's arm just as Edward drew back his fist to aim at Liam's face but he paused as I hit him first.

"Shut up, I don't want to start a fight with them over something stupid or something that didn't happen. Making him jealous is petty." I turned to Edward and took in a deep breath. "Liam is a friend and will forever remain that. Nothing happened so let him go."

Edward took a few seconds before his grip on Liam's shirt finally fell off and he sat back down.

I look over at Patricia and Yaser and Zayn who was standing a little back from the table, Landon standing behind me to peer over my head.

"You could've ruined it." Zayn says to Edward, walking back to his spot next to him and taking a seat.

"I love her." Edward says quietly but I heard it either way.

Liam and Landon sat again, but Yaser and Patricia didn't come back to the table. They were softly speaking, heads bowed and close together. Yaser had his fists clenched and I could see his jaw flexing over and over again.

"Ruined what?" I ask, looking down at Zayn. I refuse to sit while things were still this heated.

"We wanted to stay calm. For you." My brother answers. "We heard it worked before."

"Worked before? What do you mean?" I look up at the couple who still refused to sit back down. My eyebrows pulled together as Yaser glared at Landon. "Why is Yaser upset?"

"He didn't like when Landon spoke of you as his daughter." Zayn answers. "Dad got jealous."

"Anything you wanna know, we'll tell you." Edward says after a deep breath, his eyes trained on my face and not straying. "I know it's a little late but we've got nothing to hide."

"Alright, what do you mean about 'worked before'?" I ask, my attention on the two in front of me.

"When you were younger," Zayn started. "When you were going through a stressful time, your parents would remain calm around you until it kind of rubbed off on you and you would open up and the situation would resolve itself."

"How the hell would you know that?" I ask, a frown seeping into my expression, my mind clouded with confusion. I look down at Landon and all he did was raise his shoulders so he mustn't have said anything.

Edward's eyes darted to the side of me and the voice that spoke from behind created a chill to run down my spine.

"Because we told them."

I take in a deep breath, hesitantly turning my head to the voice that silenced and stilled everyone around me.

Jason. Standing their with a bold smile on his lips, his answer like a burning arrow shot through my brain. I grew to hate him and his wife for so long and now that I see him and I know the truth, all I wanted to do was hug him.

Hug them.

"Marley." Emily, who stood half hidden behind Jason's tall structure, quietly sobbed out. She caught herself, clearing her throat and her colored stained lips stretched over her teeth in a small.

I scurried myself away from the table as quickly as I could, nearly face planting into the grass as tears welded up in my eyes to blur my vision.

"Mom," I cried when I finally made it to them. "Dad."

The names slipped from me and I didn't care. They were here in a time that I was lost and stressed and sad. I needed my parents, the ones who raised me, the ones who knew me. No matter how many times I caught myself complaining about them in my head or out loud to anyone, I was- in this moment- relieved to see them.

"Our sweet girl," Jason spoke close to my ear, his hand pressing to the back of my head as they huddled me between both of their bodies. "We're here now. It's okay."