Pelican » Zarry ✅

🕵 T h r e e

"Sometimes certain situations only require one of us to go."

"What kind?"

"The tough kind."

"When will he be back?"

"Hopefully soon, alright."

"How soon?"

"Nema." He said. And he didn't hide his frustration. "I don't know how soon. It depends on what they say. And no more questions about the business trip. Eat your lo mein."

She made a grunting noise and pouted. But she still picked up her fork and continued to eat.

After dinner Harry put a movie on in the living room. It seemed as though the business trip excuse worked because she didn't ask about Zayn anymore. But the guilt he felt for blatantly lying to his children like that couldn't even be described in words. Their father had been kidnapped. His life was in danger and they may not ever see him again. Yet here he was making the matter trivial and getting their hopes up to believe that he would without a doubt return home safely and unharmed.

What would happen if Zayn never came home? What would happen if Zayn died? How would he explain that to them? What would things be like when his children grew up and realized their father knew where he was and deceived them knowingly.

He pondered what his future relationship with his children might be like too. What if Zayn ended up hurt or dead and they blamed him for sitting back and not doing anything? Not that he would blame them because he would place the blame on himself too. But that wasn't what he wanted his future to be like. The whole reason he and Zayn even made the new routine with the nanny was to help make sure their future relationship with their children wasn't strained. He couldn't let that all be ruined by these kidnappers. He really needed to get Zayn back.

How was he going to do that? He wasn't sure. But there had to be a way for him to get to Zayn without alerting the police or having anyone else be suspicious of it. There just had to be.

By the end of the movie, the couple in the movie were walking out of the venue. They'd just gotten married and were waving to those waiting for them to come out. Harry hadn't paid too much attention at all to what was being said or done but he did find his mind drifting to thoughts about that couple.

Those sort of movies did always end with the couple getting married and driving off in their cars with "just married" painted across the back window. But they never showed what happened after that. They never showed the hardest part. Life after the wedding.

He wondered what that man's life would be like with his wife. Would he one day find himself sitting in the living room with his kids, wondering who kidnapped her?  Would he be there racking his brain, trying to figure out if it was a result of his own actions? Was it something he did? Something he said?

And what about all those guests at the wedding? He'd have all those people there. All those people who know him and adore him and his wife. And not one of them would be able to help him. And then what? What would that mean for the outcome of his beautiful wife?

Pushing that negative thought away, he  shook his head and focused on the TV again. The couple was getting into a car and a security guard was keeping the crowds from pressing in on them too much.

When Harry saw the guard, he gasped loudly and sat up on the couch.

"What?" Nema asked. And even Charlie was wondering why his father had gasped.

"Nothing. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"That it's time for bed."