THE CONMAN AND THE MAID // Harry Styles

Father's Daughter

He'd been told he looked intimidating when he got angry, but Kenny was never afraid of him. She took a step forward, catching him off guard as she laid a hand on the left side of his face. The touch was familiar, so he didn't back off, giving her permission to touch the other side. Her soft hands warmed his cool cheeks, and he shut his eyes for a fleeting moment.

"Let's start over. Run away with me."

Then he snapped out of it.

He stepped back. His heart throbbed when he looked into her tear-filled eyes. His gaze dropped to the ground so he wouldn't have to watch her cry. "You should go home. I-I'll take you home."

She shrugged him off when he reached for her arm. "Don't. I don't want to go home. I don't...I don't have a home. You're the only home I've ever known." She grabbed his hand and pressed it to her heart. "I should've defied my mother a long time ago. I should've fought for us. That's what I'm doing now."

"Please listen to me."

She didn't.

"I've been saving money for my sewing business. We can use my money to start over. Just like how we'd planned our future before you left–"

"Before you married someone else."

"Why do you keep saying that?" She laughed mirthlessly. "You despise Gideon! You always have since we were kids!"

"That didn't stop you from marrying him," he said, his voice even. "Let's go back inside and pretend this never happened."

His fingers closed around her wrist and pulled, but her feet refused to cooperate. "What's gotten into you? And don't you lie to me and say that you care about my marriage. Harry, you don't. You–" She sucked in a breath, closing her eyes. "Be honest with me, please. You don't love me anymore, right?"

Instead of answering, he tugged at her arm to get her to follow, but she shoved him away and stepped back, their eyes locked. A battle of mixed emotions was taking place inside his chest – anger, frustration, sadness, regret, guilt – but there was no sign of love.

In his mindless daze, he heard her whisper, "You're in love. But...not with me."

He didn't confirm or deny her accusation, instead, he asserted, "You can do better than Gideon, but I'm not the one."

She stayed silent for too long before asking, "It's her, isn't it?"

"What?"

"Rain. You're in love with her." Her lip started quivering when he didn't respond. "You said you'd love me forever..."

"You married someone else."

"Stop using that against me." She didn't shout, but her nearly toneless voice turned him stiff. "I don't love Gideon, and I couldn't sit around and wait for you to come back from the dead. You know my mother. So stop blaming me for everything just because you feel guilty."

She was right. He was guilty of making her wait, of leaving her in the first place. But the next thing she said was definitely to hurt him on purpose.

"I'm sorry to break it to you, but Rain doesn't have feelings for you."

"You don't know that." He was taken aback by how fast he'd replied, but her expression stayed the same.

"I do," she stressed. "Because she told me."

"She told you?"

"Back in the house. I asked her."

"She wouldn't discuss her feelings with a stranger."

"Are you saying that I made that up?" Her voice was dreadfully quiet, and then she lifted her chin, tears swimming in her eyes. "Ask her then. She told me to talk to you. If she had feelings for you and wanted you for herself, why would she do that?"