Taylor's phone was sitting on the table beside her, charging. Joe couldn't take his eyes off it. He knew that it would be wrong to go through it - to find Adam's number. He was so fucking mad. He wanted to kill him. He'd come into Taylor's own home, done unspeakable things to her and he couldn't let him get away with that. Taylor had fallen asleep in his arms, but he couldn't seem to find sleep. He was furious. He knew he had to do something, but he didn't know what. He wanted nothing more than to fucking kill him.
He couldn't bring his eyes away from her phone. She'd said he had called her before he came in. That means that his number would still be saved on her phone. That means that if he could get into it, he'd be able to get his number and find him. He'd fucking kill him. He couldn't let him taunt her like this anymore, Taylor couldn't be living in fear of him for the rest of her life. He wondered what her password might be.
1989? Too easy.
0013? Still too easy.
He wondered if he'd be able to unlock it using Face ID. She was asleep, meaning that she'd never know. She'd never know that he used her Face ID to get into her phone.
If he could do this, she wouldn't have to worry anymore. He couldn't actually kill him - unfortunately. But perhaps he could scare him away. Perhaps he could stop him from even trying to come close. Perhaps he could threaten him - perhaps he could make him realise that he should never come close to her ever again.
He quickly got out of bed, reaching for her phone. He knew that he shouldn't be doing this. But he was only there to look for Adam's number. When he found it, he took a photo of it with his own phone. He then left the room and walked to a room on the opposite end of the house. He couldn't let Taylor know that he was doing this. He'd have to keep it a secret. She'd not let him do it, she'd want to keep everything calm. But Adam didn't deserve calm anymore. He deserved to feel all of Joe's roaring rage.
He dialled the number. It was four o'clock in the morning, but he didn't fucking care. Adam had come in here and hurt Taylor. He didn't care about anything other than the fact that he wouldn't let that happen again.
"What the fuck do you want?" A voice answered the phone. Simply hearing his voice made Joe burn.
"How dare you?" Joe spat into the phone. "How dare you fucking come into this house and do that to her." He was so fucking angry.
"Fuck you, schoolboy," Adam yelled. "Fuck you and your fucking stupid blond hair. Taylor loves me. She wants to be with me. She told me so yesterday as I fucked-"
"Shut the fuck up." Joe hissed. "You know that the only thing she was telling you was to stop. How dare you break into her fucking house and hurt her like that? You raped her in her own home - I can't fucking believe you, you piece of shit." Joe was so mad. If Adam was here right now - he'd be unconscious on the floor because Joe had knocked him out. "I'm going to fucking kill you, you fucking-"
"Really? I'll fucking kill you first. You were the one who twisted her. She was in love with me until she met you." Adam was just as mad as he was. He fucking hated it because Adam had no right to be mad.
"I'm going to fucking..." Joe heard movement coming from down the hallway. "Where are you?"
"Home. Why, do you want to come and give me my girlfriend back?"
"No, I want to come and fucking beat you up." Joe snapped.
"Why, what a great idea. You know what, that's given me a terrific idea, school boy. If I win, I get her back." Joe slammed a hand down on the table.
"That's bullshit." Joe felt fire in his veins.
"Why? You feel like fighting me, then come get me, schoolboy." He was just waiting for it. Adam wanted Joe to get mad enough that he would go. "And if I fucking mess with you more than you could hit me, then you have to fucking leave her in New York with me."
"No. Taylor stays out of this. She's not coming. She's not being involved in this - at all." Joe told him firmly. "You keep her out of your life. If I win, you have to fucking leave her alone. Don't go after her. Don't contact her. Don't ever talk to her again. Don't post photos of her. You have to fucking accept that she's gone and she isn't coming back."
Joe was not bringing Taylor into this and he wouldn't let her go back to him. There was no way he could lose this fight. It was a good thing he'd been practicing in the Gym.
"And if you lose?"
"Then I'll leave her." There was no way in hell that was happening. He was not going to lose this fight.
"I'll leave her." He repeated. "Hm, deal."
Adam told him an address to come to. Joe had a sinking feeling in his chest. What had he done? He'd been so caught up in the moment that he hadn't even realised what he'd been saying.
He was meeting Adam tomorrow night.
Footsteps crept in the hallway and Taylor peeked around the corner. "Are you coming back to bed?" She was still half asleep, and Joe did his best to give her a calm and collected smile.
"I'll be there in a few minutes, I'm sorry." Taylor just nodded and left. She looked exhausted. Joe had to phone his brother. Patrick and he had practised fighting together, they'd done boxing for a few years before Joe moved to America.
"Joe? It must be the crack of dawn over there." Patrick answered. "What's up?"
"You have to promise not to tell anyone what I'm going to tell you," Joe murmured.
"Sure, whatever. Is it about Taylor? Is she okay? Did you break her heart? Because I swear to god if you -"
"No." Joe interrupted. "I may or may not have just organised to fight with her ex." Joe felt so stupid even saying those words. "It's a long story. He came here yesterday while I was at an audition in L.A, and... did unspeakable things. I told him that if I win, then he has to leave her alone. For the rest of her life... and if I lose... then I have to break up with her." Joe sat down in a chair. "I've fucked up, Patrick. I've fucked up bad-"
There was silence on the phone for a while.
"First of all - is Taylor okay?"
"Yes..." Joe said softly. "She's okay." She wasn't really. That's why he had to do this.
"So what... it's going to be like an actual fight? With fists and stuff?" Patrick asked and Joe sighed.
"Yes," Joe closed his eyes. "So you'd better remember all of those tricks you taught me because I sure fucking need them."
"When is it?"
"Tomorrow night," Joe answered. "I have to win, Pat. I have to hurt him so bad that Taylor can live her life without fear of something happening to her. It was the first time I'd left her alone. She's hardly going to want to be left alone after that happened... I have to win this fight. I can't afford to lose."
"What are you going to tell her afterwards? 'Oh, hey Taylor, you don't have to worry about anything to do with Adam ever again because we fought it out and now it's all fine, he'll leave you alone now.'" Patrick said. Joe wished he wouldn't be sarcastic. He didn't know what to do. What was there to do?
He heard Patrick sigh. "Mum is going to kill me for helping you with this, you know."
"Hopefully she'll never know," Joe warned. "Hopefully, no one is going to know except me and you."
"And Adam," Patrick added. "You might want to start writing this all down, Joe."
He felt bad when he sat there until the sun rose, Patrick talking him through key moves.
Neither he nor Adam had discussed exactly what decided the win. Joe would have to leave alone. It would take three hours to drive to New York and he started coming up with excuses as to why he might need to go back there.
It was difficult because Taylor's mom was there, sleeping in the room down the hall. But maybe that was a good thing. Maybe that would mean he could leave easily. He wouldn't have to worry about leaving her alone.
"Earth to Joe," a voice said behind him. It was Taylor. She had a robe on and placed her hands on her shoulders. "What's wrong? You never came back to bed this morning."
"Sorry... I... well I just have some paperwork to fill out for the audition." He took one of her hands and kissed it. "I have to go to New York tomorrow to meet up with the director." He lied. "They're doing callbacks."
"Oh," Taylor moved so she was facing him. "Well, that's a good sign."
"And your mum is here so I thought-"
"It's fine, Joe. It really is fine. I don't want you to think that you can't go out and leave me." She tried to hide the fear in her voice but failed. "My mom is here, so I'll be okay."
"I'm going to fix all of this, okay?"
"That's not your responsibility, Joe." Taylor sighed. "I'll think of something. I'm just... I'm tired." She looked exhausted. The circles under her eyes had grown dramatically overnight.
"I mean it, Taylor. I'm going to fix all of this."
Taylor was about to question him about what exactly he meant by this when he kissed her gently. It didn't scare her. That was a relief because she'd been worried about how she'd react after what happened yesterday.
Taylor sat with her mom in the lounge. She didn't know where Joe was, he'd said something about lots of paperwork. She hadn't believed him for a second, but a part of her thought that it might be because he felt bad for what happened yesterday. She didn't want him to feel bad, because she could see that it wasn't in any way his fault.
The day dragged on and on, but she was so glad that she had her mom here with her. Because honestly, she didn't know how she was going to face being alone again. She didn't know how she was going to admit this. She didn't know how she'd continue to walk up those fucking stairs every day, either.
Her mom sat beside her on the couch. She'd made both Taylor and Joe breakfast, and Taylor had missed just spending time with her alone.
She was pretending that she wasn't at all nervous about Joe leaving. She was pretending that it really didn't bother her. But it did. It really bothered her. She was petrified of it happening again. Taylor didn't know how she'd come back from this one.
She had a bath before she got into her pyjamas. It was only six o'clock at night, but she was so exhausted that she just wanted to go to bed. She found Joe in a room on the second floor. He'd shut himself away all day.
"I'm going to bed now," she murmured as she found him. He was sitting at a desk in one of the studies.
"Is it that late already?" Joe finally looked up from his computer.
"No, I'm just really tired." Taylor walked over to him, and he shut his laptop immediately. Taylor flinched at the noise. "Have I done something?"
"No, no." Joe sighed, standing up and walking over to her. "I'm sorry, my love. I'm just stressed about learning these new lines for tomorrow."
"I would have helped you," Taylor smiled.
"No, no. Not today." He cupped her cheeks. "Come on, I'll tuck you into bed." He took her hand, and lead her up to her bedroom. She tried not to flinch as she walked up the stairs. A big part of her wanted to head in the opposite direction. She used to love these stairs. But now she hated them.
"I'll come to bed in a bit, okay?" Joe told her as she crawled into bed. He sat down beside her, and she rested her head on his chest. "I am leaving pretty early tomorrow, so I might not see you."
"I can wake up-"
"No! You need your sleep." Joe kissed her temple. "I'll see you late tomorrow night." He didn't tell her just how late it was going to be. He couldn't involve her in this for a number of reasons, the most important being that if anyone found out about it, her career would be ruined. Not even her fans would be able to bring her back from that. "Stupid callbacks."
"You must have been good!" Taylor exclaimed.
There were no callbacks. Joe already knew that he'd gotten the role of Robert Dudley in the Mary Queen of Scots film. He'd gotten the role after he'd spoken two lines. But callbacks worked as a good lie. He felt so bad for lying to her, but he had to do this. He had to fight for her because she was worth fighting for. And he'd fight for her over and over again. He'd continue fighting for her forever.
"Get some sleep, okay?" Joe leaned down and kissed her. "Don't wait up for me."
"I'll see you tomorrow." She told him sleepily.
"You will. I love you so much, Taylor." He started, but she was already asleep. "Which is why I have to do this. I'm sorry."