Ain't nobody love... Ain't nobody love like you do.
Nobody Love - Tori Kelly
ISABELLA
The Night Before
"It's going to be fine," I reassured him for the umpteenth time. I had to fight my lips from twitching as I patted down the collar of his dress shirt. You'll go out for some drinks, do whatever it is that guys do... it'll be fine. Relax, okay?"
Harry stared at me like I had grown two heads, but it had become a common occurrence since being back in London. Jaz had been adamant the whole day for us to have some quality girl time with Maddie. I was more than happy to say yes. There was something about that little girl that pulled at every single heartstring. Harry, of course, was less than pleased.
His relationship with Ben was getting better. He already told me that before. If that was true, then spending a night out just the two of them should be easy. I forgot that I was dating the biggest drama queen to come out of Manchester.
"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled, swatting my hands away from his shirt. "It's a good thing you're cute."
"You're not going to charm your way out of this one, so don't even bother."
He rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at his pink lips. I stood on the tips of my toes to reach his cheek, leaving a short kiss on his stubble skin. "Now go. I'll see you later."
He blinked at me, his lips turned down into a scowl.
"Your face is going to stay like that if you keep it up," I teased. "Come on. You're too pretty to pout."
This only earned another eye roll but a small smile. "Whatever. Let's get this over with."
Ben had been more enthused to go out, though he wasn't jumping up and down like his wife. Jaz's fingers were holding tightly to Ben's arms. Her blonde hair thrown up into a messy bun and eyes widen with excitement.
"Alright, boys! The car is waiting for you outside. Go, drink, bond... have fun. Now leave so we can change into our pajamas and pull out all the ice cream we've been hiding from you."
"Yeah! No boys allowed," Maddie piped in. Her small fists were raised above her head, grinning.
"You heard the girl. No boys allowed. Now shoo!" I opened the door for grumpy one and grumpy two, both unamused by our amused and enthusiastic expressions.
Harry pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around my waist in a tight hug. "Love you," he whispered in my ear, kissing the skin under my ear.
"Love you, too."
Once the door was shut, Jaz exhaled the longest sigh. "I thought they were never going to leave! I've been waiting all day for tonight! I haven't had a good girls evening in ages."
I bit down on my lip, laughing, as Maddie pulled on Jaz's sweater sleeve. "You promised we'd watch Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. We're still watching those, right?"
"I don't see what else we would watch."
"Good." Maddie turned on her heels, with her hands situated on her tiny hips. "Izzy, those aren't pajamas. This is a pajama party, don't you know."
I looked down at my yoga pants and one of Harry's old t-shirts. "These are my pajamas," I told her but she shook her head no.
"Those are not pajamas. That's what you wear to gym class not to sleep. I have some Minnie Mouse pajamas that you can borrow."
"Sweetie, you're a bit too small for me to fit."
"I have some extra pajamas that you can borrow."
I sighed. There was no point arguing. Maddie was a very determined little girl. Whatever she wanted, she got. I think it had more to do with her being raised as an only child. It wasn't a big deal, however. If she wanted me to wear "real" pajamas, then I will.
"Alright. Let's go get changed."
Once we were all in our proper sleepwear, we made our way to the kitchen where two tubs of ice cream sat waiting for us on the countertop. Maddie skipped happily to where the two cartons were and stood on her tippy toes to reach.
"Wait a moment missy."
She moaned, annoyance in her tone, and slumped on one of the bar stools. "Come on... The ice cream is going to melt if we don't hurry up."
"Patience, young one," calmed Jaz. She went to one of the cupboards and pulled out two ceramic bowls and a plastic Disney Princess bowl. "Okay. We have chocolate chip cookie dough and plain strawberry. One scoop of each?"
"Yes please," Maddie pleaded. She held her hands out in front of her, waiting impatiently for Jaz to scoop the ice cream into her bowl. I sat beside her on another bar stool and held out my own hands.
"Two scoops for me too, please!"
"I think you can scoop your own ice cream," Jaz sassily retorted, with her hand placed on her hip.
"Now that's not very nice, don'tcha think?" I teased in response. But instead of whining for her to scoop ice cream for me, I took liberty into my own hands and did it myself... independency and all that.
Patience and independence – we were all about little life lessons during girl's nights. Anytime can be a learning experience. You're welcome, Maddie.
With bowls in our hands filled with ice cream and sprinkles, we each took a water bottle for ourselves and made our way over to the living room. I placed my bowl on the coffee table and hurried back into the kitchen to bring out the big bowl of popcorn I had previously popped. Once we were settled on the couch, a warm quilt draped over our legs, and our bowls in our lap, Jaz started the first movie.
It had been a long time since I sat down on the couch and watched a Disney movie. It reminded me of all the times Natalia and I would sneak away from some lavish party our parents were throwing, and watch The Lion King, or some other classic. It brought back good memories as well as bad. Our parents were never thrilled to catch us in the downstairs movie room. Our dresses were always wrinkled and whatever sweets we stole from the kitchen would be smeared over our faces. The angry look that flashed over my mother's face whenever she caught us was always terrifying, but those few hours when Nat and I could just be kids, made the week long grounding worth it.
"This is fun. I like having sisters."
It was after one movie was finished that Maddie finally spoke up after almost two hours. She stretched her tiny arms over her head, a satisfied sound sighed from her mouth. Pushing her way from being squished between Jaz and myself, she grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it into her mouth.
We laughed at the small girl, with pieces of popcorn in her curly brown hair, and eyes as bright as her brothers', as she grinned at us both.
"I was always the little sister, so it's nice to finally have a little one for myself," Jaz commented as she pulled the stray pieces of popcorn from Maddie's hair.
"You have a little sister, don't you Izzy?"
I wrapped my arm around Maddie's little body and pulled her into my side. "I do, but she's not as adorable as you. Don't tell her I said that," I winked, biting my cheek from grinning to wide.
"I won't. Your secret's safe with me," she promised with whole sincerity.
With that, she fell into my side, pulling the blanket up to her chin. I rested my own arm on the arm of the couch, my head falling into the palm of my hand. We sat quietly as the opening credits to Sleeping Beauty began to play.
It wasn't until a few minutes into the movie that my phone began to vibrate with the familiar sound of my ringtone. Maddie grumbled and whined for me to turn my phone off. I was about to do just that until I noticed the familiar digits of my sister's phone number. Her face was plastered across the screen – a goofy photo I had taken of her one afternoon in our apartment.
"Sorry kid. I have to take this."
Carefully I pulled away from the couch and replaced my body with an oversized pillow. Maddie's frown was soon upturned once she was settled into the pillow. She stretched her body across the couch and rested her feet on top of Jaz's knees.
She looked at me with concern, mouthing out Harry's name. I shook my head, telling her that it was only Natalia.
I snuck quietly out of the living room and into Dylan's study. Before the call could go straight to voicemail, I answered it, greeting her with a breathless, "Hello?"
"Took you long enough," Natalia teased on the other line. It had been a few weeks since I had seen her, and just the sound of her voice was realization enough that I missed her.
"Sorry! Jaz and I are having a movie night with Harry's little sister."
"Managed to get the boy away from you? That's surprising. The kid is basically glued to your hip."
"It took a lot of persuading and promise of sexual favours to get him to leave with Ben."
Nat groaned, "I don't need to know about yours and Harry's sex life."
I scoffed at that. If there was one thing that Natalia wasn't shy about, that was sharing with me her sexual adventures. Half the time I zoned out and didn't pay much attention. It was weird (and mildly disturbing) to hear about the things that my little sister was partaking in. I didn't care that she was sexually active, but I didn't have to hear about it.
"Other than not talking about my sex life, why'd you call? I'm coming home tomorrow. You know that right?"
"I do, but this couldn't wait." Her voice quivered with what sounded like anxiety.
"What's wrong?"
Her breathing quickened and I could imagine that she was chewing at her nails – a nervous twitch she developed when she was a child.
"I did a thing. A thing that you might get mad about... actually, you'll probably be pissed about, but trust me, it's a good thing that I did. I found out some stuff about dad that you need to know. It'll explain everything."
She spoke quickly. I could almost hear her teeth chewing on her nails.
"What did you find out?"
I didn't know if I was nervous or not to hear what Nat had to say. If it involved our father, I could only assume that it wasn't going to be good news.
"Did you know that dad has ties to gangs here in New York?" She paused, giving me a chance to reply.
"No...?"
"Turns out, he does... has been for a while. Long before we were even born... started just before him and mom started dating."
"Okay...? How did you find this out?"
I was now biting my own nails. My teeth were digging into the edge of hangnail on my thumb.
"This is when I need you to not be mad," she warned, her voice quivering at the end of each word.
"Get out with it."
I was beginning to lose my patience.
She sighed, slowly, and took a long inhale of breath. "I called dad's P.I. and had him do some snooping for me."
"What!" I yelled into the receiver, surprised that she would even consider doing something like that. "Are you crazy? Dad has been using that guy for years. He's going to tell him."
"No, he's not," she quickly replied. "I paid him extra to keep this under wraps. I trust him."
"Why did you even contact him in the first place?"
There was a twisting lump in the pit of my stomach, causing the taste of bile to seep up my throat. I was going to be sick.
"I was having dinner with him and mom a few days ago and snuck off into his study while he was still eating. I couldn't sit back, knowing that he has this plan to hurt Harry, and not do something about it. So I went in and found one of his old cell phones. I guess he uses it for business only," she begun to explain. "It turns out that he still uses it to talk to trades and companies overseas. It's his UK phone."
"I didn't even know that he still had business in the UK."
"Neither did I," she continued. "But it turns out that he does. He's been texting some guy with the initials M.S. I read through their conversation, and it goes all the way back to before you and Harry broke up. It turns out that he's been in cahoots with him this whole time, planning on how to destroy your relationship with Harry. I guess this guy, M.S., knows Harry and doesn't like him. Do you think Harry used to run in gang circles or anything? Something that would explain who this guy might be and why he's working with dad... or why Dad would want to work with him. I don't know. This all seems too fishy and weird to be true. Don't you think?"
My mind was spinning with this new information. I couldn't even process any of it.
"Izzy? Are you there? Shit, you're mad aren't you? I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at me. I just couldn't sit –"
"Stop... it's fine. I'm not... I'm not mad." At least I didn't think I was mad.
"Then what are you thinking?"
The nervous twitch in my stomach twisted once more and I had to swallow back the bile that seeped higher and higher.
"I'm thinking that dad was part of a gang this whole time and we didn't even know it. I'm thinking about how my own father has been planning to kill my boyfriend this whole time, for God knows what reason, with some British asshole that I don't even know. I'm also thinking about how Harry was part of a gang when he was a teenager, but he told me that he stopped being a part of it long time ago. But we don't talk about it. That's something he doesn't like to talk about. It brings back too many memories." It was also something that I never thought twice about. It was part of his past. I only assumed that it was going to stay there.
"Why wouldn't he talk to you about it?"
"It reminds him of his ex-girlfriend that killed herself. Sarah. When she died, he spun out of control and was doing stuff that got him into a lot of trouble. But he's been clean of it for years... At least, I think he has. I don't know. God, what is even going on?"
My mind was spinning with an array of possibilities. Did Harry lie to me? Was he still involved with the gangs even when we were together? Did he do something that angered someone, someone that my father is friends with? Why is my father even part of something as sickening as this?
Before I could control it, the familiar stinging of rising bile lodged its way back up my throat. I leaned over Dylan's desk, and picked up his trash can. I emptied out my stomach. All the ice cream and popcorn I had eaten earlier making a reappearance.
I wiped my mouth with a tissue and threw it into the trash can.
"Izzy? Are you okay? Izzy?"
"Yeah, I'm here," I grumbled into the phone, my voice croaky from throwing up. I coughed to clear my throat, but it only worsens the uncomfortable feeling inside my throat.
"What happened?"
"I threw up."
"Oh Iz..."
I coughed one more time, "Its fine. I think I ate too much ice cream. Happens..."
An awkward beat of silence went by before one of us said anything.
"What are you going to do now," asked Natalia.
"Um... talk to Jaz... I guess. Maybe she knows something about it."
"That's a good idea."
"Yeah."
Another beat of silence fell over us, neither one of us saying a word. After throwing up and hearing this new bit of information, I was ready to go to bed and put all of this behind me. I didn't want to even think about it.
"I should go. Try and figure something out," I said a few minutes later.
"Okay. Yeah. That's a good idea. I'll let you know if I hear anything else. Calvin hasn't figured anything else yet about this mystery guy. When he does, I'll tell you."
"Sure. I'll tell you what I find out from this end too."
She coughed as silence fell over us once more. "I'll talk to you later. Have a safe flight."
"Thanks. Love you."
"Love you too."
And with that she hung up leaving me with silence on the other end of my phone. The only thing that could be heard was the loud, racing thoughts of my mind. I didn't know where to start or what to do next, but the only reasonable thing that I could think of was to clean up my mess in the trash can and brush my teeth.
When I returned later, Maddie was fast asleep on the couch. Sleeping Beauty no longer played on the television, but an old episode of Sex and the City instead.
"Everything okay? You were gone for a while."
I pushed Maddie's feet carefully up from where they laid on top of Jaz's legs and rested them on my own. I leaned my head on Jaz's forehead and sighed.
"Other than the fact that I just threw up in Dylan's office, everything is peachy," I sarcastically replied.
She shifted in her seat to look at me. Her brows were pulled together, a worried look on her face. "What do you mean you threw up? What's wrong?"
I scratched at my eyebrow and massaged the aching feeling in my head. Before I could answer, I made sure that Maddie was fast asleep and not listening in.
"I just found out that my father has been working alongside some gang for over thirty years. Also, this same gang has an out for Harry and wants him killed."
Jaz gasped in surprise, her bright blue eyes widened in shock. "You're joking."
"Wish I was..."
"Well, shit. I didn't see that comin' at all..."
She threw her head back on the couch. Her lips were pursed and her brows furrowed.
"Have you heard of a guy with the initials M.S.? He's the guy that's been talking to my dad."
She was biting at her lip as she thought about it.
"I know that Ben has a lot of mates that are still part of the gang that Harry used to run with. He doesn't really talk much about it. I don't like to know about those sets of friends. He grew up with them, so he doesn't want to cut ties with them. As long as they don't put Ben, me or our family in any danger, then he can do whatever he wants."
"Has he mentioned anything about a rival gang?"
She leaned over the arm rest of the couch to pick up the television's remote control and pressed pause on the episode.
"In Manchester there's this one gang that is basically the head of all drug related trades and other trades. I know that Ben's mates don't like their associating with that gang because of some of the illegal trading that they do. Years ago there was this big show down between the two leaders. I don't know much about the details, but I do know that something happened between Harry and the gang leader's brother. I don't know what it was but I do know that it was really big. It happened a few months before Harry moved down to London. Didn't he mention this to you?"
"No. He didn't."
Suddenly, Jaz sat up. Her hair whipped against my face as she turned around quickly to face me. Her eyes were opened wide and her jaw hung slack in shock. "Oh my God, I just remembered something. Oh my God," her body began to shake as she bounced on the couch.
"Stop bouncing you're going to wake Maddie up," I scolded her but she shook it off. "You're starting to freak me out. What is it?"
"Last year, Tiff and I were talking about the boys some of the shit they get into. I remember her talking about how Chase was acting really weird lately, very off. Basically he was being super suspicious. So she called him out on it and it turns out that he was being 'inducted' into that massive gang we were talking about. Tiff was pissed when she heard and told him to not be daft and to get out of it, but he was persistent. Said that he needed to do this to I guess prove something... whatever that means. Maybe... I don't know... maybe he has something to do with this?" She grabbed my arm and squeezed it, a hopeful look in her eyes.
The big brick that had been in my stomach before had returned, and began its nauseating, twisted assault against my body. If Chase was involved with this, I was going to kill him.
"Do you think he was the one that tried to stab Harry?" Jaz continued on, asking me the question that was whirling in my mind.
"I really hope not."
"How is this happening? It makes no sense. I know that Chase always had an out for Harry, but to go as far as to try and kill him? Whoever is the leader of this gang must have something really special for Chase if he would do all of this."
I felt like I was going to be sick. I rushed out of the living room and to the bathroom, dropping to my knees and emptied out my stomach.
"Love, are you okay?"
I cringed at the gross feeling that fell over my body.
"This is all too much for me."
Nat fell to my side and began to run her fingers soothingly up and down my back. "It'll be okay. I'm here. We'll figure this out."
I leaned my head against the coolness of the toilet seat.
"Tomorrow... we need to tell the guys tomorrow. This has to end once and for all."
-
Harry's body was quivering as he emptied his stomach out and into the toilet. The same toilet that I was vomiting into not too long before him... in fact, it was only twenty minutes earlier. I must have caught a stomach bug.
"Just let it out, baby. It'll be okay," I continued to scratch lightly at his back and rested my head on his shoulder. "Gosh, I can't remember the last time you puked from a night out. Have we really become that boring?"
"We've always been boring, babe."
I giggled and swatted at his back. I refused to be boring. "We're not boring. We're just... we like to stay in. That's not boring."
"Might as well get the senior discount, we've become grandparents," he joked dryly. I giggled as he dry heaved into the toilet. "Fuck. I hate Ben for convincing me that tequila shots were a good idea."
"Tequila shots are always a good idea. You're just an eighty year old man with a pension."
"Ha-ha."
We waited a few more minutes, before he flushed the toilet and slowly stood up. I eased him to his feet and walked him over to where the sink was. Picking up his toothbrush from the holder, I got it ready for him and urged him to brush.
"When you're done, come downstairs. Maddie wants to spend the day watching movies before we fly out tomorrow," I lied. Maddie was actually out for the morning with Dylan, having a father-daughter breakfast date. Instead, Ben and Jaz waited for us in the kitchen. We needed to sort this thing out but I didn't want to worry him about it just yet.
"Thank God. Don' wanna go out."
"I know," I felt guilty lying to him but I needed him to freshen up before he came downstairs. I know Harry and he doesn't function well without a shower and cup of tea – especially when hung over. "Now clean up and come down when you're ready. I'll grab you a towel and some sweats to change. I'm assuming you'll want to shower."
"Hmm, 'nks 'aby."
I gave him one last smile before shutting the door behind me, giving him some privacy.