𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝙰𝚏𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚛 || 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙿𝙻𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙳

Chapter Eighteen

The limo pulls up in front of the building and instantly I notice a bunch of paparazzi standing from the bottom of the stairs and all the way to the door. They are stopped behind some rails and bodyguards pushing some of them back behind the railing. Landon's hand squeezes my thigh drawing my attention back to him, "Just hold onto my hand and smile, it will be over before you know it," he gives me a reassuring smile, but I can't stop my palms from sweating and my leg bouncing up and down.

"Landon I can't," I whisper not evening realising the words left my lips, "I don't do well with flashing lights," I never have, not since my mother's death.

••••••

I hold onto dad's hand as we walk down the hospital hall my eyes blink pushing more tears down my face. I see us growing closer to the hospital door, "For god sake," dad mumbles under his breath as some flashing lights come from the hospital glass door.

I notice some policeman waiting for us by the door as dad pulls the blanket over Harper's head covering him from the flashing lights. The policewoman standing next to me while dad talks to the other police officer about what's about to happen. Dad turns to me and the police lady and nods his head as the police lady swoops me up in her arms placing me on her hip and takes off her cap putting it into my small head covering my face.

"You'll be okay sweetheart this is just until we get you safely in your car," the woman rubs my back making my body relax a bit, but my mind was screaming at me it was crying and shaking while my physical form remained frozen.

I hear the sliding doors open up instantly hitting my ears with the clicking sound of cameras and random people screaming questions at us. I lift the cap up a bit seeing all these random people I have never since shoving microphones in front of dad causing the other police officer to push the microphones away and push dad to walk a bit faster.

I feel my heartbeat increase seeing all these people nosing around in our business. I find myself sobbing into the shoulder of the police lady as she continues to carry me towards the car. As we grew closer there were hospital securities guards and some more police officers waiting for us at the car park. They quickly let us slip through before blocking off the paparazzi cashing after us.

We finally made it to the car and quickly got settled in before speeding off leaving the police to deal with the paparazzi.

••••••

That day was horrible for me I was only seven years old and my brother only being a couple of days old and had these noisy people shoving their cameras and microphones in our faces not respecting that we just lost our mother. Dad lost the love of his life, his everything, and these heartless people crowded the hospital just to get information on what happened how sick is that.

I feel a warm presence cup my face pulling me out of that horrible day, "Charlie-Rose you can do this I promise you," he places a soft kiss on my nose as his thumb brushes over my cheeks, "If you can't handle it put your head on my shoulder and I'll give you my suit jacket to cover your face with," another kiss gets placed on my nose, "You're not alone I'll be right there with you holding your hand the whole way into the building," I nod at his words.

"Okay, I believe you," my words come out as a whisper.

Landon nods and takes hold of my hand as the door opens letting us step out of the limo. Instantly the cameras start flashing and the questions pour out them, but he doesn't stop his face remains emotionless and his body remains tense as he drags me up the stairs. The closer we get to the door the more desperate people become trying to get our attention, "Is Landon for once bringing one of his hookups to an event," one of them shouts making him growl under his breath.