Escape (N.H.)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Valeria POV

" Niall..." I murmured, my fingers still tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck.

He hummed weakly against my chest, his arms now rested around my waist instead of on my hips.

I had also moved from the center console to somewhere warmer.

I wasn't entirely sure where. I think I felt my body being moved once I fell asleep but I wasn't entirely sure.

We were still in the car, and had remained there the rest of the night.

Niall started hyperventilating again, after about an hour of me sitting on the console my hands running through his hair, his body had begun tensing, those same small whimpers leaving his mouth as he begun to suck in sharp breaths.

It took over forty five minutes to help him get his breathing to calm down. But, in doing that something else had happened. He stopped hyperventilating only to begin sobbing.

I don't think I had ever seen him cry, and if I had it was nothing compared to what I witnessed in this car.

He had completely broken down.

He was so angry and disappointed in himself.

He kept mumbling how pathetic he was through the sobs that racked his entire body. The way his body was shaking had only made me want to hold him closer, tighter.

I had forgotten about everything bad that had happened between us since I first arrived.

None of it mattered in that moment.

All that mattered was him, and making sure he knew I was there, even when he couldn't speak, when he could stop crying, as long as he knew that I was there and it was okay to be feeling everything that he was feeling, that was all that mattered.

I hated that I couldn't take away the pain he was feeling, I hated that he now knew what it felt like for the voices to disappear.

And God I hated Katia. Hated her for what she had put Niall through, not only five years ago but everything since then. I hated that she had brought up Scarlett, like she had any right to speak her name.

I didn't care if she was the one that birthed her, she wasn't Scarlett's mother.

Scarlett deserved so much better than Katia, Niall deserved better than Katia.

I hoped I never got to meet her because even though I'm not a violent person I knew I wouldn't be able to, nor would I want to hold myself back from beating the living daylights out of her.

Not to mention I'm sure seeing Katia again, in the flesh, would destroy Niall. The way it would destroy me if I ever had to face Aiden again.

Though the situations were vastly different, people we trusted, loved with our entire being had broken us and seeing them again after everything would do nothing but cause more harm. Would emotionally destroy us. Physically destroy us.

I wouldn't let that happen to Niall, he was too fragile, too vulnerable and no one deserved to go through that.

And God help me if she tried to go after Scarlett.