Reverberate - an Echo of Us sequel |Zarry|

two.

Harry knew he would get cheated on.

It's quite a depressing realisation to live with when you have two children with your husband. It hurts even more considering you've loved that person for more than twenty years. But Harry knew Zayn, he knew him very well and despite years of being in a relationship, despite him actually getting therapy and getting better, he couldn't become a completely different person.

Eight years, that's how long Zayn lasted without cheating. At least Harry thinks that's how long it was. He had the guts to start it when their babies were only a year old. Maybe not even that but that is when Harry saw the first text on Zayn's phone. The first few months, he ignored it. He figured it was just sexting and with how busy he was, he couldn't give a shit. As long as Zayn wasn't actually fucking anyone, Harry could turn a blind eye to it and enjoy his children growing up, learning their first words, and taking their first steps. Zayn's behaviour didn't change at all, but he did stop begging Harry for sex all the time, which wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Harry didn't tell anyone but his therapist. After Edna retired, the year before he married Zayn, he started seeing Jane, who's also an academic and has been with her wife for forty years. He wanted to have a therapist who understood a same-sex marriage but he still preferred to have a female therapist since he responds to female authority figures better, probably because of being raised by a single mum for the better part of his childhood. So he did tell Jane that he knew for a fact Zayn was cheating. Perhaps the cheating was contained to the world wide web but it was still cheating. And strangely, he didn't feel compelled to confront him. He didn't want to lose him yet because he knew once they started fighting, it would bring about a rapid decline towards divorce and he didn't want that, not with two babies in the house. Jane warned him but she understood, and didn't at the same time because no one could possibly understand the convoluted relationship he and Zayn had. So on he went, in his little bubble of delusion.

Of course, Harry isn't stupid, he never was. He knew sooner rather than later Zayn would graduate onto actually sleeping with people. And that is where Harry's patience was worn thin. He knew all it takes is one blurry photo from a club, one nude shared with the wrong person, wrong girl taken to a hotel and everything is on the cover of The Sun and a divorce lawyer will need to be called up. At first, Harry was furious. Quietly so, he didn't want to fight yet. He was filming a new movie, a total Oscar-bait prestige drama where he played a man who reconnected with his ex-wife after the death of his mother. There were more plot points about a current cheating girlfriend, a child that died at five years of age that brought about their divorce, a huge row with the mother, basically everything to get him to cry on screen or have a fight with someone. Harry knew Zayn had fucked someone that one time in New York when he returned home early. He acted like a kicked puppy that had been left in the rain for about a week. He treated Harry like he was made out of glass, cooked dinner every night that week, took poor old Evie to the vet, and took all the kids (and the nanny) to Disneyland in Paris. All the alarms in Harry's head set off, especially after taking Evie to the vet because there was nothing more Zayn hated than the vet (so did Evie and she made her opinions well-known) but he still didn't do anything. He turned his quiet anger into fuel for his performance in the film. Selfish? Probably. Psychotic? Maybe. But it did win him an Oscar so he can't complain too much.

Harry always liked a bit of revenge, a bit of pettiness. Some of it certainly fuelled him fucking another man a couple of months after the first time Zayn fucked someone else. Harry wanted to throw his fucking Richard into Zayn's face when he confronted him about it but in the end, he didn't. All things and adultery considered, it was a lovely night. Harry hadn't set out to go cheat but he went to the opening night of Richard's new play on the West End and then he went to the party. One thing had led to another and Harry had his best sex of the past five years that night. Maybe Zayn was onto something with that whole cheating thing.