Their Little Beauty (MxMxM+GF)

Chapter Seventeen- Robbed and Abandoned

The moment Briar opened the door after a long day at work, he could feel something was wrong. 

There were no immediate signs of something being amiss, everything in the hall and kitchen looked to be in its rightful place if not perhaps a little messy. But as Harlow never did the cleaning, cooking or anything to help whenever he was home, he simply put it down to his boyfriend's messiness.  Which meant that at some point during his day at work, Harlow had been home.

But once he opened the door to their bedroom, he stopped still. 

Wardrobe doors were flung open, revealing bare innards and skewed clothes hangers. The chest of drawers had every segment opened, Briar's clothes hanging out or on the floor and Harlow's were missing. It was only when he noticed the missing suitcases that he ran deep into the room and to the box he kept hidden for safe keeping. 

"No, no, no, no..." he mumbled, searching under the bed for it with frantic hands until he finally felt the metal casing and pulled. 

It was open and empty, down to the last brown coin. 

Racing out of the room, the door slamming against the wall behind him and rattling on its hinges, he stumbled into the kitchen and threw open the cupboard door that held mugs. Pulling down the largest one with Harlow and Briar's faces printed onto it, 'Happy Sixth Anniversary' written in cute cursive, he looked inside. 

Gone. The unclaimed cheques, the rolls of money from his numerous jobs and the escorting, his wages, every scrap he could spare... gone. 

No... he wouldn't. 

Then he skidded into the living room, going to the table they kept the laptop on so he could check their shared bank account only to find that missing too. That's when he noticed just how much had in fact been wrong when he opened the front door; the tv, the music system, the laptop, Harlow's spare phones and after rechecking the bedroom, all of Briar's jewellery worth something was...

 "Gone. It's all gone" he said brokenly into the chilled air. 

Pulling out his phone, he selected his boyfriend's contact and prayed to anything above that what he was thinking was wrong, that his mind was playing tricks and there was a perfect explanation for this. 

"The number you have dialled is unable to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone...". 

A shaky breath escaped him along with silent tears as he slid down the wall supporting him, drawing his knees to chest. 

"Hari... where are you? What's happening? I know you wouldn't do this to me so- so maybe we've been robbed? But you're the only one who knows where I keep the key to my safe box... have you done this? Why? What did I do, Hari, did I upset you? Were we in money trouble again? You promised to never abandon me like my-". 

And that's when it hit him, the breath leaving his lungs in an agonised cry as the phone clattered to the ground.

Harlow had betrayed him, just as his parent's had all those years ago. Only this hurt worse, the betrayal cutting so deep he felt as though he couldn't breathe. What had he done wrong? For nine years he had followed every whim and wish of Harlow's, doing all he could to make his boyfriend happy. Why did everyone hurt him, leave him? 

Why did he always lose everything?

All of the money Briar had ever given him, what had been done with it? Did these loan sharks even exist or was Harlow such a stranger to him that he could've had people beat him up and threaten them, just to sell the numerous stories of imaginary debts? It seemed so unrealistic, something far-fetched and out of a movie and yet it started to make sense. Briar had never seen proof of these loan sharks, never saw receipts that payments were being made. What had Harlow been doing with all of that money, the hundreds of thousands earned over the years- escorting paid very well after all, even if Briar hadn't seen much of it. Had it all been a lie, even their love?