Reverberate - an Echo of Us sequel |Zarry|

five.

Zayn has accepted that their marriage is over.

He can be unobservant, surely, but he knows Harry well. The biggest tell with Harry is his inability to ever pull off a poker face successfully. Everything you need to know is right on his face even if his words claim something else. So Zayn did know Harry wasn't exactly happy but he was stupid enough to think it wasn't because of his cheating and that Harry didn't know about it. He can't believe he really thought he could hide his cheating for more than a year without Harry finding out.

So when Harry's shoulders were generally more relaxed, and he stopped picking fights with Zayn and smiled more in situations when the kids weren't involved, he knew something had changed. At that time, Zayn didn't know that it was their impending divorce that made his husband so happy.

Zayn does have an inkling that Harry is seeing someone else, properly and not just for sex, because nothing else has changed in their lives. The kids are the same, Zayn isn't making extra effort to fix their marriage because he doesn't know what to do, everything seems like a bad idea, work is the same so it has to be someone else Harry is seeing. Zayn doesn't have proof because Harry is too sneaky. He has two phones and his private phone is on do not disturb so he can't catch any texts on the screen. He doesn't travel for work because he's filming in London. He sees his friends as normal, there isn't any extra time he seems to allocate to it. It's a mystery to Zayn, when he manages to see other people when Zayn is in London.

His confirmation comes one random Saturday in early October and he has the twins to thank.

"Daddy, when is Leo coming back?" Milo asks over lunch one day. Zayn knows something is wrong when Harry completely freezes. Amara chokes on her water as she's drinking.

"Don't know, babe," Harry says, avoiding eye contact with everyone over the age of three at the table. "Eat your peas, Milo."

Zayn finishes chewing and looks pointedly at Harry. "Who's Leo?"

"A friend," Harry says, trying to be casual and aloof. "I think you've met him once, maybe at Nick's wedding."

"But he's not just a friend is he?" Zayn says. "What was he doing around our kids?"

Harry takes a shaky breath but his gaze is cutting. "He watched Isla and Milo once two weeks ago when our babysitter randomly got food poisoning, you were in New York and no one else was free at short notice. I had rehearsals for the film I couldn't miss. Is there a problem with that?"

"Yes, there is a problem when you're fucking him," Zayn says and knocks back the rest of his gin and tonic. "I can't even imagine the fit you would throw if I had someone I'm fucking watch our kids."

"Stop cussing in front of the kids," Harry snaps. He looks at Amara, who's trying to pretend she's not in the room. "Mar, would you please take Isla and Milo upstairs to play? I need to talk with your baba."

"Sure," Amara says and takes the kids out of their high chairs quickly.

There's only silence in the room, charged and dangerous. Neither of them wants to say anything because they know once they start talking their life together is over for good and they can't pretend anymore that their marriage is working. It isn't and they know it, yet they can't get past the comfort of having it to fall back on. They don't want to give up the two decades they spent torturing each other with love.

"I think we should separate, Zayn," Harry breaks the silence. His face is blank, his eyes downturned. "We can't keep hurting each other like this."

Zayn watches him for a while. He refills his glass before he speaks. "Why didn't you just break up with me last year?"