Calamity [Zarry Stylik AU]©️

Chapter 42: DON'T CRY. YOU CAN'T CRY

H,

I watched my love carefully, seeing the anger on his face. Zayn's eyes blinked time and time again and he appeared to be distraught. His hand ran over his forehead, and I saw it trembling softly.

"Zayn?" I called. I wanted to call him, honey and baby and love, but I was in a place I couldn't control. I was sitting next to Olivia, who I knew had an interest in me, and Nigel with his mother. I wouldn't dare. So, I called him by his name and continued to sit in my chair exerting control. "What's the problem? Who is David?"

Taryn looked at me with worry in her eyes.

"Erm..." She began focusing on the moment. "David is Perrie's fiancé. He is an heir of a tech mogul in the US and the world." Taryn looked up at Zayn with creased eyebrows. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive," Zayn replied exhaling. I saw him trail off and I knew his mind was racing. I knew him well by now. I wanted to hold him close. "I need...I have to..." He kept blinking away, making sense of reality. He wasn't looking at me and that worried my spirit. "I need to think..."

Zayn walked past Taryn, walked out of the dining room, and left us behind.

"Oh my God..." Olivia commented. Her presence snapped at me. If she weren't here, I could easily call him all the names in the world and ground him close to me. "That's horrible. I read about this in the papers, but I forgot that Zayn was connected to that."

"Why would David hurt Perrie?" I asked with my eyes glued to the hallway. I sensed Zayn was near, but fleeting me.

"They have a complicated relationship," Taryn explained. "Perrie is a free spirit. She breaks the mould of the conventional families by doing what she wanted and being free. Of course, there's only so much freedom and her parents threatened to cut her off if she didn't marry David - you can only be rebellious to a certain point when you have money, you know? So, she agreed. They met. She hated him and he fell for her immediately.

'During their relationship, David wanted to control Perrie: how she dressed, where she went, who she hung out with. Image and status were important here, so she couldn't step out of the lines. They fought. Many times. Over Perrie's behaviour and how impossible it was to control.'

'One night he slapped her, and she walked out of the house. That same night she met Zayn. Zayn enables her and allows her to be her free self. Zayn doesn't care for fame or money. An artist. Zayn allowed Perrie to be a woman in charge of her life."

'One day, the three of us were walking down the street in New York and David showed up. He began to argue with Perrie calling her a whore and junkie, in the middle of the street. Zayn stepped in and David pushed him." I clutched my fist. How dare that man touch my love. I wanted to hurt him. "And he called Zayn a testament of slurs. Everything under the sun. I stepped in and put an ending to this, with Perrie's help, but it was the moment I knew he might be dangerous. He's rich. So, he's powerful and he won't let Perrie go."

The front door opened and then closed. Zayn's steps echoed on the outside of the house, and I wanted to follow him.

"Let him go," Taryn advised with calm. "He needs a moment. He'll be back."

I sat back down on my chair, against my better judgement.

"Who is Tim?"

"Zayn's lawyer." She responded, grabbing her phone. "He's been Zayn's lawyer since he came to New York and was the one who worked with Judge Nelson in New York to get Zayn here. He's good."

"What will he do with this information?" Olivia asked again. I frowned at her. Why was she stepping into this sensitive topic? I wanted her to go. "Will it be relevant for the police after all this time? From what I read the investigation seems to come at a standstill?"