Unchanged - A Zarry fanfic

Chapter 1

Five years later

“First of all I would like to thank you all for coming on this grave day. Today we say goodbye to husband, father and friend, Richard Styles.”

                                                                         * * *

“Liam, she isn’t answering. She isn’t saying a word.”

It was a rainy July evening. Just over a month ago, Helen and I had graduated from Upper Six. Just over a week ago, we had received the news that our father had been involved in a fatal accident. We’d cut our post A-level holiday in Venezuela short and rushed back to England.

Our mum wasn’t taking it very well. Actually, she was taking it terribly. For the second time, she had lost the man she loved to circumstances that were beyond her control. Helen and I were sat on either side of her on her bed. We each had one of her hands in ours. But she wasn’t holding or squeezing or responding at all. After the funeral it was as if she’d gone into a state of shock. She had been staring at the wall for over two hours now.

Liam had just stepped into the room. He sighed as he watched our mother. Then he beckoned me to follow him out of the room.

“I just got off the phone with dad’s insurance company.”

Liam looked upset and worn out.

“And?” Liam remained quiet for a moment.

“Liam what is it?” I pressed.

“They think it might have been suicide.”

“WHAT?” I yelled. Liam shushed me.

“How fucking dare they? Dad would never kill himself! He wouldn’t just leave us-“

“I know that!” Liam snapped, interrupting me, “but he had paid a hell of a lot of money in life insurance. Greedy pigs don’t want to let that go. So they’re trying to prove it was suicide and that way the insurance policy doesn’t cover it. Dad’s lawyer is running a court case but until they’re 100 per cent sure it wasn’t, they’ve frozen his assets. All of them.”

“So…what now? What does that mean for us?”

Liam sighed.

“It means we can’t afford this place anymore. It means I’ll have to find a job to sustain us.”

“What about me and Helen?”

“Helen’s going to university. Oxford on scholarship is a big fucking deal.”

“And me?”

Liam looked down and said nothing.

“What about me, Liam?”

He looked pleadingly at me.

“We can’t leave mum home alone. Not with everything she’s been through.”

I swallowed hard and fought back the tears in my eyes. So this was the end of my education. After studying so hard for so long, it all came to nothing. I breathed deeply and nodded, trying not to feel cheated. It wasn’t about me; it was about what was best for the family. Liam smiled sympathetically and went to join Helen with mum. I made my way to the living room. Voices hushed as I walked in. I looked around at the people I should’ve been on vacation with, the people that had been affected by my father’s sudden death.

Niall – my best mate from Eton. From the second term of year 9 through to the last term of Upper Six, we had been roommates. Niall was one of those people who just never gave a fuck until he absolutely had to. He never had problems with anyone.