The Escort {Ziall Horlik}- Discontinued

Chapter 8

Zayn's Point of View

Once the driver drops us back off at Niall's house, I feel the urge to interrogate said man. I don't understand what set him off, but I think he needs to talk to someone about it. I don't want him to be unhappy, I don't want him to feel like everything is bottled up inside. I can tell he's scared, of what I don't know, but I think it's time to figure that out.

I walk in, hang my jacket up, and pull my shoes off, before helping Niall do the same. He looks exhausted, worn out and over-worked, but I know if we don't broach the subject now, we may never have another chance. He's too tired to have his walls up, so I pull him to the sitting room and set him on the couch before heading into the kitchen to make some tea.

In the last 6 days I've been here, I have discovered where everything is, and how Niall likes his tea- three sugars and a dash of milk. I pull out a dainty tray that I know someone close must've given to Niall- he wouldn't have kept said gift otherwise. On the tray I place two intricately designed teacups, on two matching saucers, with a bag of Yorkshire tea in the cup meant for Niall and a bag of old English in the cup meant for myself. As well I put the adorable matching sugar bowl, the matching milk jar and the steaming kettle on the cork placemat to keep from heating up the pristine silver tray. I have no doubt someone very dear to Niall gave him this matching tea set, a man such as himself would've never picked this set out on his own.

I delicately walk the short distance from the kitchen to the sitting room and place said tea tray on the coffee table. I then dash sugar into each cup, three for Niall and one for me before pouring the steamy water over the sugars and tea bags. My mom taught me to do it this way so the sugar dissolves faster and overall the tea tastes better. I add a bit of milk to each of our cups and stir them well. All the while, Niall is staring off into space and seems to be on his own planet.

I pull him down and back to earth by giving him a gentle but tight hug before I point out the freshly made tea to him.

"Thank you," he almost whispers and his voice is painfully hoarse, I can only assume it's from the excessive wheezing he endured earlier.

"Your welcome. Now, we need to get some things out in the open."

He nods solemnly, as if telling me to proceed.

"I don't know what is going on between your dad and yourself, but I do know it's causing you a lot of heart ache. And I want you to talk to me about it. I know we've only known each other for a week or so, but I care about you, and this is not only stressing you out, but also breaking your heart. So tell me what's going on?"

He takes a long sip of his tea and wipes gently at his mouth before clearing his throat and giving a deep sigh.

"I'm not entirely sure where to begin, but I guess it really has to start at the absolute very beginning.

My da was a pretty well-off man before he made his fortune. My granddad on that side passed when my da was in university. He had paid through 4 years of business school at the University of London for my da. He wanted him to get the best education possible. So my da finished school at 22 with decent grades and a fortune to his name. He was an only child, and my grand mum on that side had already passed as well. My da had no siblings so all of the vast family fortune went to my da, which started up our publishing house. In the early stages, my da wasted a lot of money, attempting and failing to find so-called 'proper' authors who would get my da the start he needed. While he was busy wining and dining clients, he met my mum.

She was the daughter of his first true client and the author who put him on the map. They courted for somewhere near 2 years before getting engaged and spent another year engaged before getting married. My da always claimed it was just the proper way, but my mum always told me that he just took for bloody ever, and that he didn't have the courage to face her father. By this point in time, the publishing house was booming and da had over 15 successful authors he had published and at least two had been on the New York Times best-seller list.