Devils Star | h.s

Chapter 42

It's going to be a long one, (that's what she said) get comfyy!!

———

I sat quietly in my seat, tucked into the corner of the booth as the other three fell silent, sorting through the weight of their thoughts.

Niall picked absently at the skin around his nails, eyes cast down. Louis stared ahead, his expression glazed, far away from the here and now. Zayn, seated beside me, finally exhaled and spoke.

"Harry's mum... she was an addict," he said carefully. "She used to drain him dry—burned through every bit of money he gave her."

"And like the good son he is, he gave it anyway," Louis added, his voice tight with frustration.

"At first he thought cutting her off would help. That maybe if he stopped enabling her, she'd get better."

"I guess she didn't," I murmured, voice low.

My gaze shifted to Zayn. He was watching me, but not really seeing me. His mind was still buried in the past.

"She didn't take it well," he said. "Kept calling, begging. When that didn't work, she started threatening him. She tried to stir up shit in the press—anything she could twist to make him look bad."

"She was making the most absurd allegations too," Louis said, scoffing. "Total bullshit, and everyone knew it. No one really bought into her stories, but the damage still stung."

"How long ago was this?" I asked, trying to piece together the timeline.

Louis hummed thoughtfully. "Not too long ago. Right before you moved in. Last big blow-up was when she threatened to leak those photos of you."

I blinked. "What?"

"Yeah," Zayn said gently. "We were all shocked when she didn't go through with it."

"She seems different now though, right?" I asked, almost pleading for them to agree.

Zayn folded his arms, jaw tightening. "Looks like it."

But his eyes told another story — unreadable, clouded by doubt. He was holding something back, and I could feel it.

"We're just worried," Niall finally said. "Every dark part of him—every spiral—traces back to her."

"We're scared he's going to slip again," Zayn said quietly. "Fall back into old habits."

I frowned. "What kind of habits?"

"Have you ever seen him drink?" Louis asked, eyebrow raised. "There's a reason for that."

That stuck with me. Deeply.

Our conversation slowly shifted after that—Louis cracked a joke that brought lightness back to the air, and Zayn called over the waitress to pay. The four of us eventually stepped out into the soft night, the warm streetlights washing everything in a tired glow.

"Thanks for inviting me out," I said, tucking my hands into my coat pockets. I suddenly felt like an outsider again—an observer in Harry's world, not someone in it.

"You gonna get plastered with us or what?" Louis teased, waggling his eyebrows with a grin.

I shook my head with a small laugh. "Tempting, but I've got work tomorrow."

Just then, my phone buzzed. I glanced down at the screen.

Harry calling.

I answered without thinking. "Hello?"