One Chance: a Ted Sweeran fanfic

Ch 8

Taylor's POV

I woke up in one of the softest beds I had ever slept in in my entire life. It took me a moment to realize where I was as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, then I remembered, I was at the Styles' mansion. I began hearing angry whispers outside of my room, as if people were arguing. A crash reverberated through the mansion and I threw open the doors leading to the bedroom I was in and ran out of the room, rushing to make sure Cara was okay.

Instead of an armed intruder ready to kidnap Cara, I came upon Cara and Harry in some kind of argument. As soon as they had seen me, they stopped arguing and both looked at me in stunned silence.

"What, what is it? What was that crash, is everyone okay?" As soon as the words had come out of my mouth, I identified the source of the crash. Their wedding picture that normally was proudly displayed on the mantel looked like it had been thrown across the room to where it now laid- shattered before Harry's feet.

Harry turned back to Cara, "Cara, I'm sorry, it was a mistake, but I swear, I didn't-"

Cara cut him off, "Oh please just shut up already. You know this is my fault, I should have known not to trust you...I just thought for once..." she didn't finish her sentence, she broke down into tears. Harry tried to go over and comfort her, but she grabbed a candle stick off of the mantel and held it out in front of her, as if she would throw that at Harry too. "No, don't you dare try to make it all better and charm me out of being mad at you. I mean, I knew it would be hard for you to adjust to only one woman for the rest of your life, but I was stupid enough to believe that I would be enough for you."

"Cara, sweetheart, you are more than enough for me-"

"That's such bull and you know it, if I was really enough you wouldn't have gone off and gotten your best friend's wife pregnant. Do you realize what you have done? Harry, you have not only ruined our relationship, you've ruined your friendship with Ed and do you realize what this means for Taylor? The press is going to eat her up alive, but I guess you didn't want to remind her of that. You know how unstable Taylor has been since Ed got in his accident? What were you trying to do, get back at her for the break up? That's so pathetic." She then grabbed her purse and coat and began storming her way towards the door.

"What are you doing Cara? You don't understand- I didn't-"

"Oh save it, I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago. Call me when you have everything figured out."

Now it was my turn to watch in stunned silence as Cara passed me. Before leaving, though, she turned to me, no longer brutally angry but heart-wrenchingly hurt. Her eyes met mine and my heart broke.

"And you, Taylor, I trusted you, I thought...well never mind what I thought, I was wrong about you."

And with that, Cara Styles left the house and my life.

I stayed there, staring at the door as if that would bring my good friend back, but after five minutes, I turned back to Harry who was trying to salvage the remains of his wedding photo as he was undoubtedly trying to think of a way to salvage his marriage as well.

"What was she talking about? Did you tell her about," I gulped, my mouth had suddenly gone dry, "you know, that night."

He shrugged, "I had to, what with her accusing me of getting you pregnant."

I couldn't take it, Cara, the one person who was able to keep me sane, had left my life. For the third time today, I burst into tears, except this time Cara wasn't here.

"Why would Cara think that you got me pregnant? Of course you didn't."

"Well apparently Ed had given her some pretty convincing evidence."

"Ed? What do you mean Ed? How would he know anything, he barely remembered his last name!" Then I saw it, the mysterious note, the four letter message: 'I know your secret'. I pictured that same hand putting a gun to Ed's head or slipping him some drug in his hospital food. "Oh God, Ed he's all alone, he could be hurt. Harry, call your driver, we need to get to the hospital right now."

"What? Why? What's wrong?" he looked worn out, like the part of Harry that everyone loved, the reckless, crazy, lively parts of Harry had left and only the serious, hurt, damaged Harry remained. He looked like he had just lost a battle and was struggling coping with defeat. But at the mention of Ed in danger's way, he shook off his hurt like an unwanted coat and picked up his phone. He called the driver who said he was pulling up to the door right now.

I grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him out the door, ignoring his protests that it was cold and I hadn't let him grab his jacket. I shoved him into the limo and climbed in after him, yelling out for the driver to step on it, this time knowing that the faster the driver went the safer Ed would be.

It was an eternity and then some to reach the hospital, and the whole time Harry hadn't looked at me once, he had only stared at the alcohol sitting in ice across from him longingly.

When we finally reached the hospital, I hadn't bothered checking in, I flew past security and sprinted up the stairs to the third floor. My heart was pounding in sync to my footsteps. Then I could see the door to the hallway where Ed was. It was so close, and yet it was worlds away. I was so desperate to reach it, yet so scared at what it would hold. Finally, though, I reached it and flung it open.

I ran down the hallway, looking like I had escaped from some padded room with my hair a mess and the wild look in my eyes, but I ignored all the weird looks and searched frantically for Ed's room.

Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, I was there. Room 13, where Ed had been moved to since he had woken up. But instead of finding my husband safely in bed, all I saw was a made bead and a piece of paper resting on the pillow. My heart skipped a beat when I realized what it was, the same four words that had haunted me all month were now staring back at me. My worst nightmare had come to life, and as my fears engulfed me, one thought dominated my mind: 'Ed is gone, and it's my fault'. Luckily at that moment Harry entered the room out of breath, just in time to catch me as my surroundings slowly slipped away. Black.