FOREVER [Niall Horan] ✔

Chapter 16.

"Much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said." -Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo

Niall's POV

Ana keeps the bouquet on the table and takes out a piece of paper that is attached to it. Her whole demeanour changes and she visibly tenses. Her eyebrows creases together and her shoulders slump as she reads it. She lets the paper fall and sits heavily on the couch and keeps her head against the headrest with one of her hands crouching against it as she softly rubs her temple.

I bend down and take the piece of paper. There is a small message scribbled on it. It is messy, but I figured what is written on it.

'Baby,
I'll meet you soon.'

Baby? I furrow my eyebrows at the message. Who is it? Is someone troubling Ana? Will she tell me if she is still with Tyler? But I know that it's not possible because I've spent the past weeks with her and she would've told me, right? But what if she likes someone else?

When I thought that every piece is falling back into place, they have to come and shuffle the puzzle.

And I know it's selfish of me to think about myself, even after what has Ana been through the past couple of weeks. I know she has been through a lot before too, and I want to know it. I want to know her, all of her. But I'll never push her to say something that she's uncomfortable with. I don't know why, but I feel like she'll tell me about her hardships whenever she thinks is the right time.

I don't know what to do about something I am not familiar with. I don't know who they are. I don't know what they want. I don't know if she even wanted for me to read it. But I'm with her in whatever this is.

I slowly sit down beside her, on the couch, and wrap my arms around her shoulders, so that I am half hugging her. I rub her back in a soothing way and she leans into my touch.

"I'm messed up," She mumbles.

I don't know what to say so I keep rubbing her back. I rub the nape of her neck slightly and she relaxes.

"I am such a mess," She repeats in a whisper.

After a few seconds, she groans and stands up from where she is sitting on the couch. I sit, confused until she returns with her phone in her hand. She hands the phone to me and I furrow my eyebrows, silently asking her what it is.

"I thought you should know," She replies and sits where she was sitting earlier, and takes my hand to place it on her back. I smile a small smile and start rubbing her back. Her breath hitches and she starts taking deep breaths to compose herself, electricity run through my body as she takes my hand and places it on her neck, motioning for me to rub it. My skin stands up when I see her trying to suppress a moan that is fighting to escape.

And I actually like that I can make her feel this way.

My attention goes back to her phone that rests in my hand. I unlock the phone to see that there are messages from an unknown number. The messages seem to be a threat.

'I'm here'

'I'll see you soon'

'You can't get away from me'

'Baby, what you did was wrong.'

'When I'll get you back, Ana, you'll see what I can do'

'You will come back to me, I'll make you.'

Who the fuck are they?

I am about to ask her who they are, but she beat me to it. "T-Tyler," She gulps. "Tyler Roy Austin." She tenses, as if she is afraid. Not from me. Not from the truth. But from him.