Keep On Walking (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 3 of the Hardships Saga)

Chapter One

❝comply (pronounced kəmˈplaɪ or kuh m-plahy), verb
to agree, or to come to terms with.
e.g. He complied with the fact that his daughter was missing.❞

"Mr Hayes, how has your daughter's cancer affected you?"

"Is your new fiancée just a marketing ploy?"

"When will you release another album?"

"How are you coping with the hospital costs?"

"Is this hiatus similar to how you lost your first wife?"

Hunter sat alone, staring at the TV. It had been an insane three months since he had found out that Elle wasn't his daughter. He knew he had to go out and find his true daughter, but how did he know this girl would even like him? How did he know where she might be? There was a whole world out there, and for all he knew, his daughter, the last part of his old life, was lying at the bottom of the ocean, dead.

This whole time, Hunter was trying desperately hard not to numb his pain with alcohol, or by harming himself, or anything really. Since Elle's seventh birthday, he hadn't released another song. It was strange for him. He had experienced pain like this only once before- the time he lost Lilly. The time when even music wasn't enough to fix him up.

"Hunt?" asked Ryan softly, coming into the room. The thoughts and buzzing in Hunter's head, back when they had first met, would have only increased at the sight of her. Now, she was like home. She calmed him down, and the voices in his head that were threatening to drive him insane were silenced, at least while she was there with him. "What are you doing?"

"Just watching some TV," said Hunter blankly.

"The TV isn't on, darling," she said, feeling his forehead. "Are you feeling alright?"

"No. I haven't been feeling alright for three months now."

Ryan sighed, crawling into Hunter's lap, where he subconsciously began to stroke her blonde curls. "I wish I knew what to say."

"You don't need to," he said. "Being here is enough, Ry. Honestly, I don't know where I'd be without you."

"I love you," she said quietly. "I wish I could help."

"You are helping," he reassured her. "Really."

She kissed him, trying to make him open up a little, but to no avail. He responded, but not in the way he used to, back when Elle was the only daughter he had to worry about.

"Gosh, Ry, I don't even know what to do anymore."

"Do you need to do anything?" she asked him. "You've got to get yourself together. And then you need to find your daughter."

He sighed, shaking his head. "What if she hates me? And Elle... how will I tell her? What if they both hate me?"

"What if they don't?"

"They will, though," Hunter said. "I mean, who knows where she is now? If she had a horrible life, then she'll blame me for not taking her with me."

"And if she had a good life?"

"She won't want to stay with me."

"That's not true, and you know it isn't."

He didn't answer, and Ryan just sighed, standing up. "I'm gonna go to Walmart, we're running out of food," she muttered. But before she got out, Hunter took her wrist.

"Wait, my dove. I'm sorry."

She twisted herself out of his grip. "Forget it. It's fine."

"No, it's not." He brought her flush against his chest, and it took her breath away yet again. "I've been ignoring you lately."