boys //ziam

chapter thirty-five

theo is called into the police station too for questioning and he wonders what's going on.

he sees his dad, asher sitting down on a bench and crying. when they make eye-contact, asher immediately runs to him and hugs him like he did the day they met at liam's office.

"are you okay? did he hurt you?" asher says, still hugging him.

"what are you talking about?" theo frowns.

"can i get a moment to talk to my son privately?" asher asks the policemen accompanying him. they nod, leaving the father and son to reunite.

"i need you to testify that liam kidnapped you," asher says.

"what? he didn't, i'm not going to lie," theo shakes his head.

"theo, listen to your father," asher says sternly.

"no! i wouldn't do that to liam, he's been so nice to me, i don't want to get him in trouble," theo says.

"are you disobeying me?" asher asks, holding theo's arm and squeezing it down to the bone. theo whimpers.

"dad, please i don't want to lie," he says, trying to pull away but asher's grip is too tight.

"you'll do as i say," asher says, squeezing harder.

"ow, please you're hurting me," theo whimpers.

"answer me," asher says.

"i'll do as you say, just let me go," theo pleads to try to get out of his grasp.

"good boy. maybe after this is all over, i'll take you out for a treat." asher says.

theo wants to say that he's not a kid anymore but that's only going to cause more trouble for him so he just nods.

he doesn't want to lie against liam, he wonders what he has to do to get out of the situation. luckily for him, when it's time for him to talk, the detectives ask asher to leave. he resists at first but eventually he does, giving theo a look that he better does as he says.

theo nods, but when he's all alone he tells them the truth. how he ran away, where he stayed between the six months he was missing and how he found liam.

...

"so, liam might be in jail right now, how are we feeling about that?" zayaad brings up casually in a conversation between him and his younger brother.

"what? zayaad, what did you do?" zayn frowns.

"why would you assume i did something?" zayaad complains, acting offended.

"because i know you," zayn says, folding his arms.

"geez, well i didn't try to frame him or whatever if that's what you're thinking. although, that is a good idea. i wonder why i didn't think of that before," zayaad says, actually helping to calm zayn's mind a bit because yes, that is what he was thinking.

"do you know where he is?" he asks.

"why? don't tell me you're thinking of going to visit him," zayaad says.

"that's exactly what i'm going to do. he's still my husband zayaad," zayn says.

"yeah i know, stop reminding me," zayaad grumbles. "i'll go with you."

"how did you find out he was in jail anyway?" zayn asks.

"i went to go pay him a friendly visit in his office. next thing i knew, he was getting arrested," zayaad shrugs.

"a friendly visit? why do i doubt that?" zayn raises an eyebrow.

"fine, maybe it wasn't friendly exactly," zayaad admits. "but there was no violence involved and that's the most friendly i could get."