Without You

60. Sorry, Darlin'

A/N - And suddenly here we are at Chapter 60! My goodness, and we're only in May - it's taken me 60 chapters to get through just over 40 days in the story! Apologies for being so incredibly long-winded...🤦‍♀️😂 Thank you to everyone who's voted and commented on (or just plain read) recent chapters - it really means a lot. I hope your continued "patronage" means the story's still worth reading! 😅 -H. x

**help me**

Anne-Marie's mouth suddenly went dry and a chill ran down her spine.

"Help me."

What the hell was that supposed to mean?! And why was he texting her a message like that at – she hastily checked the time stamp – at 4 in the morning?? If this was what it appeared to be, she felt woefully unprepared to deal with it and really quite scared. Wasn't this more sort of...Dec's area??

And...And what if...What if she was too late?!

Hearing the stirrings of life down the hall as her eldest daughter started getting ready for an early morning dance practice before school, Anne-Marie blew out a tense breath and ran a hand through her messy bed head hair, bringing her phone up to her ear as it rang.

The ringtone sounded several times before a gruff, sleepy voice came through the line.

"Amzie?"

"Oh, thank God you picked up!" Anne-Marie gasped, involuntarily sinking back onto the mattress behind her, "Ant! What's going on? Are you okay?!"

"Erm," Ant hesitated, his gruff tone sounding slightly bemused, "What?? Why're you callin' me?"

"You sent me a text!" Anne replied sharply, "Why the hell do you think I'm calling you in a blind panic???"

"You what?" Ant seemed ever more confused. And a little bit hurt.

"Ant, are you okay, babe??" Anne-Marie questioned more gently, now just as confused as Ant but no less concerned than she had been moments earlier. Surely Ant hadn't been drinking?! Why did he not remember texting her??

"Yeah, I think so," came Ant's quiet answer, "What's this text you got??"

Anne-Marie sighed shakily. There was no easy way of saying this. "Babe, I got this text from you at like 4am – just found it now – and all it said was, 'help me.'"

A moment of silence. Then, "F***," Ant murmured, voice becoming more distant as he pulled his phone away from his ear and opened his messaging app. "What the-?? I didn't send th-, that wasn't me message...Where'd the rest of me message go?! All I was asking for was your opinion, pet."

"My opinion?? On whether you should kill yourself or not?!"

"What?!?" Ant yelped, sounding more than a little bit shocked, "What the-, what???"

"Well, read it!" Anne exclaimed, "If Dec sent that to you, how would you react?? It scared the s*** out of me and I thought you'd hurt yourself or, or..." Anne's voice caught and wobbled and she trailed off, sentence unfinished.

A brief pause and more muttered curses followed before Ant's voice came through the line again, softer and infinitely apologetic now. "S***, I'm sorry, Amzie-." A jaw-cracking yawn interrupted his words. "Sorry, I-, I've only slept like, 2 hours, and me head's all sort of muddled up. I haven't got the foggiest...That's not what I was meaning to write; I must've been nodding off and sent it by mistake, like. I'm sorry."