The Art Teacher

Chapter 16: There Was no Turning Back

Tom woke up to the sound of his ring tone going off like crazy. He sleepily woke and grabbed his phone to check. His eyes widened as he checked his notifications and read them all. He clicked into his instagram and found he was being tagged in a million posts, and it was all the same photo; him and Hazel. He'd tried so hard to keep her private life down, so what had happened all of a sudden. He clicked into the "credit" account and then he realised what had happened. The post was from an anonymous account, and the caption read:

"What are beautiful baby Tom. I don't need to direct this at anyone, the person this is for knows exactly what's happened." Then at the bottom it read.

"Yes, just steal my daughter, it's fine"

Tom threw his phone to the floor and Harrison who was lying next to him woke.

He turned to find his boyfriend in a distressed state.

"What's wrong babe" Haz asked, and Tom just burst into tears.

He cried and cried and Harrison who was next to him, wrapped him in a warm embrace, just whispering sweet nothings into his ear. Tom didn't break down like this, sure he got emotional and let a few tears slip, but he'd never cried like this before. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve this. His "wonderful" ex girlfriend had gone and told the whole world, that he had a daughter and that, that daughter belonged to her.

Harrison rubbed his back as he stopped crying.

"Shhhhh" Harrison whispered, and Tom slowly stopped.

"What did I do to deserve that?" Tom whispered, and Harrison who had no idea what was wrong, just held him there.

"Come on darling, let's sort this out, I can stay here for the week, my mum won't mind" he said.

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Harrison promptly chucked the phone once again, before apologising and picking it up.

"I can't believe this" Harrison exclaimed.

"I know" Tom replied. "What should I do?" Tom asked.

"I think you should tell the world, there's nothing worse than having to lie about it. I'll be here and so will Hazel" Harrison comforted and Tom smiled a small weak smile.

"Everyone's going to know who she is" Tom whispered into Harrison.

"I know sweetheart, I know, but you can easily sue paparazzi and anyone else, who breaches hers or your privacy" Harrison reassured, and Tom nodded.

"Now, after we introduce Haze to the world, let's deal with this psycho I call my ex" Tom stated and smiled when Harrison pulled him into a hug.

"You're too good for this world" Harrison whispered into his ear and Tom smiled.

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"Hazel, you already know lots of people know who I am, right, and I've tried to make sure no one knew who you were, but it was only a matter of time before you were known to the world, and because of what has happened, with....anyway because of what happened, we are going to properly introduce you to the "holland" fandom" Tom started, once again Hazel's eyes widened but she nodded.

She wasn't use to this, she thought she would be able to be a normal kid, she knew he daddy was famous but she didn't think she'd be famous too, but Hazel knew she didn't need to give her father any more stress than he already had, so she nodded and agreed, so that's how they found themselves later that day, all sitting around an iPad, talking to the world.

Hazel sat on Harrison's lap, and Tom sat next to them, but the camera was only facing Tom...for now.

"Hi everyone, we're just going to wait for everyone to come on" Tom began. Like they'd assumed, people were firing away questions in the comments like "is that girl really your daughter."

Once they had enough people on, they began to talk.

"So, most of you have probably seen the photo of me and this girl, and there are probably rumours going around that she's my daughter and all this. First of all I'd like to clear up, that the person who posted that picture breached mine and the girls privacy and leaked confidential information as well. Therefore, I'd like it if you stopped sharing around that post, and stop spreading rumours. I'm going to put a stop to all your rumours now anyway." Tom took a deep breath, he quickly wiped the tears in his eyes, and Harrison gave him a knowing look.

"I do in fact have a daughter, that is her from the photo and I'd like to introduce you all to her now, her name's Hazel and she's one of the lights of my life" Tom said and he smiled when he said her name.

Hazel moved over so she was in screen, moving to sit on her father's lap. She waved at the camera and Tom laughed.

"Anyway, so that's one rumour put to rest, the next is that, no I didn't steal this girl from her "mother." I have full custody over Hazel and she belongs to me, I have papers to prove that. Lastly I would like to say that this post has upset me and my family, (at this point Harrison was on screen as well) and we would appreciate it, if you didn't continue to spread these rumours and that if the person who posted and violated mine and Hazel's privacy does anything like that again, it will be more than a $50,000 fine." Tom finished.

"Oh and while I'm at it, this is my boyfriend Harrison" Tom added, and Haz smiled at the camera.

"From what I've heard, Tom has lovely fans, and hopefully we'll be able to see how much you all really love Tom, when you hopefully support him no matter what." Harrison added, before leaning down to kiss Tom. After that, they answered reasonable questions and all laughed together. Tom had to admit, clearing that up and getting it off his chest helped. A lot.

The one person who wasn't happy, was the one person who joined Tom's live with an anonymous account again.

She threw her device to the ground when she saw what was happening. Lily didn't have enough money to pay that fine, but she knew that that would be the consequence when she released the photo and gave information away. She was so angry when she found out Tom had cleared it up. Lily found, she had a knew feeling in her gut, a feeling of hate and betrayal. Although she had no reason to feel betrayed, if anything she was the one who had betrayed Tom. She was horrified at how accepting Tom's fanbase of 36 million were, and how happy he looked with Harrison and Hazel. Lily had done a bunch of psychotic things in her life, including; trying to set the house on fire, or setting things on fire and watching them burn, she'd tried to run away from home when she was a teenager multiple times, and of course she'd done the unspeakable and she'd tried to kill someone, but Tom was the only person who knew she'd tried to do that. In other words yes, she was mental. The young actor was the only one who ever saw that side of her though.

Tom, who knew exactly how Lily was feeling, after the live, couldn't help but pity his ex girlfriend. She'd done so many horrible things in the past that he couldn't help feel bad for her. She'd gone to jail before, for not paying her fines because she couldn't afford it, so this wouldn't be the first time. The brunette knew, that no matter how terrible someone was, everyone deserved a second chance. So that was why he decided he'd pay the fine for her. Sure he was annoyed and like he'd said, if she ever did anything like that again, she'd suffer worse consequences, but this was Hazel's mother and she might've been crazy but she was still Haze's mum.

He talked things over with Harrison, who agreed and once again said Tom was too nice. Tom didn't know, that at this stage, Lily had just lost her mind, seeing Tom in love and happy with Hazel, was the last straw for her, and she'd lost it. She'd never been in the right headspace to start with, but now she was gone, and there was no turning back for her.