The morning air is cool against my hot forehead as I walk out to the car. Somehow I had roped Niall into coming with me today since I didn't know what I was walking into. He waited in the car as I hobble out adjusting my backpack strap onto my shoulder. I take in a deep breath and swallow the lump of anxiety that sits in my throat.

Although I would equate an inheritance to money I would doubt her family would be giving me compensation. Penelope and I were nothing more than a summer fling, or so it seemed. Then again from what Niall had told me, I guess we had a deeper connection than I would have thought. Or maybe it was just a drug-induced illusion of someone that I needed. Maybe I wanted so badly for someone to really see me that I embellished a connection I had made that summer. The only two people that could know were Pen who was six feet under and me. The prospects weren't looking good.

"You ready?" Niall asks under his black shades as I swing the door shut and sit my bag down by my feet.

"I don't know if I have another option," I say feeling a vibration in my pocket from my phone.

Gemma: Make sure to be at the reception by 7:00 at the latest, you know how mom is about being on time

I arch a brow and quickly type back unsure of what she is talking about.

Harry: What?

Gemma: Don't tell me you forgot!

Gemma: Caroline Walton's wedding reception, you can't just not come Harry she is our cousin! Everyone is going to be there

I run a hand down my face and sigh out loud feeling the pressures sneak in once again. "Jesus, I swear its something every day, I feel like rich people have an occasion for everything,"

"What do you mean?" Niall asks keeping his eyes on the road while his acoustic music sifted through the air in the car.

"My cousin's wedding is today and I completely forgot," I said sliding my phone back into my pocket.

"I wouldn't say a wedding is a rich people thing, I'm pretty sure that's not an exclusive thing," Niall with a teasing tone on his tongue and a smirk smearing across his lips. "She's marrying Dalton Alston right?"

"Yeah, I don't know what she sees in him really. I didn't think she would be the type to go for a guy like him," I say thinking to my cousin I hadn't seen in ages. I can't even pinpoint the last time I had seen her. Then again there wasn't much left of my memory anyways.

Caroline was always so sweet,  it was impossible to dislike her. A lot of girls in her same upbringing would be a breeding ground of entitlement but she couldn't have been further from the word. She was soft and sweet and gentle, the closest living thing to an angel. We were super close once upon a time.

Nothing ever happened between us, life just took our time away. Distances were laid between us as life took us down different roads. While I was busy self-sabotaging and self-medicating with any substance I could get my hands on Caroline was seeing the world through humanitarian ventures. She helped clean up natural disasters in third-world countries and caught kids English while I drowned at the bottom of a bottle each night.

"Money probably," Niall stated the obvious but I was quick to shake my head and disagree with him. Caroline wasn't like that.

"She doesn't need any more money, she comes from family money, and she's, not one to care about material matters," I tell him as we near closer to LAX.

The ride was nothing short of bantering back and forth with Niall to calm my anxieties. A pit grew bigger in my stomach, something just didn't feel right. Why would Pen give me an inheritance?

I didn't understand but I was about to.

"I'm going to go park, text me when you are ready to be picked up and I will meet you back here," Niall tells me as I shut the car door and wave him off.

I shuffle through the crowds of people and look down at my phone to look at the gate number I was supposed to be searching for. I walk in a straight line looking for gate F6, with each step my heartbeat echoed in my ears and it wasn't long before I took a seat next to the gate in the row of chairs all stitched together.

I didn't quite know who I was looking for per se, I had no idea what this woman looked like. I glance at my phone and begin to text them the number that had sent me the details writing out "I am here, where are you?"

"Mr. Styles?" a tap on my shoulder and a familiar voice beckoned me. I stand and turn around looking at a woman in a black pencil skirt with a matching blazer looking at me. A baby sits in her arm with a furrowed brow as she looks around at the bustling airport.

"Mrs. Harlow?" I speak looking a little confused as she looks at me with her dark brown eyes. the smell of her perfume was expensive and entrancing as I take in her chiseled face. Everything about her screamed business and sophistication from the way she carried herself to the way she made direct eye contact with me.

"Yes, call me Diane!" She walks over to my side of the chairs with a smile. She has an envelope sitting in the car seat she has with her other hand as she comes and sits down with the baby placing her other things by her side. "We have a lot to talk about and I am sure you have a lot of questions,"

"Yes, I Ummm I've been a little confused since the phone call we had.... how did she die?" I ask not meaning to be disrespectful as I dive into questions hoping that the answer would quench my thirst for knowledge.

"She was in a traumatic car accident, a hit and run. They still haven't caught him. It's upsetting she was a girl full of potential, I'm sure you know," Diane says readjusting the baby on her lap. Looking at the baby's little face I notice her small dainty details and sense something oddly familiar about her.

"Yeah... um, we were really close," I start and see Diane bending into the car seat to retrieve the envelope. It glides into her freshly manicured fingers as she then hands it over to me.

"Well, thank you for everything-" I start to stand but Diane's eyes are alert and she cuts me off as soon as I stir to get up.

"I think you should open that before you go anywhere," Diane says as the baby coos trying to tangle her pudgy fingers in Diane's glossy waves.

I sit down hesitantly and my stomach lurches as I pull out an official document from the large envelope. A birth certificate.

My blood pressure rises and I feel sick to my stomach. My head spins as I see my name printed next to the word father.

Lilah Jane Styles

DOB: May 24, 2021
Time: 5:10am
Sex: Female

Mother: Penelope Edith Scott
DOB: August 24, 1997

Father: Harry Edward Styles
DOB: February 1, 1996

Born on the 24th of May 2021 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, NY, United States

"No this.... that's not possible..." I stutter feeling my mind and thoughts tangle up into themselves. My chest rises and collapses at a quickening rate as I look at the birth certificate and the three pictures attached to the certificate.

"You are welcome to get a DNA test to confirm everything but until that happens I have to hand her over to your custody," Diane tells me picking the baby up off her lap and attempting to set her down on mine.

"No, wait I can't..." anxiety stirs inside me feeling her little body sit on my lap, my hands keeping a steady hand around her torso so she doesn't lose her balance and fall.

"She really is a good baby, you are a lucky one! My kids were little monsters!" Diane strokes the baby's cheek and smiles at her causing Lilah to coo and giggle at her.

"Mrs. Harlow you can't leave her with me! Please!" I plead with anxiety boiling inside of me as soon as she grabs the remainder of her things.

"You are all she's got Mr. Styles, and Penelope made that clear in her will. That if anything ever happened to her Lilah was supposed to be put in your care. It is up to you after that, I was only supposed to deliver her to you," I can see Diane's expression change to that of compassion she looks at Lilah and again then back at me.

"I can't imagine the position this puts you in and I'm sure you have a lot of unanswered questions for Penelope but can I just give you a little advice?" Diane sits back down in her seat briefly looking back at me taking in a breath.

"Sure,"

"Lilah really is a little girl who has been through a lot in the few months she's been alive. She's a very special little girl who was very loved and I would hate to see her be a victim to the system. She deserves a fighting chance in this world, and I think you are the person for the job. I know you are probably scared out of your mind, anyone would be but all you have to do is be there for her," Diane says to me standing up and patting my shoulder.

"Oh my god, this isn't happening," I whisper lifting the baby up to turn her around. She faces me and looks at me with big blue curious eyes. Her big blue eyes are hooded under a set of fluffy long lashes as she looks at me than her unfamiliar surroundings. "Oh my god... Jesus fucking Christ,"

.

"Harry..." Niall says with wide eyes after I buckle the car seat is facing us. We both stare at the baby as she kicks around aimlessly checking her surroundings once again. "Who the fuck is that?" he asks me completely speechless not taking his eyes off the little body in the back seat.

"That is Lilah," I say alerting the baby to look at me and coo. Despite it all, I had to admit she was probably the cutest baby I had ever seen. Her long lashes, blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and soft brown hair tamed in a little dainty bow headband.

"And what is Lilah doing in our car?"

"Lilah... is my kid," I stumble over the words and look at Niall who looks back at me sliding back into his seat.

"So you inherited a baby, oh my god! What are you going to do?" Niall asks e the question I have been circulating to this entire time. My mind was orbiting that very question and I still wasn't any closer to answering it.

"I have no idea," I say slumping into my seat trying to come up with some type of solution, something that could possibly remedy the situation. I was losing control again and that familiar sense of falling began to take over. I hadn't felt this way since I got sober, I didn't like how familiar it felt. I had lived in this state for almost two years and I don't know how that was possible now looking back at it all. It was no wonder I wasn't functioning, I was in an endless sense of losing my grip on everything, free-falling with no safety net.

"I think we should call Keaton, she can help us figure out what to do in the meantime," Niall suggests to me as I weigh out the option.

I didn't want to tell Keaton but I was out of options. I knew I couldn't tell Gemma, she was already stressed with Caroline's wedding and she didn't need anything else on her plate. Not to mention I wasn't ready to get my ass beat by her, I think telling her would make it all that much more real. If the baby in the back seat wasn't real enough.

"Okay, I will have her meet us at my apartment," I say instantly pulling my phone out to reach her. Crafting a quick text that seemed urgent to grab her attention.

Note: hi! I've been so inspired by the fall season and have so much planned for you all! I also have been putting together another possibly story that would be a perfect fit for the spooky season! Anyways, thoughts? Are we loving? I wanted to keep a familiar storyline but change things around:)