Test of my patience
There's things that we'll never know
You sunshine, you temptress

The sound of my boots slapping against the concrete pavement was practically the only thing I could hear. My steps were slow and cautious without my trusty broom handle. To my poor twisted ankle, I'm surprised it hasn't snapped by now. On another topic, Madeleine lives in such a quiet neighborhood, it feels like I'm a devil walking through a church. All the doors were shut, all the lawns were neatly trimmed with flowers sitting organized in the greens.

There weren't any loud, obnoxious teenagers screaming at their parents or playing rap music, no neighbors fighting or spying, no old man with his television too loud.

Something out of a movie.

My eyes squinted at the sun. Everything was brighter, tingling my eyes. The sun burnt through layers of clothes, sweat forming over my skin. Madeleine threw an oversized hoodie to wash. It was at the top of the basket so I happily wore it for my little errand. It's a perfect fit.

Had to admit, I was nervous to walk out of her apartment. There's no way he would find me here though, thank God. Bet all my apartments across the city were completely trashed.

I hope Li is okay.

There was one imperfection in this neighborhood. That was the unruly bush between two houses.

But, those bushes came in very handy for me last night. The pit in my stomach stirred at the thought that the briefcase was gone. Oh, my phone. Is it bad that I cared for my Samsung phone more than the money? Had it for a couple of years, loved the thing because it wasn't trackable. I hate technology, my partner was the one who dealt with all that shit.

Liam James Payne, or as he prefers James, and as I nicknamed Jay has been my partner for almost all of my life. A best friend, a brother, a work partner, a saviour, a therapist- the list goes on, really. Besides being the only person I could truly trust, he's been helping me out with a lot.

So, I rather stay with a neat android phone that I took six months learning about than the pear phones everyone's into. Wait, that's Victorious, silly me. I mean iPhones. Samsung phones are more difficult to trace anyway.

My head turns to look over my shoulder, making sure no one was around to see me. Realizing the coast was clear and I walked into the tall bushes, pushing them apart to where I had thrown my prized possessions. Relief surges my body, I chuckled and happily grabbed the suitcase that was oddly sticking out from all the different shades of green leaves. From away, one wouldn't notice that there was a briefcase sitting in the bush with two million dollars inside.

That was just payment from a job.

Yeah, the same job that backfired and bit me in the ass.

Bruised my ego, it really did.

But then I met Madeleine again, so it's not that bad.

My bullet wound pained a bit, reminding me I needed to take more painkillers for it. Being on my foot wasn't helping but hopefully, my evil stepmother would lay off the chores later. I pouted when I couldn't see my black phone anywhere. I'm pretty sure I threw it in the same place as the briefcase. So where is it?

Oh, there it is.

I kicked the caterpillar off my precious phone before grabbing it into my other hand. My lips tugged into a smile, beaming with joy when a picture of Victoria Justice meets my eyes. Have been on my lock screen since I was thirteen. Ten years later, she's still there.

Wonder if Madeleine would let me watch Victorious on her Netflix.

It was really odd to see a sketchy man walking the pavement of a quiet neighborhood walking with a briefcase. Thankfully, I made it back into her apartment and locked the doors. Peaking through the window, I made sure no one was following or looking out. Then, I put the briefcase on the coffee table, a huge grin on my face at the view of my two million dollars. Very grateful no one stole it from the bush.

Oh, and my wonderful phone.

I fished it out of my back pocket, wincing when I twisted my body too much that it hurt the wound. After dialing nine, I pressed the phone to my ear and waited for him to pick up. Surprisingly, after the first thing, the man answered.

"Ha-"

"I need Jessica dead," I cut him off with an immediate order before he can slip in a word. It goes silent, I'm about to snap at him when his voice floods my ears. "What the fuck? You can't just disappear for a day and then-" Jay decides to scold me.

I swear he sounds more British when he's angry.

"Would you shut up?" I groaned and stood to get started with my garlic parmesan pasta. Hopefully, Madeleine likes it. "Shut up? What do you mean s-"

My eyes rolled, this man knows how to ramble off unnecessarily. "Jessica Rose sexually took advantage of Louis Tomlinson. She was supposed to distract him, not drug him," I multitasked lighting the phone.

If Louis had seen me that night...I don't know how it would've turned out.

Questions are things I hate and my patience level isn't that high. So when someone as my partner who knows me since I was three rambles on instead of agreeing, it makes me think of ways to kill him. "Oh shit," Jay whispers and the line goes silent again, not because he hung up but because he was shocked.

"And it's Rosa," my partner corrects me on her last name. She didn't deserve me to say her name correctly. "Are you sure it's her though? She's been with us since she was thirteen," He asks. Could tell he didn't want it to be true but I know what I heard this morning.

"Yes, I'm sure," I murmured and sprinkled salt into the boiling water. "I literally just put away my fancy gun, Harry," Jay groans.

Lazy ass, Payno.

"Are you supporting her actions, Mister P-"

"No, of course not. But you know I'm lazy," he whines," and stop calling me that. Makes me sound old." I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "Look I have a house to clean. Kill the bitch. Throw her in a ditch somewhere when you're done," I suggested. About to end the call until the obnoxious grown child shouts in my ear.

"Wait! Did you just say you have to clean a house? What? Where are you?" My hand grips the phone tighter in an attempt to calm down. "Kill her," I repeated and ended the call. Messages came flooding in sections after, proving how fast of a typer he is. So I discarded my phone on the kitchen counter and continued making pasta with a swollen ankle.

"Harry..." I cautiously whispered, I'm surprised he looks up, silently saying he heard me. However, my eyes were on the coffee table. At the corner, I notice his eyes widen as if he forgot about the briefcase. "What is that?" I ask.

Harry nervously chuckles and rubs the nape of his neck. "Told you I would've figured it out, right?" He says as if that answered my question. Now he was sitting on the rug against the sofa, his knees bent since there wasn't enough space. "Harry," I repeated with a warning tone.

"What?" He questions obliviously.

"Where did that come from!" I snapped and finally peered at him. "I threw it in the grass three houses down. Retrieved it today," he finally reveals. "What?" It was my turn to say. "My God," he mumbles and buried his face in his ring covered hands. "That night I hid it because I was fucking dying, alright? What's with the questions?" Harry thundered, taking me by surprise.

"And...and you got that money where?" I asked with a shaky breath. God knows the long list of things I can be arrested for, very illegal things, but now the idea that Harry could be another one of them was becoming a reality.

Harry got on his feet in a flash. A small gasp slipped off my lips at the sudden change. I felt the tip of his boots touching mine though my focus was on his face. Couldn't help but realize how perfect his height was even if I had to tilt my head up to look into his eyes. They're swirling with anger while studying the details my face had to offer, every split second he would look at something else as if he didn't know where to settle. His pink lips in a straight line and I quickly looked away from them. They land on his clenched, hinged jaw, fully because of anger.

Scary, intimidating.

The fading bruises and healing cuts on his face didn't help either.

"I have a job," flatly said though Harry's a very interesting and unique man. His words were slowed, making him scary enough for my body to shudder. "Any more questions?" He asks. Darkened, green eyes deeply staring into my lighter ones. Harry tilts his head slightly as if he was daring me to add another question.

First a gun and then too much money.

"I..." the words died in my throat, exchanging for another soft gasp in response to Harry's fingers feathering around my wrist. "Don't ask questions you know you shouldn't ask. I won't respond because I'd like to stay here," he warns. His confession makes my heart flutter for some reason.

"I'm scared," my lips moved without my permission. Harry furrows his eyebrows, I kept my eyes on him as his tongue runs across his chapped lip. "For what?" He asks, his thumb soothingly running circles on my inner wrist. He's distracting me, jumbling my thoughts, and blurring my morals. "Don't take me to prison," I answered, not knowing why I did but at the same time I knew. I've done everything the past three years to not end up in prison for my wrongdoings.

God, he's the best type of comforting I've needed though.

Even here, the rules I broke were for good reasons but the officers wouldn't see it like that.

Is Harry another method for the universe to throw me in prison?

Harry smiles, showing his perfect line of white teeth, the front ones slightly longer. The corners of his eyes crinkled and I could've sworn the green brightened. Wonder if he realized how close our bodies were now, practically pressing.

"We're not going to prison, Sunshine," he says, chuckling a bit.

That word coming from him shoved me hard into reality with a memory arising. "What did you just call me?" I snapped out of the moment unwantedly. Sunshine stirs unwanted memories stuffed away in the back of my mind.

Someone called me Sunshine before.

Harry called me sunshine before.

Harry.

Same lips, same voice, same Harry.

Harry's face paled with realization and he steps away. "Madeleine," he hummed his response and turns away to shut the briefcase.

"No, you-" I began to deny.

"I said Madeleine."

- ♤ -

"Hi, I'm Harry."

My jaw clenched angrily and I shoved away those repeating words. Every time I thought about it, the headache increases as if telling me I shouldn't think about it. Everything that happened three years ago, I forced myself to forget so when I'm remembering, the headaches are like red flags warning me.

I throw open the door, chemicals flooding into my nostrils. "Hey, sorry for being late," I apologized the second I stepped through the familiar hair salon. Daphne was already cutting a client's beach waves. She glances at me for a split second and smiles. "Ten minutes is okay. Just help me," she laughs and directs a customer to my station.

Thankfully, today Daphne dealt with the two dying appointments and I dealt with the eyebrow waxing and hear cutting. After I flipped the sign from opened to close, we cleaned up the store spotless. Daphne hands me my payment at the end of the day like usual since I work here irregularly. "Thank you," I cheekily smiled and shoved the folded money into my back pocket.

"Ready to go downstairs?" She cautiously asks. I don't respond, instead, I walked through the door that said employee's washroom when it was actually a door to the basement. Daphne follows me down to the staircase, my hands run over the rusting hand railing.

"Mads?" Mitch greets me, smiling lightly. My eyes rolled, he sounded so shocked to see me down here. "Mads!" He cheers and throws his arms around me, hugging me to his chest and of course, I hugged him back. I guess this was one way of him saying he forgave me for cutting his hair. We were drunk and he wanted it but sober Mitch Rowland didn't want his hair cut.

We pull away and my eyes lingered on the hair brushing the nape of his neck. "Hair's looking good, Mitchy," I complimented with a growing smirk. "Know right, never did like his long hair," Daphne agrees before he can reply. I turn to see her leaning against the wall.

"Yet you hooked up with a guy with long hair," Mitch throws back, playing with his silver rose ring. "I was drunk!" Daphne defends poorly. My heartbeat picks up at the mention of Harry. I had the urge to correct her on his name but that would lead to unwanted questions. "Well you can blame Mads for staying at home and getting you in that situation," Mitch decided.

"I got dragged into it anyway," I huffed. Little did they know there was a much deeper meaning behind it. Maybe I should've gone to the bar that night. But would Harry still be at my apartment currently if I did? "Alright. Where are they? Don't want them to see me because I have to get home soon," I changed the topic.

"Sam took them to the skating park," Mitch answers. "Great," I say and they follow me into the small classroom.

Mitch's father was a well known doctor. Eventually, he had opened multiple hospitals around the city. Some public and others not. Though, society is unfair so not everyone was treated because of medical bills. Or the doctors decided that the person's life wasn't worth using expensive medicine on. So Mitch opened an underground clinic to help those who were shunned by others. He tried to reason with his father but it didn't work which is why Mitch didn't have a problem with stealing from his father.

Daphne came along with her salon and then the two of them were the controllers of the clinic business. Next, the orphanage burns down last year. Some children were placed into other orphanages, others were put into homes.

There were four.

Four kids too old to be wanted.

Old enough to be sophomores and juniors in high school.

Daphne tried everything they could legally. Nothing worked so being twenty, she secretly adopted them with the help of her father, the well known CEO of Misgan Empires. Though her family was stubborn and needs to be proved that the four children could bring them money so they stayed at a private room at the clinic.

Soon, they'd write a test that decides if they can be qualified for High School. Their education wasn't taught well at their previous homes so that's where I came in.

Teaching them English and literature, Mitch taught them Italian since he's from San Marino and Daphne handled math. I believe there was another person from around the clinic that helped with the science subjects. It was only enough to get them into school.

Mr. Misgan would always be the face on my dartboard for not giving these children a proper home and tutors. Or even using his money to get them into school because he definitely had money to waste.

For that though, that's why I'm proud of Daphne for figuring it out herself.

She's not one to give up.

Maybe there were other methods but we were so close to winning.

I shuffled the papers into a folder and held them to my chest. "Who's handing the other correcting?" I ask. Daphne printed practice tests to prepare them and ensure they're prepared. "Sam," Mitch answers. We walk back to the staircase and say I say my goodbyes after teasing Mitch about his hair one last time.

"Oh, and I need your help with the truck!" Mitch reminds me as I made my way up the staircase. Great, more opportunities to leave Harry alone.

Did I mention I help Mitch steal from his father sometimes?

"I'll be there!"

HEY GUYS!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR 250 READS!! seriously incredible and it took me a while to process it. No idea why people keep reading but thank you so much, my little heart can't handle all this love.

Here are some images from Instagram.

Credits: 1d._memes_

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