Harry's P.O.V

  Hearing the news that Mia had gotten married only a week after she had left was shocking. Not the sort of shock that you get when you receive excellent news, the kind of shock that numbs you down to your core so much that you really do not know what to do.

  Every since docking the yacht, I have been staying with Louis in LA. 

  "Aren't you going to continue your trip?" He had asked me. I shook my head.

  "It wouldn't be the same." 

  He offered to give me a room in his house for a while and I agreed. Going back to London would be all too sad; a confirmation that it was all completely over. Even though I was the one who made her leave, she did much more damage to me than to her. How was it possible to feel this much heartbreak over someone?

  Louis had a nice house. I had never been, mainly because when I was out in LA it was doing my own thing. The property had lots of land and high hedges that surely must've been giving paparazzi a hard time. He had Freddie all to himself for the week while Briana went on a trip with her family, so to chip in I offered my babysitting services when he needed it.

  "Look at this." Louis said on the second day that I had been there. He held his phone in front of my face and I frowned down at the screen in front of me. It was a picture on Instagram of a large hand holding a small hand and they both had rings on them. The woman's hand was petite and the rock on her finger must have costed a fortune. My eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets when I saw that the picture was posted by realmattmiles, the same Matthew Miles that Mia had complained about so much.

  "Who..." I clicked on the screen to see who was tagged in the photo. An account called realmiaroden was tagged and all the air whooshed out of my lungs. "How the hell are they married!?" I shouted.

  "I don't know." Louis shook his head. "It's like one minute she's with you, the next she's married to this bloke. It makes no sense, lad." 

  It made no sense. She had just confessed that she was in love with me a week ago. The tears in her eyes looked genuine and real. She looked genuine and real. Something about this entire situation was not adding up, and perhaps if she was just honest with me I wouldn't feel so clueless.

  An hour went by of me going on the computer, reading over and over about the secret wedding between Mia and Matthew. It had been confirmed by both of their companies in official statements, which was even more confusing because before they had been business rivals. The hatred that Mia had displayed about Matthew was now being replaced by love; so what was the real story? By the end of it, I had a pressure headache building in the base of my skull.

  My eyes must have been blotchy and red. Furiously, I wiped away the tears as more articles began confirming it. The one that was in People magazine even had statements released from Matthew and Mia. 

  "We're very happy." Matthew tells us. "I know she wants kids for sure, so we're very excited to see what our future has in store."

  "It's an exciting time." Mia continues for him.

  "Kids!?" I screamed. "Holy shit, what is going on. They're talking about children! What the hell is going on!?" I tugged at my hair as I stared at the screen for a solid five minutes, then dropped the computer on the floor. When it didn't smash, I slammed my foot on the keyboard until the whole thing was in two pieces.

  From the other room, a soft cry began. If looks could kill, I would have been dead. Louis gave me a death glare and rolled his eyes at me.

  "Now you've woken me son up from a nap, you idiot." Louis whined.

  "Sorry, sorry." I apologized quickly. "I can try and make him fall back asleep?"

  "No way! You'll break him like you did the computer!" He protested, disappearing into the hallway to tend to his newborn. I felt bad, sure, but my mind was still hung up on all of this Mia business. Why would she go off and do something like that when she was still in love with me? You can't just fall for someone else and marry them in the span of one week. It wasn't something that Mia would do, either. 

  It was then that I realized my mistake. Since I had done the "breaking up" so to speak, it finally felt like I was no longer the one left vulnerable in the relationship, but I had let the most important thing to me go. Now she was taken by another man, something that was not expected at all by me, and what was I supposed to do about it? The only thing that would make sense would be to call her and ask for answers, but I was hesitant. What if she was about to tell me some sort of painful truth that would only leave me feeling more heartbreaking than before?

  Despite the doubt floating in the back of my mind, I found her name in my contacts and rang her. Pacing back and forth with the phone in one hand and my other hand at my mouth, biting my nails, I listened as the tone went on and on. Finally, after a straight minute, it went to voicemail. Was she ignoring me? Did she hate me now? Had I seriously messed everything up?

  I called again. Again, and again, and again. Each time she did not answer and I grew even more worried. 

  "Freddie won't go back to bed." Louis said, emerging from the hallway with a newborn in his arms. "Who was that on the phone just now? Did you try calling her?"

  "Seven times." I sighed. "No answer."

  "She must be pissed. Or busy." He really wasn't helping to comfort me, but sometimes receiving honesty from a close friend was better than having them tip-toe around your emotions. I nodded and rubbed my temples before walking over to the kitchen to get some Advil for my headache.

  "You can hold Freddie now if you promise not to break him." Louis said lightheartedly. I nodded and he handed the small baby over. Looking down at him made me think of what Matthew mentioned about kids. The thought of her being pregnant with one of his kids enraged me so much that I could see red. 

  "I feel so out of the loop." I shook my head. "None of it makes sense."

  "It doesn't." Louis confirmed. "But maybe there's a reason for it that you don't understand. Either she's a bitch-" He paused and covered the small baby's ears. "-and was playing you the whole time, or there's something actually wrong. She doesn't seem like the type of girl to screw you over like that."

  "I'll just have to keep calling, then." I said with a determined look etched onto my face. "If she answers, she can give me some answers. If she doesn't, that's an answer in itself." My patience was already wearing thin and it had only been a mere few minutes since I had called.

  "Don't worry, lad, she'll call." 

  It just didn't make any sense. If she loved me, why would she be with him? From the little information that I had gotten about Matthew, she did not love him. One time she even mentioned how he was mean and that they would fight often. And now they were suddenly married? Something about it seemed so wrong and I was so worried for her, but there wasn't a whole lot that I could do.

  "Maybe I ought to fly out to her." I thought out loud.

  "Don't be crazy." Louis said. "If she's mad at you, the last thing she will want is for you to turn up at her house with her new husband." 

  Hearing someone else say those words hurt even more. How come it took me so long to realize that I was so in love with her? We were never anything official, we were never anything with a label. Her and I just weren't like that. But now, being away from her and having her so far made me only yearn for her more. There was nothing more that I wanted to do than reach out and touch her skin. 

  "I can't believe this is happening." I whispered. The tears were beginning to come back, but before any could fall I stopped myself. I had more self control than that, I told myself. I kissed Freddie on the forehead and snuggled him into my chest. From the floor, I heard a small meow and looked down to see Cat. She was always extremely jealous whenever I held Freddie.

  "Come here, you too." I pat the spot next to me and she didn't hesitate to cuddle next to Freddie and I. When the small boy felt the cat's fur he wrinkled his nose at the unfamiliar feeling. Louis laughed and snapped a picture of the three of us. Luckily, my hair was drooped in front of my face, so the camera wouldn't have captured how red my eyes had gotten. 

  Cat missed her mummy. It was obvious. She would lie beside the door and meow until someone brought her out to the living room and away from the door. She knew that something was wrong and that Mia wouldn't be coming back. It only validated my sadness further to see such a happy animal become so sad.

  Going to bed was the absolutely worst. I had been so used to sleeping next to Mia all this time that having an empty space next to me felt completely awkward. Did she miss the nighttime too? Maybe she hadn't even given me another thought, too consumed in spending time with her new husband. Meanwhile, I got so lonely that I had to put two pillows on the spot next to me and cuddle them to try and trick my body that it was really her. 

  I was beyond lonely. It still made no sense to me that she had gotten married. Had they been speaking the entire time that we were on our trip? I knew Mia too well- she would never do something like that to me. But then what had just happened? The unanswered questions that swirled around in my mind would surely keep me up later.

  Making another impulse decision, I decided to ring her father's company. She told me once that she owned a small branch, so perhaps she was working and that was why she couldn't answer my calls. If I tried to call her work phone she would most likely answer. I looked up the number on my phone and pressed the call button. I should have prepared some sort of speech in my mind before deciding to call, but I decided that I would just pour my emotions out to her and see how she responded. My heartstrings were hanging on my a mere thread.

  "Hello, Roden Inc. This is Mr. Roden's secretary, Amanda. How may I help you today?" A perky woman's voice responded on the other end. I cleared my dry throat. 

  "Hi, I was wondering if Mia was in the office today?" I asked. "I need to speak with her.. it's urgent." I was hoping that the urgency in my voice was evident. There was a pause on the other line and I wondered if maybe this Amanda woman had left to go get Mia. But she wouldn't do that, she would have just sent me to her office extension line.

  "I'm afraid she is not, sir." Amanda responded. "Can I ask who is calling?"

  "Harry Styles." I answered clearly. "Please, tell her I need to speak with her. Tell her to call me, please." 

  This time, the pause on the other line was much longer. I heard some murmurs of people trying to talk quietly and wondered if I had ruined everything by revealing who I was. But I did not want to be a fibber, I was not going to lie about who I was. It just wasn't in my blood to do something like that. 

  "One second Mr. Styles." 

  Then, dialing. I heard three beeps before silence. Maybe she was sending me to Mia's extension line? My nerves increased and I wiped the clamminess of my palms on my jeans. It was about a three minute wait until the person on the other end picked up, and I told myself not to get too excited.

  "Harry Styles." A man's voice said. Immediately I knew that something was wrong.

  "Uh.. yes? Can I ask who this is?" I asked politely.

  "This is Mr. Roden, Mia's father." This surely wasn't something that was expected. My blood ran cold as I tried to wrack my brain with possibilities of why he would want to take time out of his busy day to talk to me. Surely he had far more important business matters to attend, right?

  "I am here to let you know that Mia does not wish to see you." He continued. "She is happily married, as you have probably already seen, and needs to focus on things that are more important to her."

  "What?" I asked, heartbroken. "You're lying."

  "I'm not." He insisted. "In fact, if you try to call her one more time then I will not hesitate to get a restraining order." I frowned at his words.

  "How do you know that I tried to call her cell if she's not in the office?" I asked.

  "Err, this is all classified information." He stuttered his words when he said this, leaving me to wonder what was really going on. Did Mia even have her phone on her? Was she in some sort of trouble? Even if she was, if I even tried to come near her I would have a restraining order placed against me. There was absolutely no way for me to contact her unless she had found a way to contact me first.

  "Please, I need answers." I demanded. "How is she married this soon? She was with me less than a week ago!"

  "I wish I could answer your questions, I really do." He laughed. "But I'm afraid that I have more important matters of business to attend, so I must cut this conversation short."

  "Wait." I said abruptly, sighing. "Just tell me one thing."

  "It depends on what it is." Mr. Roden replied smoothly. 

  "Tell me... is she happy?" I asked, my voice nearly breaking.

  "Yes, Mr. Styles. She is incredibly happy."

  a/n: what a liar lol

things are actually picking up!!! next chapter you all will be saying "omg WHAT why did you do this" and trust me, it's all gonna be part of the plan. i was planning on making real instagrams for mia and matthew, but to register you have to provide a real phone number and all that jazz so i couldn't. 

happy thursday!

-delilah