"Hey baby!" Adam wraps his arms around me, and pulls me tight onto him.

"Hi." I gasp a little. He took me by surprise.

"How did it go?" Adam asks me as he pulls back to give us space to look into each other's faces.

"It was nice. The houses are all so pretty!" I try my best to sound very interested about this, but honestly I'm very embarrassed at the fact that Harry stands right behind me, watching us carefully.

"Well you'll have to pick one soon babe." Adam leans into my face and pecks my lips briefly. I blush. He moves me to stand beside him. Once he turns us to face Harry, I notice Harry trying his best to avoid staring at either two of us.

"Brother, thank you for driving Emma around! How could I ever repay you?" Adam gives Harry and honest smile. I can't help but feel like running upstairs, but of course I stay put.

"Well there is one thing we could do." Harry suddenly has my attention once again.

"Anything." Adam is as polite as ever. I don't understand why Harry dislikes Adam so much when Adam honestly seems so happy to be his brother.

I suddenly feel very bad. What am I doing? They're brothers! Oh my! Okay, maybe not the same dad, but the same mother! I look over at Adam, feeling the biggest guilt ever.

"Let her go to a party with me." Harry says as I begin breathing a bit heavy.

"Yeah of course, well if she wants to go. What kind of party are we talking about?" Adam turns to me with a smile, that I sort of return, then back at Harry.

"It's a small get along with a few close friends. Almost like dinner, and I'd like to introduce to them your wife." Okay, now I'm regretting this.

"That's fine with me, what about you baby?" Adam turns his attention to me and so does Harry.

"Uhh..." God, it's suddenly hot in here. If I back out now, Harry will most probably hate me. If I don't, I can just try and get over with tomorrow's party without any other interruptions and never again accept anything from Harry.

"Yeah, sure." I have already made Harry excited, I can't back out now.

"Okay, then its settled..just please take care of my princess Harry." Adam admires me. I smile at him shyly.

"Sure will." Harry smirks, then walks around us. I close my eyes momentarily.

"You both seem to be getting along well." Adam turns to me so I open my eyes quickly.

"He's okay." I gulp hard.

"I'm really happy that you're giving Harry a chance Emma. He's never been the friendly type. I think you'll help us be better brothers." My heart churns inside of me. If only you knew the intentions your brother has with me Adam. My eyes fill with tears.

"Babe you okay?" Adam looks concerned. His hands cup my face.

"I'm...I'm just glad I could help." Help ruin this between the two. Tears fall down my cheeks. God I'm horrible!

"Oh baby!" He wraps his arms around me, making me feel even worse. Why am I so fucked up?

"Come." Adam grabs a hold of my small hand into his and guides me into the kitchen.

"Hi, it feels like I haven't see you in forever." I'm greeted by a big hug from Zayn. He's so sweet!

"Zayn, I know!" I'm actually very happy to see this handsome one so I hug him back just as tightly as he hugged me.

"You're not my family Emma, but I love you just as if you were." Awe!

"You can be my brother if you want Zayn, since I don't have any brothers." Everyone sitting around the table nods in a cute gesture.

"I'd love to! From this day on everyone, please consider us brother and sister." He hugs me sideways while turning to everyone. They all awe and say okay with a huge smile.

"Come join us for dinner sweetheart." Geoff offers politely.

"I just ate actually, but thank you so much." I smile at them.

"If you can all actually excuse me, I'd like to go and freshen up." They nod. It's good to see them all so united. I notice Lottie isn't around the table, or Liam.

"Go ahead darling." Anne winks at me. I kiss Adam's cheek and move away from Zayn's hug once he's satisfied.

Taking careful steps on the stairs, I make my way up and into the room. Picking out my nightgown and undergarments, I take them with me into the bathroom. Turning the shower on, I strip out of my clothes. Taking a step into the warm water, my mind then takes the best of me. I'm such an awful wife! How can Adam love me so much? I don't deserve his love! I never had a mother to tell me right from wrong, but my aunt showed me enough with her marriage. That is, until she passed away.

Crying myself out, I bathe while taking my time. I need a backup plan. Tomorrow is the last day that Harry ever gets to spend with me. I'm going to pick out a house quickly and move out of here. I need to stay away from him as much as possible after tomorrow. It's the only way I'll get out of this. I don't want to loose Adam, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't pick Harry.

Once I step out of the shower, I wrap my body into a fluffy white towel. I take small strides towards the sinks. My eyes are puffy and red. God, I look like such a mess!

Covering my face with my hands, I let out a ragged breath. What have I done? How did I let this get so far? Adam doesn't deserve any of this.

I collect myself and start applying lotion all over my body once my skin's dry. Once I've put deodorant and a tint of perfume, I step into clean clothes. My hair is still dripping wet. Taking my hair drier from the bottom of the sink, I connect it and dry my hair with it. Once I've managed to dry it, I connect it to a braid.

As I step into the bedroom, I hear shuffling of many feet around the hallway. Goodbyes are exchanged in between many voices. Adam opens the bedroom door and turns to me with a smile. As soon as Adam closes the bedroom door, the rest of the other room doors are sound shut as well.

"How was your shower babe?" Adam walks towards me.

"It was good." I gear up half a smile.

He frowns, while studying my face up close.

"Were you crying?" His right hand rubs against my cheek.

"No....it's my allergies acting up." I lie, not new.

"Do you still have allergy pills?" He walks over to where I sleep, and opens my nightstand.

"I already took one before jumping in the shower, so it'll do its job in a bit." I come up with another lie once he pulls out the empty bottle from the nightstand.

"We'll need to get you more soon." Adam stands up and tosses the empty bottle in the trash.

"Yeah." I yawn, growing tired of this day and so much crying.

"I'm gonna jump in the shower quick." Adam kisses my forehead.

"Okay." I follow him into the bathroom, just so I can brush my teeth.

As I brush my teeth, Adam hops into the shower. I then make my way to the bed and loose myself under the sheets. I close my eyes and actually end up falling asleep quick.

Adam's POV

It's been a long day at work, and I honestly couldn't feel like shit more at this moment. As Emma steps out of the bathroom once she's finished brushing her teeth, I can't help but feel a pain of heart to think that she truly has been teary and emotional because of me. I'm not around that much lately, and as much as I'm trying, their never seems to be no time in my hands anymore. I'm very happy with the opportunity my father has given me in his enterprise, but ever since I gave him the idea of making his enterprise go further and be much bigger, I have so many things to do. I know that Emma's puffy, red eyes weren't about allergies. She hasn't had allergy pills for about a week now.

I know I have to be the only reason she cries. I'm glad Harry and everyone in this house keeps her company, that is why I accepted his invitation for Emma. She's already alone majority of the time, and I truly don't want to make it worse. My family takes care of her and they bring a smile to her face, and if that somewhat helps for now, then so be it. Sometime later I'll have the time for her. I hope it's soon.

I do want to apologize to her for not being around often. So as I step out of the shower, I wrap the bottom half of my body with a towel and make my way into the room.

Making my way towards where she lays, I lean over to face her, but then notice she's already asleep.

"Oh my baby, please forgive me for not being here." I whisper softly and kiss her cheek gently so I don't wake her up. I'll try to apologize again once I get the chance.

She takes an inhale of breath as I kiss her cheek. Covering her shoulders, I make my way towards the closet and pull out my pajamas. As I step back into the bathroom, I change in there. Putting lotion on, I then hear as my phone buzzes as it still lays inside the pocket of my pants that are laying on the floor.

Picking up the pants, I pull my phone out of the pocket and check the caller ID name.

Veronica

"Hello Ms.Prasad." I answer my secretary.

"Hi Mr.Payne. Didn't I tell you to call me Vero?" I smile as she repeats what she had asked me to call her quite a few times.

"I know Ms.Prasad, but I can't come with the term to call you that." I hear her giggle on the other end of the line.

"Oh Mr.Payne! Anyways I had a question about your meeting for tomorrow. I am sorry to disturb this late, I just forgot to write down the time on the calendar." Ms.Prasad makes me laugh.

"It's at 10:30 in the morning I believe Ms.Prasad." I assure her.

"Thank you Mr.Payne. Can you please stop calling me by my last name sir? I don't care if you don't want to call me Vero, just not Prasad please." She insists, which makes me then change a little towards how professionally I'm taking this.

"Okay Veronica." She stays silent.

"Is that okay with you?" I ask, after a few more seconds of silence.

"Yes, definitely Mr.Payne." She sort of squeals.

"If you'd like, you can call me by my name as well." I reply modestly.

"Actually, I really like your last name Mr.Payne. I'm okay with calling you that." She confirms.

"Thank you them Ms.Pra....I mean Veronica." I shake my head. Veronica laughs sweetly.

"Goodnight Mr.Payne." She dismisses.

"Goodnight Veronica." I hang up.

Brushing my teeth, I step back into the now dark room. Getting under the warm sheets, I scoot closer towards Emma and wraps my arms around her. She's so petite, but so beautiful.

She's sound asleep, and in a few minutes, so am I.

Emma's POV

A dry mouth wakes me up. My eyes shoot open. The only source of light comes through the window in the room. The bright moon shines its light into the bedroom. Looking over towards the nightstand, I pick up my phone and check the time.

2:33 .a.m.

I forgot to drink water before getting in bed and now I'm thirsty. I feel Adam's hand wrapped around my waist from under the sheets. Gently, I push it off and he doesn't feel it. Good! I bet he's tired and I wouldn't want to bother his sleep.

Standing up from the bed, I put on a pair of sandals and my bathing gown. I make my way out of the room. The hallway has no lights on, but the still up Christmas lights on the stairs allows me to see where I walk through.

Going down the stairs, I then turn the light on to the kitchen. To my surprise, Lottie sits on top of the counter island with Liam standing in between her legs.

"Uh I'm sorry!" I try and scatter back to where I came from. I feel a hand wrap around my wrist. Turning, I find Liam wide eyed.

"Emma..." He doesn't even know what to say.

"She knows about us Liam." I watch as Lottie jumps off of the counter and walks closer to us.

"What? You do?" He looks me dead in the eyes.

"Yeah." I assume.

"I told her, and we can trust her with our secret." Lottie looks at Liam and squeezes his arm as extra assurance.

"Now let her arm loose." She looks down at his hand, which is still squeezing mine.

"Oh I'm sorry!" He quickly lets my hand free. I stretch out my fingers.

"You got quite the grip Liam." I joke around, to make him feel a little more comfortable with me after this awkward situation.

"I'm sorry." He gives me an apologetic look.

"I thought you guys weren't a thing anymore." I study both of their faces.

"Well that seems to be changing." Liam turns to Lottie. They get lost into their eyes that I even start thinking they forgot I'm in front of them. Lovebirds!

"I'm happy for you guys!" I gain their attention once I speak up.

"Thank you Emma!" Lottie smiles at me. She pulls Liam into her arms and squeezes him into a hug.

"Excuse me guys, I'll be quick. Just going to get water." Walking around them, I pull out a cup from the top cabinets. I glance at them as I grab water from the fridge. They're actually so in love. When Lottie told me about having a thing with Liam, at first I though it was weird and how odd that must have looked, but now that I get to witness this...it's actually beautiful. They looks so good together, it's quite unbelievable.

They don't really pay attention or seem to mind that I'm inside the kitchen with them as they keep whispering things to each other and kiss every now and then.

"Goodnight guys." I giggle softly as I walk past them. They stop me once again. This time it's Lottie.

"Thank you for keeping this secret to yourself Emma." She then pulls me into a tight hug.

"Always Lottie." I hug her back.

She kisses my cheek and pulls herself away. Liam then goes in for a hug as well.

"I didn't know you knew, but I guess that is how good you are at keeping a secret sister." It warms my heart to hear Liam call me that. I don't have any sort of family, so for them to consider me part of theirs is a gift.

"I want nothing but the best for you two." I assure them both. Liam unwraps himself from our hug and smiles at me.

"Goodnight lovebirds." I bite my lip and turn around to leave. I hear them both giggle softly.

Smiling like an idiot on my way up the stairs, I suddenly notice Harry's tall frame standing at the last stair on the top.

"They're back together?" He looks at me and waits for an answer, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yes." I confirm, trying my best to ignore him and walk straight and towards my bedroom door.

"Can I ask you something?" I stop in my spot and turn to him.

"What is it?" Does he have a radar that tells him when I come out of my room?

"When I asked Adam for your permission, you didn't know what to answer...why? Did you change your mind the second you saw him?" I swallow down a notch of saliva.

"Yes I did." I admit.

"...and I think it's best if I don't go Harry." His brows furrow.

"You already accepted my invitation and so did he." He isn't giving this up is he?

"Well I finally made up my mind...and I'm not going. Goodnight." There, I told him! Turning back around, I grab the door knob.

"You know what would suck?" I stop in my tracks once again.

"What?" I turn to him again.

"It would suck if Lottie's and Liam's little dirty secret was suddenly brought up in this family...again." Harry smirks.

"You wouldn't!" My eyes widen. Is he seriously threatening me?

"Try me Emma, you don't know how far I go." Memories, dark memories flash into my head of all those times Harry has exploded and hurt people. Even killed!

"Fine! But please just don't tell anyone their secret." I'm angry and beyond frustrated.

"Goodnight Emma, it was nice talking to you." He blows a kiss at me and makes his way to his room.

I am left dumbfounded outside the hallway. What happened to the Harry that hung out with me all day? What have I gotten myself into?

Hiii beauties!

Please vote and comment if you like this chapter! This took a while so my apologies lovelies, but thank you for keeping up with me!

All the love,

Lupita.