Luke's PoV

For some stupid reason, I let her and Cody leave. I listened as Kira said a sad goodbye to her only friend, whilst Alyssa kept her sweet tone with my daughter trying not to upset her as she took Cody back home. It had worked, but Kira remained in the play room alone, seemingly stropping over the fact he'd left. Ashton remained silent beside me, waiting for me to speak first and say whatever was on my mind.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, I let out a huge sigh.

"What's on your mind?" He asked almost automatically after the sigh had ended.

"Am I being stupid acting like this?" I looked up at Ashton to gauge a reaction, he simply looked down at his lap as he thought about his response. For a moment it was silent, almost depressing, and made me feel all alone again.

"Ash? Luke? You here?" Suddenly a couple of voices lit up the figuratively dark room and caused us both to fake smiles as Michael and Calum entered, rushing in and practically throwing themselves down on the chairs either side of Ashton and I, who were beside each other on the two seater.

"Jeez, it feels all emotional in here. What did we miss?" Michael said almost instantly, getting a feel of the room. Calum then furrowed his brows, realising that Michael was right.

"Did someone hurt you? Was it that woman? Or is she back?" Calum asked, getting riled up as he noticed how sad I looked. I really appreciated just how quickly these guys could realise when I was down and try to fix it. These guys were like brothers to me, our time as a band had spanned ten years and we had spent so long together that I couldn't imagine life without them. Since I'd lost Olivia, they'd been there for me any time. Every one of them had a key to my place, they would come and stay and keep me company when I desperately needed it, they helped with Kira as I struggled with adjusting to fatherhood alone, they got me groceries and kept me fed when I fell into a depression and I could never repay them enough. So of course, they could take one look at me and realised something was wrong as they entered, especially as I sat beside Ashton who looked to be comforting me.

"Surely she can't be back? She'd risk getting arrested and going to jail..." Michael answered Calum in regards to the 'she' he had mentioned. That was how they all spoke about the stalker we'd had. No one wanted to mention her name, knowing it was likely to set me off and heighten my anxiety. Ivy had been nothing but a pain since she first found out I lived near her. She became obsessed with me and the band, following us everywhere we went. That slowly shrunk down to just me. Every time I went to the shops, she was there. She sent packages to my house, to my workplaces no matter how temporary and also to my wife's workplace. As soon as the news of our baby came into the media, threats began. She would tell me how I was hers and Olivia wasn't allowed to have me or carry my child. She began to stalk Olivia, following her to the hospital for appointments. I didn't know what her end goal was but of course I was terrified for my family. We moved away and seemed to leave her behind until Kira was born - but then she found us again. She began to stalk the nursery Kira went to, found the addresses of the babysitters we used... somehow she had direct information about us on demand and no matter what we tried, she kept coming back. So the last resort was a restraining order which has seemingly kept her away for the last few years.

"No, it's definitely not her. Thank God." Ashton breathed out a sigh of relief. "Your other guess is correct though." Calum straightened as he took in Ashton's answer. I could tell by his expression that he was split as to whether or not to believe him, and frankly so was I. Michael, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to what we were all talking about.

"Who are we talking about here?" Michael asked, irritation lacing his voice as he looked between the three of us who all seemingly knew who she was whilst he was left out of the equation. I sighed, knowing I needed to nip this in the bud.

"The woman who picked Kira up from school when I was running late." I explained, to which Michael nodded to say he remembered. "I've... we've met up a few times with the kids but-" I didn't know how to end the sentence.

"And how comes these guys both know who she is?" Michael continued, folding his arms across his chest in irritation.

"I was getting to you." I sighed, realising how ridiculous I sounded. "Calum met her when he came with me to get Kira just in case she was out to harm us."

"Instead she'd made us dinner and fed Kira with something different knowing she had a nut allergy." Calum responded flatly, making sure Michael had the whole picture and not just the one I seemed to be painting that she was a fraud.

"But she also mentioned something about Kira's past that made us both snap at her." I added, hoping to make what I was doing seem more reasonable. "So when we were going to meet again, I asked Ashton to pop in to get a feel for her." Michael's gaze flitted to Ashton.

"She said something that seemed kind of suspicious." Ashton continued, shrugging as he spoke. "And I didn't know she'd said anything with Calum. I'd said she seemed genuine and she said to Luke that she'd got the okay from two out of three now." Ashton looked back at Calum before he continued. "But other than that, she'd been really polite, courteous and actually quite funny." The feeling in the room seemed to change, like there was a divide between good and bad and I was clinging on for life in the middle.

"Right." Michael added. "So I was next to meet her to judge her without her knowing?" He said it a little harsher than I'd expected, causing me to furrow my brows at him.

"I'm just trying to protect Kira." I justified, hoping he of all people would understand, knowing what I'd gone through.

"And yourself." Michael added. "The fact I walked in here and you were upset over a woman you've known for a couple of weeks just goes to show that she's nice to you and Kira. Calum clearly has a high opinion of her and Ashton said she was nice other than this one thing she said. She has a kid too, I just don't see how she'd be bad for you." Michael was always the one who thought good of people, even if it was to his deficit.

"Mike that's exactly how frauds work. They build you up, use you and then leave you deflated." I snapped. "She's too nice, too willing to help, I just can't-"

"Luke, she's not Olivia." Calum said, making me choke on my breath and cough. The other two shot looks at him instantly. "Olivia got ill, she didn't want or mean to leave you. I know it fucking sucked and hurt so bad but you can't close yourself off to any new people just because that happened. Sometimes these people are good for you and help you move on." His words sunk in slowly and as they did, it was like fuel dripping onto a small fire. It ignited and grew within a second and before I knew what was happening, I was shouting at him.

"Says the guy who couldn't take his eyes off her! If you think she's that great then go and date her. Don't fucking lecture me on love and loss when you've never loved anyone! You have your walls up to protect you from having a partner. I'm allowed mine up after my wife died thank you." I stood up, glaring back at all three of them. "I'm not being unreasonable by being careful. You can see yourselves out." I stormed out and headed to bed, throwing myself down on it as the weight of everything caught up with me. It felt as if an elephant had sat on me as my chest was so tight I could barely breathe. How did I let myself get into this state?