Skinny Love

*Three years later*

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Her sobs were uncontrollable and Zayn had relocated Landon with him to a separate room. He had tears in his eyes as his son asked question, curious by the cold body that lay by his side as he awoke in the morning.

“I…I… I think my daughter is dead.”

“Ma’am does she have a pulse?”

“I just… No. She doesn’t have a pulse.”

“Ma’am, you need to stay calm.”

“Just get here and save my baby, please. Please, God. Save my little girl.”

Every night she heard those words echoing through her brain. Even after a peaceful night of sleep, it would creep back in her head. She couldn’t forget. I just couldn’t happen. Because forgetting that moment was forgetting a moment of Isabella’s life. And it was that reason that she could not leave that conversation. Her daughter was as beautiful as ever in that moment and peaceful. Her soul left the earth with so much joy and beauty, it was her mother that was left with the dawning emotions that she left behind.

Zayn was a fabulous father and husband. Even better than expected, since he was mourning with the rest of the family. He held the Malik family together and rejoiced the beauty that they had left over. It was the union of father and son that really defined the family. And with the new location of New York City, it was a fresh start and a new defined structure of family.

“Can’t you tell me if I’m even on the right track?” Landon asked in a fit of desperation.

With the escapades of his sister’s death, he began to feel alone. He kept to himself and mainly his father, which seemed like a Zayn quality. But Zayn wanted his son to better than he ever could be, that was his quest. He sent him on a search to find the sixth burrow of New York. A non existent one, nonetheless, but a search for his son to find a way in communication.

Zayn shrugged his shoulders the way that his son loved. Each hunch coming with funny face and absolutely no words. Zayn kept his hands in his leather, Alexander Wang jacket due to the cold front in New York.

“Then how will I know if I’m right?”

“Another way of looking at it is, how could you ever be wrong.”

***

After they got home, they unbundled and were awarded by a kiss on their cheeks and a content smile. She loved her two men dearly. They were all she had.

“How was the search today?” Jessica asked as she plated dinner.

Landon scurried off, his uncoordinated eleven year old body running into the distance. Jessica’s eyes shot to her husband, obviously questioning what the hell just happened. He just got up and slipped his hands around her waist.

“Just believe in him, babe.” He whispered in her ear. She loved feeling the warmth of his body pressed against her. She had no idea what she would do without it.

“I do. I promise.”

Landon came back with a small bag filled with items.

“I have a penny that says it was from 1924, which is around the year that the sixth burrow went away.”

“I also have a rock, because maybe it collected erosion from around that time.”

“I’m very impressed, Landon,” Jessica said as she placed the plates on the table. Zayn sat down and studied the rock, always impressed with his son’s knowledge.

He looked at his son and held up the fossil, “Landon, you rock!”

The family laughed, Zayn always made their day.

“So family,” Zayn began. “I have a little insight to share.”

Jessica knew what he was about to say. Nothing she felt content about.

“I’m going to Pakistan to visit my father.” His mother and father split up two years back and his father indulged in his roots back in Pakistan. Although, he felt compelled to stick to his mother’s side, it was his father and he was falling ill with pancreatic cancer.

“Dad, isn’t that place dangerous?” Landon asked with a face full of chicken.

“Sometimes, but I think I can do it!” Sounding like more of a man than he expected. Truthfully, he was just as nervous as Jessica preached to him the night before. He just needed to be a man again and see his father. He had to support them the way he supported his own family.

“Momma, are we going with him?”

“No, we’re staying here! I can’t have you missing school, honey.”

“How long are you going to be gone, Dad?” Obviously, upset with the answer due to the furrowing of his brow.

“Just a week. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Jessica knew her husband was a man, but there were some things that were just out of his control. The war on terrorists between America and Pakistan had reached its peak. It wouldn’t be so bad if he were leaving from London, but a straight flight from New York to Pakistan would be a stretch. Something in her heart just didn’t settle with the idea of it. However, she knew he needed closure with his father.

Zayn never felt good enough in his father’s eyes. It was his father that should feel ashamed of himself. After reconstructing his family, he cheated on his wife. The woman he birthed four children and created a family dynamic with. It was hurt that riddled his face when he found out the news. He hadn’t seen him since, but he felt guilt flush his emotions as he heard the news of his health. No matter the damage caused, it was his father.

“I leave tomorrow, but I wanted you to be aware of it all. And don’t be afraid to keep looking.”

***

They sent him away with a carriage filled with Louis Vuitton luggage and they saw their everything walk away. For some reason she knew that was the last time she would physically see him. Something in her heart told her. She just couldn’t bring herself to believe it in that moment.

“Say goodbye to your father, sweetie.”