Once in a Lifetime

Forty-Five.

It wasn't until a few days later when Louis brought this up with Harry. He suggested maybe texting Mark about meeting up next time he was in Doncaster, and as shocked as Harry was about this, he agreed that if it was what Louis wanted, he would support him completely. Louis pulled his phone out of his pocket, scrolling until he saw Mark's name in his contact list.

'It's Louis. I'd like to have a chat with you next time I'm home. I'll let you know when that will be.'

As soon as the text was sent, he cuddled into Harry's side, nervous for the response he would receive. Maybe Mark would want nothing to do with him? Maybe this was a mistake? His phone pinged beside him, and after a few seconds of coaxing from Harry, he looked at the screen.

'Louis, it's good to hear from you. I'm in Portsmouth this week for work so I could drive through London this weekend if you wanted?'

He showed Harry the text, who shrugged his shoulders and told Louis maybe it would be better to get this out of the way sooner rather than later, but maybe it would be better to find a neutral place instead of inviting Mark to their home.

'Okay, that would be fine. I'll send you the details on Saturday.'

Saturday came around sooner than Louis had anticipated. Harry had been called into the office for a few hours, but as soon as he was finished, he was going to go straight to the park to meet Louis. He was nervous about him doing this alone, but Louis had persuaded him that this was something that needed to be done, and Harry couldn't protect him from everything. They said goodbye to each other as Louis sat on the bench in the park that he had agreed to meet Mark in and watched as Harry walked into the crowd of people on the street. That was when he noticed Mark wandering towards him, so he stood up and waited for him to reach him.

"Louis, hi, it was a surprise to receive your text. How are you?" Mark spoke with a voice that Louis wasn't used to hearing anymore. It was a voice that filled his early years with happy memories, but it was now tainted with anger and hurt.

"Yeah, it was a shock I actually sent it to be honest. A lot has happened recently, and I need to ask you a few questions, is that alright?"

"Of course, shall we sit?" Louis nodded, sitting back on the bench as Mark sat next to him, a gap between them for comfort. "Daisy said you'd been in hospital recently, and your mum wouldn't tell me why, what happened?"

"I tried to kill myself, and I'm in therapy now which is why I need to ask these questions. Can we start?" Mark was taken aback by this answer, but let Louis continue anyway. "Okay, um, let's just get straight to the point. Why did you leave?"

"Wow, I was not expecting that. Listen, your mum and I weren't working for a while, and I took the cowards way out by cheating. I should have just told her how I felt, but I didn't. I know the whole thing was messy, but I did fight for you. You said last time I saw you that I didn't, but I did. You were part of the custody battle, but because you weren't biologically mine and I never adopted you, it made things much harder. I tried to continue being a normal dad for you, but you pushed me away and sided with your mum. I get that, of course I do, she's your mum and you two have always had such a strong relationship, but I didn't just give up on you. I tried to include you whenever I had the girls and I tried to come to all your special events, but after a while I could see how much my presence was hurting you, so I gave you space. I never stopped loving or caring about you, though. The girls always tell me about everything you do, and I follow all your social media accounts so I can keep up, and I'm so proud of you." Louis couldn't believe what he was hearing, so for the next hour he bombarded Mark with question after question, trying to understand what exactly happened.