Chapter 3
Tony paced his hotel room, checking his phone constantly for any sign of life from Harley. Three weeks. Three fucking weeks since he'd last heard from him. Every call went straight to voicemail, every text wasn’t answered. No social media activity, no trace of him anywhere.
Tony tried to not think of it since Harley was probably still angry at him but he just couldn’t, something tells him the kid wasn’t just ignoring him. Tony decided he had waited long enough, he made the decision to drive to Harley's house. He hadn't been there for a while, not since their argument. But he had to know what was going on, he had to “apologize” at Harley even if he did nothing wrong.
Tony quickly left his hotel room, grabbing the car keys. He opened the door and slid into the driver's seat, starting the engine, he hurriedly pulled out of the basement. Luckily, Harley’s house wasn’t that far ahead. All Tony could think about was on what he should say once he arrived, but really, what can he say? It’s not he did anything wrong, he just spoke the truth. It probably hurt the kid’s feelings to know his father’s love wasn’t love, and that wasn’t Tony’s fault. Harley had always been stubborn anyway.
Tony didn’t even realized he had already made it to the kid’s house. He stepped out of the car, buttoning his jacket against the chill in the air. The house looked quiet, too quiet. He walked up to the door and knocked firmly, waiting for an answer. Nobody answered it. Tony knocked the door again, even harder this time. He was starting to get annoyed, just because he told Harley the truth about his father, doesn’t mean he should ignore him and act like Tony doesn’t exist anymore.
Tony waited, and waited. It didn’t take long for him to just barge inside, not caring if there were people inside. As Tony stepped inside, he found the house trashed, it had never been this dirty. He called out Harley's name again, getting no response. He ventured further into the house, his eyes scanning the rooms. He went upstairs to Harley’s room, it was locked. He forcefully kicked the door down, making the house shake a little. Most of his stuff was gone. Had someone broken in? He was starting to get worried.
He went back downstairs where he suddenly heard a loud groan. Someone was here. He quickly turned into the kitchen and froze. He found Harley's father slumped over the kitchen table, an empty bottle of whiskey beside him. Tony approached him, checking the man's pulse to make sure he was merely passed out.
Tony grabbed Harley's father by the shoulders, shaking him roughly. He slapped the man's face a few times, hard enough to sting. "WAKE THE FUCK UP!” Harley's father groaned again, his head lolling to the side. Tony continued to shake him, finally succeeding in rousing him from his stupor. The man coughed, blinking blearily at Tony. "What the fuck? Who are you and what are you doing in my house?!”
Harley's father squinted at Tony, realizing who he was. "Oh, you’re Harley’s friend aren’t you?” He said as he dropped the glass of whiskey in his hand. The glass shattered on the floor.
Tony ignored the broken glass, stepping closer to Harley's father. "Where's Harley?" His voice was low and threatening, barely controlled. "He's been missing for weeks, what the fuck did you do to him?”
Harley's father waved dismissively, slurring his words. "I didn’t do non to him, he disappeared when I came home weeks ago.” He picked up the bottle from the ground before continuing. “Besides, why should I even care about Harley? Clearly he doesn't give a shit about me anymore, so why the hell should I lose sleep over him?”
Tony's face darkened with fury, his fists clenching at his sides. "You fucking monster," he snarled through gritted teeth. "Your own son could be lying dead somewhere and you're too fucked up to notice!"
Harley's father glared up at Tony, defiance shining in his bloodshot eyes despite his drunken state. "Fuck off," he spat. "If Harley wanted to be found, he would've fucking called me.”
Tony’s face flashed with anger, his hands clenching even more at his sides. “Find my wife if you're so damn concerned then. None of them weren’t here when I got home.” The drunken man said. “Where are they?” Tony said threatening.
"You want to know where they went?" He laughed mirthlessly. "Beats me. My wife never tells me anything or even talks to me ever since I came back. She probably took the kids far away where I couldn’t find them."
“You fucking bastard, you didn’t even think to report this?” Tony yelled, grabbing his collar. Harley’s father sneered, "You think threatening me will make me know where my wife took the kids?" He laughed again.
Tony had never felt so angry, but Harley’s father was right, at least for the first time. “You know what? You’re not worth my fucking time," Tony let go of his collar harshly making the father drop to the floor. Tony fixed his hair as he walked out of the trashed house, shutting the door behind him. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. It took a while for the billionaire to calm himself down, it wasn’t really his fault, he hadn’t felt so angry in a long time.
Tony then looked down at his phone, hesitating. He wanted to report Harley and his family missing, reporting Harley missing felt like admitting defeat, like accepting that he had truly failed the kid. But the alternative was to do nothing, and that was unacceptable. With a heavy sigh, he dialed the number for the local police station. Tony wished he had done it earlier but he thought he was just being overly protecting of Harley, he’s got a “father” now. Just as Tony's finger was about to hit the call button, his phone suddenly rang.
Tony's heart leapt into his throat as he saw Harley's name flashing on the screen. He answered immediately. "Harley? Oh my fucking- kid where are you?"
"Hey Tony..." The voice on the other end was quiet, almost timid. "Are you mad at me?" Tony's breath caught in his throat. "Mad? You left without saying a word, you didn’t reply to any of my texts, and your house was trashed, hell yes I'm mad! Where are you?"
"I'm with my mum," Harley replied softly. Tony's grip on the phone tightened. "Your mum? Where is she? And why the hell did you not tell me you were running away? Couldn’t you at least try to contact me?”
Harley's voice took on a defensive tone. "Look, it was really sudden. Mum just showed up in my room and said we had to go. Immediately. I thought of you on the way but Mum didn’t want us calling anyone yet.”
“Harley, do you know how worried sick I was? I waited for a month thinking you were just avoiding me. You scared the life out of me when I confronted your father!” Harley didn’t know how to respond. He knew Tony would not have been happy, but he also knew Tony had to at least have a tiny bit of understanding. Speaking of his father. Harley took a deep breath before asking. "Well.. did dad at least try to find me?"
“No," Tony answered bluntly, he didn’t hesitated upon hearing the question. "No, he fucking didn’t. He just fucking pretended you guys didn’t exist anymore." There was a long pause before Harley spoke again. "Okay..."
Tony felt kind of bad saying it like that, but it was true wasn’t it? “So are you okay? Are you guys safe?” Harley sighed, feeling like crap. "Yeah, I guess. We're safe. But..." He trailed off, unsure of how to continue. “But what?" Tony pressed, hearing the sniffles on the other end of the line. "Kid, are you crying?" Did he perhaps said it too harshly to the kid? He should have known Harley still cared.
"I thought... I thought Dad really cared about me," Harley sobbed, his voice breaking. "I thought he would look for me, that he would fight for me. But he didn't. He just moved on like I never existed?”
"Hey hey.. don’t cry,” Tony said, his voice trying to be gentle. "Listen Harley, your father is a piece of shit who doesn't deserve you. He’s not a good person. You're better off without him."
“I don’t know.. he just-“ Suddenly, a female voice burst through the phone. "Is that Tony?!” Harley's younger sister Abbie grabbed the phone. Tony blinked, unsure how to respond to the sudden shift. "Uh, yeah, it's me..." he said cautiously.
"Tony! God, it's so good to hear your voice again!" Abbie said excitedly, her tone a sharp contrast to Harley's muted sobs moments ago. “Harley has been a total mess! He still insists our so called ‘father’ was having a hard time. It’s so annoying you know?” She paused before speaking again, “..And kind of sad too, I guess.”
Tony couldn't help but smile at Abbie's blunt honesty, despite the tension. "Yeah, I gathered that much. Why don't you put your brother back on?" Just as he finished speaking, Harley's muffled voice could be heard arguing with Abbie, presumably fighting for the phone back. Harley felt a flush creep up his neck at the embarrassment of his sister seeing him so vulnerable.
"Hey, give it back, Abbie!" Harley's annoyed voice finally came back over the line. "Tony, you still there?" Harley asked, sounding flustered. Tony chuckled softly, glad to hear Harley sounding slightly more alive. "Yeah, I'm still here." Harley cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to regain some semblance of composure. "Yeah, uh, sorry about that. Abbie has zero chill, as you probably noticed."
"Yeah," Tony replied dryly, his mind already wandering to other concerns. "So, how are your bruises now? Don’t try to tell me excuses," Tony asked. "They're getting treated by Mum," Harley muttered softly. "She feels really bad about it. She tries to hide it, but she cries when she puts the ointment on them."
"Mum used to clean my cuts and bruises when he wasn’t around. I understand why mum didn’t want to say anything though," Harley continued softly. "She always told me not to argue or shout at him, I of course wouldn’t dare to. She must've known he'd only hurt me more if she spoke up.” Harley had never hated his mother for not defending him, he just thought his mother was scared, he couldn’t blame her if she was.
“You’ve went through hell and you didn’t want to tell me. Was I not that important to you, Harley?” It didn’t really matter if Harley opened up or not, he would have gotten the truth anyway, he just wanted him to be honest. “No.. it’s not that, it’s just, you’ve always treated me like your own kid, and I couldn’t bear to know someone I call family sees me like.”
“But I really wished you would have told me though, I know you wanted to act strong and I get it, you didn’t want to get a bad image of your father.” Harley kept quiet, he didn’t want to be seen as weak by Tony, he had always been able to defend himself and he didn’t want to change that.
“So..." Tony changed the topic, trying to keep his voice light. “When can I come to see you in your new home?”
Harley suddenly felt excited for the first time in a while. “You can come over tomorrow, mum told me to invite you!” he quickly replied.
“Alright, tomorrow works. Just text me your address.” Tony didn’t have to gather a massive search party after all. "Will do," Harley replied back, a small smile finally tugging at his lips. He couldn't wait to see Tony, the family he'd missed so much.
Tony ended the call and immediately checked his texts. The address was quite far from where his old house was, and that was a good thing. He looked back at the house behind him and walked to his car, starting the engine and drove off.