Aiden's POVAll this was too surreal to be real, vulture reporters swooping down at Tessa's apartment, camera flashes and a cacophony of microphones trying to capture the sound of someone saying something, hell. All the repercussions swam through my head; she would never be able to get away from them, the press tore people apart and ripped them to shreds.I wrung the leather steering wheel and parked down the street from her building. Over my dead body were they going to do that to Tessa.Actually, I did. I called a few people I could trust, people who would be able to extract her with no suspicions. They would take her out, but she would never know it was me doing this. Not after everything that went down, after I had doubted her at the most crucial time. She would never let me willingly help her again. But still, I needed to make sure she was okay, even from afar.From where my car was parked, I had a clearer view of the building. Hundreds of reporters at the entrance all pushing an
Tessa's POVIt wasn't until I pulled back the curtains that my heart hit the bottom of my stomach. They were everywhere, reporters, camera crews, microphones all jammed against the face of whomever was brave enough to walk past the building. Tears welled up in my eyes at their gaze upon my own apartment.I stepped away from the window, my breath catching in my chest. This can't be happening.Arms crossed over my chest, I began to feel the walls closing in. Those headlines of the articles still swirled in my head, the accusations, the lies, they just wanted a piece of me, to make my life another media circus. If I stepped out there, my reputation, what was left of it, would go down the drain.I couldn't stay here. But where could I go? Without anyone seeing me. Not with all those cameras.My phone buzzed, breaking thoughts. I snatched it off the table, hoping it was someone with good news—Jack, maybe, with some kind of solution, a way to clear my name. But when I saw the number, it was
Aiden's POV"Do you think Tessa really did it?"My father's words kicked me in the gut. I looked away, unable to meet his eyes, my throat tightened up. The moment of silence right after his question felt heavier than anything I ever had to face."I don't know," I said finally, though that was lame. Part of me wanted to believe that Tessa didn't have anything to do with this whole mess, but it just wasn't going for her, the witnesses and evidence are hard to deny.My father's brow arched, and for a second, his mask slipped. His face didn't cloud with emotion, but I knew him well enough to trace the flicker of concern in his eyes. "Aiden," he said smoothly, "I have known Tessa for years; she's been loyal, hardworking, trustworthy. This doesn't sound like something she would pull.”I massaged the back of my neck, pacing behind my desk. It was as if the office had shrunk with me in it, the weight of his presence weighing down on me. "Dad, evidence doesn't lie. People testified against her
Tessa's POVIt was a long drive getting to the safe house.. The guys were nice, but a stupid feeling wouldn't get off my stomach that something bad was going to happen. Finally reaching it, I looked around at the quiet, seriously secluded surroundings… trees and a driveway with nobody in either direction. It was silently peaceful, and my head continued with a load of questions: who might have sent them, why was he helping me?And in the blink of a second, we were; a wave of terror surged over me. The house was fine-clean, airy, but I was in very little mood to appreciate all that. One of the men nodded silently and thrust a bag of clothes my way; I blinked, too baffled but, frankly, too tired, to ask any questions."Here," he said, his tone flat. "We got you some clothes. There's food in the kitchen. You need anything, you ask us." I nodded still dazed from all of this. "Thanks… but who sent you? I really have know."The man turned sideways to his partner; for one strange moment, I m
Tessa's POVAs I reached my parent's place, mom was already waiting by the door ready to embrace with her open arms. Comforting feeling of being home enveloped me the instant I crossed the threshold of my house. For one brief instant all the madness of the world outside just melted away."Sweetheart," she whispered, folding me in close. "We have been so worried. Are you all right?”I nodded, rubbing my face against her shoulder. Honestly, I didn't really know if I was okay or not, but I was here and that counted for a little something. "I'm okay, Mom. It's just been a lot."Then my dad appeared in the hall, his brow furrowed. His reassuring hand came to rest on my back. "Whatever it is, we'll get to the bottom of it-together."The smile was slight, one of those very well known. How would they have known what went on? All the same, comfort of ease was balm to the sting of betrayal and uncertainty.They sat me down in the living room and talked with me for hours about everything and abs
Damien's POV"Sir, we got a situation."I stiffened my spine, holding the phone tight as irritation seeped into my slick exterior. "What situation? Spit it out.""Tessa, she's not at the house any more. She left before we could get a full handle on things," the voice on the other end stuttered, trying to explain.I sprang to my feet, pacing across the front of the desk, and cut through the air with, "What do you mean she's gone? How did you let her slip away?" The words sliced the air like a knife. "You were supposed to keep an eye on her!""We don't know where she has gone, but we are working on it. We have checked her usual spots and as of yet, no trace.”I ground my teeth. Patience was wearing ultra thin. Damn it, Tessa. Always managing to slip through my fingers."Find her," I growled icily. "I don't care how long it takes, find out where she ran off to.""Yes, sir. We're on it."I slammed the phone down onto the desk. It cracked loudly. The whole of my game was one thing-keeping
Tessa's POVI quivered like an aspen leaf as my eyes dropped to the paper in my hands. Adoption papers. With my name on it.It was just literally one big blur around me, for just a second, and I swear to God, I almost passed out. It had been as if my legs had just gone out from underneath me, dropping me back against the dresser, stumbling-like holding myself up. I read and reread the words, praying to God, there must be some kind of mistake.Tessa Anna Mills. Adopted.My eyes were fine, welled up as they were with tears that nobody looked at or ever talked about. Shock and doubt, they each arrived in great gusts right into my chest, as in a pincer. It was not true; there was just no way that could be true-my whole life a lie. Mom and Dad could really never have said anything? Too painful to consider."No," I whispered, and my head shook. "This cannot be right."Cold hard fact staring right in the face of it all, taunting me with every letter. Fingers wrapped around the edges of the p
Tessa's POVI came awake into a world that wasn't violently spinning. My body felt lighter even as the weight of all that had happened weighed in my mind. I lay there for a while staring at the ceiling, the events of yesterday replaying themselves in my mind like some film I couldn't turn off.How I saw the adoption papers, how I blew my top, how I ran from the kitchen in the state of utmost anger and hurt. And now, within my aching heart flashed images of my parents' faces, all etched with guilt and sorrow.As clear as water now in the morning, I knew I had been grossly unfair to them. They brought me up with nothing but love, treated me from day one like one of their own, and never did it feel wrong or at any time that I did not belong. They gave me everything.And I acted like a spoiled child.I heaved a heavy sigh, starting to massage my face with open palms. I needed to make this right, not snap at them after trying to protect me. The better half of me was with them and with my e
TESSA'S POVSunlight streamed through the huge window panes of our house onto the invitations laid across the dining table. I sat with a pen in hand, writing down final guest names, while Aiden leaned against the counter sipping his coffee."We could just elope, you know," he joked, the corner of one lip tugging upwards with a mischievous smirk.I turned a mock glare his way. "After all this planning? Not in your life, Aiden GRAY. We're doing this properly."He laughed, setting his mug down as he ambled over to me. "Properly, huh? That's why you've been vetoing half my suggestions?""You wanted a firework display during the vows!" I reminded him, laughing.“And what’s wrong with that? It would’ve been epic.” He leaned down, pressing a kiss to my temple. “But fine, no fireworks. As long as you’re there, it’ll be perfect.”It was what he said that always made my heart flutter, and the words this time were not an exception. It was one of those weddings that put me into anticipation and j
AIDEN'S POVMonths melted away.Weirdly, life went on since it all came crashing down. It had been months since Damien's death, Chloe leaving the city, Tessa and me over his grave saying our goodbyes. Time didn't heal everything; that it never could. But the space it gave. to breathe, rebuild, and put pieces of our lives back into place-was something all of us had desperately needed.That, with me and Tessa, gradually slipped into rhythm, and whatever in our daily life had disappeared with time turned into the time worth living. The daily morning coffee on the balcony, the late evening lying on the couch curled up, making small talks about the future-this had become a routine thing with us. Indeed, chaos seemed to bypass us somehow, yet the shadows took one corner of my mind with the coming night.But as I watched Tessa, humming to herself and arranging flowers in the sitting room, it suddenly hit me-the ton of bricks they say are always used in such situations. I loved her; I had alw
AIDEN'S POVI did not want to come here. I had told myself that I wouldn't-that some things quite simply were not worth a second chance. But here we were. Tessa stood beside me, her hand in mine, as we walked through the cemetery toward Damien's grave. The wind was cold, a bite into my skin, but nothing compared to the chill now setting into my chest.There it lay, the newly turned soil, the headstone, and the blunt inscription stating his name: "Damien Gray." Seemed so … normal. No great sentences of poetically flowing verbiages, no flowery platitudes of an exaggerated regard. A plain, uneventful name to denote an end of the life so full of promise to me and torn by just so many things… in particular by myself.I had stopped in front of the grave, said nothing. All these emotions warred in my brain, jumbling anger, guilt, sorrow. And it wasn't just because of what happened to him. It was for everything, things that could have gone differently, which I should have done."Do you think
TESSA'S POVChloe sat up against the mountain of pillows that propped her back. Her skin was a dull white; those alert features dulled by exhaustion and pain. When her gaze locked with mine, something flickered over her face-shame, perhaps? Regret?"Tessa," she husked out, her voice husky, yet steady. "I didn't expect you to be here.”"I did," I said, stepping inside. The door clicked shut behind me, and the soft hum of machinery in the room served to fill the brief moment of silence.A minute swept by with neither of us speaking. I had absolutely no idea where to begin, while Chloe seemed to fish for the right words. Then she spoke.“I'm so sorry," Chloe said, her voice breaking. She looked down at her hands, which were twisting the hospital blanket over and over in a nervous fashion. "For everything. For what I did to you. For what I let Damien do.”Her words were like a wave, and all the anger and hurt I'd been trying to bury surfaced. I crossed my arms, my voice sharper than I mea
AIDEN'S POVIt all boiled down to me standing against cold brick outside of a hospital. The sharp night air almost nipped my skin but couldn't take away what had been brewing inside of me since the night Damien was finally gone.Dead.The word reverberated in my mind, hollow yet heavy. He had not reached the hospital. Just a few minutes later, when the ambulance had speedily gone away from the warehouse, the police confirmed that my brother was no longer alive. In the pit of my chest, a tussle between relief and guilt twisted itself into this sensation, which has made me so ill.I stared upwards, trying to make sense of the darkened sky. It was a path he'd chosen, wasn't it? He'd refused every olive branch, clung to his rage, and let it consume him. Still, a part of me couldn't help but ask: What if?The sound of footsteps pulled me from my reverie. Tessa came forward, her face ashen, eyes red-rimmed from crying. She wrapped her arms around her middle, as if holding herself to protect
AIDEN'S POVThe ropes chafing my wrists were heaved into the painfully darkened room by two of Damien's men. My rib cage was racing, pounding within me like a war drum, as my eyes coursed over every inch, scanning the space for her. The echoes of my footsteps rattled through this large, high-ceilinged area, joined by the smothering tension in the air.Then I see her.“Tessa!” screams my hoarse voice in desperation while seeing her tied around the chair, white faced, and tear streaks covering it, her arms bound behind her back, a gag over her mouth, muffling her cries while her big terrified eyes remained fixed on mine, imploring for help.It came finally with the breaking of the silence from Damien's cruel laughter. "Well, well, your Prince Charming is finally here.""Let her go, Damien," I said, shaking all over with anger mixed with fear.Damienne cocked his head to one side, his face a mockery. "And miss this little family reunion? I don't think so.”Damien started to circle me wit
TESSA'S POVThe stench of that dark room shredded through my senses. My wrists throbbed, sore where the coarse ropes had lacerated into the skin, and with each weak inhalation, it was like the final one that could break this tenuous will hanging by a thread.I was not going to back away from him, not from Damien after what he pulled on Aiden, on me, and our lives.Standing in the doorway was a mountain of a man, with a great scar running down his cheek, scraping his boots on the floor and yawning and weighing his weight on one side. He had been left to watch me; now or never was the time to try anything that came into my head.I pulled carefully, testing the looseness of the rope binding my hands, my heart racing in my chest. Hours of subtly working at this knot had finally paid off; it gave way just enough for me to slide my wrists free.I glanced over to the guard, who now had his head leaned back against the wall, his eyes shutting.Go, Tessa. Now.Summoning every last shred of cou
AIDEN'S POVThe house was creepily silent when I went in-the kind of silence that twisted my gut. Something was off because it was too still, too empty."Tessa?" I called out, dropping keys on the counter. Nobody answered.My eyes scanned around the living room, the kitchen-nothing. My chest had already tightened as I tried again, louder this time. "Tessa? Marcus? Garret?"No response.And then I saw it-her phone. It lay on the counter, cracked at the screen, looking like she had dropped it there in haste. Tessa would never leave her phone lying anywhere.Now dread set in as my heart began racing, strode toward the security room for some answers, though my gut already told me otherwise.I burst through the door into the room to find Marcus and two other guards huddled around the monitors."Where the hell is Tessa?" I growled low, an edge to my voice that could cut through glass.Marcus slowly turned to me, white as marble, and seemed to fish for his answer. "Sir… we were reviewing the
TESSA'S POVIt wasn't until we stopped before Aiden's building that the car came to rest; it was my safe refuge now turned into a sanctuary in which the fears inside my head seemed to nestle. Those were instances from two weeks ago, haunting in my mind like some unsavable storm-accusations which memory just didn't seem willing or able to rid itself of."You're home," Aiden whispered, and immediately his voice was an anchor of solace amidst my rioting thoughts.Turning back to him, I pushed a small smile. "Home," I echoed, though the word felt wrong. Was I ever again safe?Aiden climbed out first, coming around and pulling my door open. His firm hand reached inside toward me, steady and reassuringly strong. "Come on; got you.I hesitated, staring at his hand. For a moment, the hospital was safer. Out here, the world was too big, too dangerous. But I chased the fear away, telling myself Aiden would never let anything happen to me.I took his hand and he led me out of the car."Take it e