Chapter 43
Tessa
Truly, Madly, Deeply by Sidney
THIRTEEN
“Teddy!” I shrieked, launching myself into Theodore’s arms after sprinting from the backyard through the foyer of my parents’ mansion after realizing he’d arrived. “You showed!”
“Of course I did. I’d never miss an opportunity to see your beautiful smile, Tess. Happy Birthday.”
Theodore held on to me with a warm embrace, giving me a firm squeeze before releasing his grip and lowering me to the ground.
“Is my Dad here, too? Mom?” I tried to peer around his large frame, seeing if either were with him, or maybe on their way inside.
When I glanced back up at him, he shook his head, pressing his lips together because he already knew the answer and how I’d react. Always the same…
They weren’t coming. Too busy for their only child; the one they never wanted in the first place.
“I’m so sorry, Tess…” Theodore knelt to my level and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder as my eyes watered, blurring my vision.
“No. No, it’s-it’s fine… I’ll be fine, Teddy.” My voice cracked as I wiped away the tears before they ever had a chance to fall. I would be fine without them. “You’re here. And that’s all that matters.” I forced a weak smile, one that I had become accustomed to making over the last few years.
Reaching into his back pocket, Theodore revealed a small red box wrapped in a thin white ribbon. I knew exactly where it’d come from.“For-For me?” I gasped, holding my hand out as he placed it in my palm, and I dragged my fingers along the golden accents embossed into the lid. Cartier. “Teddy…” Words escaped me as I gently pulled the tail of the bow, and the ribbon fell away from the sides.
Lifting the lid with care, my eyes lit up with a light brighter than the sun as I pulled out a delicate gold bangle with ten nude diamonds inlaid, evenly spaced, around the perimeter of the band. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that something had been etched along the inside, and I rotated the bracelet in the light, attempting to read the inscription.
I’ll always be here for you.
“And that’s a promise.” Theodore added as I read the words aloud, and he took it from me to place on my wrist.
Something for me to cherish for a lifetime. My most precious and sentimental possession…
SEVENTEEN
I had been curled up on the sofa for hours, staring out into the sunset as tears streaked down and soaked my face. Dry trails left behind from previous ones I had shed earlier.
I could feel him as he entered the room, a calming, fatherly presence. Something I needed more than ever.
“Why?…” I croaked, finally having a moment to catch my breath after crying alone for hours. “Why can’t anyone love me? Why am I so easily expendable, just another rung on someone’s ladder to the top?”
“He didn’t deserve you…”
“Are you sure about that? It wasn’t the other way around?” There was a slight edge in my tone, anger laced my words of pain and heartbreak. “Do you know what he said to me, how he ended things between us?”
I was only seventeen, reeling after losing my first crush, first…love, if that’s even what it was. Theodore remained silent, choosing to listen rather than just tell me what I wanted to hear. He was always good at that…listening.
“Well, I’ll tell you. He said I would never be good enough to be someone’s wife. That I’ll always be the girl everyone uses for their own advantage, and once they’ve gotten what they needed out of me and the awards they so desperately desired, I’ll be nothing more than garbage carelessly tossed to the curb, a used and washed-up rag.”
“Tess—”
“He said my father left me for the same fucking reason,” I screamed, sitting up to face him over the back of the couch. My entire face was puffyand swollen, looking as though a nest of hornets had stung every part of it. “That no one could actually love someone like me… outspoken, independent. He said that the moment I fail, the second I fall out of this prim and proper character you’ve all made me out to be, it’s over. No one will be waiting to catch me when I fall off my pedestal. I’ll crash to the ground like an old abandoned building, nothing but a memory and waste of space ready for someone new to replace me.”
My breaths were heavy as I winded myself through my strained cries, emotions burning a hole straight through my heart and soul.
In my current emotional state, I wasn’t even aware that Theodore had moved until the couch sank beside me and I felt an arm wrap tight around my chest in an effort to calm my body.
“Shh, Tess…” Holding me close, Theodore rocked me from side to side as my breathing slowed and I gave in to his comfort. “Don’t listen to what some punk ass seventeen-year-old kid thinks of you. You’re beautiful, bold, and brilliant, Tessa. He’s just jealous of your success and will get what’s coming to him. Little shits like that don’t last longer than a few years before they fuck up bad enough to be ripped to shreds by the tabloids. You’re doing everything right.”
