“Don’t… ask that question. Not yet.” My brother softly warned.
“But I just—I justwant to understand—” I choked out, my eyes beginning to water all over again with the anger that burned deep in my gut.
“It wasn’t anything we did or didn’t do. But I believe she found us at the right time in her life, regardless of what happened. Because no matter the outcome, we won’t leave her, whether she wakes up or not.”
“Or not… You just had to add that part in, didn’t you…”I don’t think I can return home without her; I doubt Levi could take a single step into that bathroom without—
“She’ll wake up, Luke. You know she will. Our girl is strong, resilient. She’ll come back to us…”
Levi dropped into the chair on the other side of Tessa, sliding his hand up her arm to rest a palm on her shoulder, and we fell back into silence. The same drawn-out silence we’ve been stewing in for the past several hours, waiting for her to wake.
Time crawled as our hearts slowly sank beneath the soles of our feet. We didn’t need to talk to understand what we were going through, to comfort one another.
“Tess…” A rough-cut voice broke the stillness of the room, and the two of us peered over to the doorway where an older gentleman was now lingering, a bouquet of sunflowers in hand.
Levi and I awkwardly stared at him, unable to form words as the man in question entered our space. Then we both snapped, releasing every shred of our pent-up aggression.
“This is a private room on a closed-off floor. Who the fuck are you, and who gave you permission to be in here?” Levi barked,shooting up from his chair to step in the stranger’s way, blocking his access to Tessa.
“Sit down, kid. I could ask the same question, seeing as one of you—or I suppose both of you—thought you had the fucking right to change her last name.” He scorned, still not giving us his name, all while verbally attacking my brother and me with a brazen fucking attitude. “Tessa fuckingCastiel?”
“She’s our wife,” I announced, standing with my fists buried into the mattress where my elbows once rested. “Of course she’d hold our last name.”Like a badge of fucking honor.
“With whose permission? Because I sure as fuck know neither of you asked for it.”
“Who are you to come in here and accuse us of random bullshit, when we still don’t even know who the fuck you are.” My brother seethed, his hands curling into fists as he crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to give in even an inch.
“Theodore Thomas. I’m her bodyguard—was… her bodyguard.”
“And you’ve done such a wonderful fucking job of keeping her safe.” I taunted, still agitated and unsure if he was telling the truth or simply lying to gain access to our girl.
For all we knew, this man could have been making shit up to get in here just to take more photos for the goddamn vultures that caused this to happen in the first place.
“No better than her husbands.” Theodore quipped, placing the flowers he’d brought on the nearest table, and rage ignited under my skin.
“You want to have a fucking go at me? I’ll kick your ass, old man.” I threatened, shoving the sleeves of my sweatshirt up to my elbows as I skirted the corner of the bed to confront him.
“Luke. Stop. Enough with the pissing contest…” Levi intercepted my motion, arm extending to block me from following through with my onslaught of riled-up emotions.
“Listen to your brother, kid.”
“And you.” My brother seethed, returning his attention to Theodore while somehow remaining calm and composed. “Why are you here? If you no longer work for Tessa, then how the fuck did you find her, and who gave you permission to be in this room?”
“I’ve known Tess since she was a tot.” Theodore relaxed, sliding his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, letting out a long-winded sigh. “Raised that little girl into the woman she is today while her parents left her to trail behind in their shadow. All but forgetting they even had a daughter to begin with.”
“They what?” Levi and I echoed in utter shock.
The intense atmosphere in the room dissolved at Theodore’s words, with the knowledge that she had been abandoned more than once, and by her fucking parents at that.
“She was an accident played off as a blessing to people who were at the peak of their careers, and they used her birth as a publicity stunt to accelerate their popularity. Tess needed someone to protect her in more ways than just security. So when the opportunity arose, I stepped up to the plate and became both her bodyguard and the stand-in parent she needed.”
“And then you left her, just like they did.” I rolled my eyes, not wanting to give in to his petty sob story. But it did make me wonder why she never talked about her family… her life…
“I had no fucking choice.” His throat rumbled with his admission. “I had a wife who needed her husband back, a life that I had put on pause, all for her. I’m not to blame for this. But I will take accountability because I know that I could have taken her away sooner... Not legally by any means, but I could’ve done it, and I should have.”
“So why didn’t you?” I couldn’t help but pry; this conversation was far better than the alternative.
“Because a lifetime on the run wouldn’t have been any better, and at the time, she was just a job, a paycheck. It wasn’t until later down the line that she became so much more to me—the daughter I never had...” Theodore’s expression softened as he glanced around Levi’s arm to Tessa, still sleeping peacefully, unaware of the conversation we were having. “But this isn’t about me, this is about her...How is she?”
