There was no denying the fatherly look he gave our girl as he stepped around us—and we let him.
“Stable. Breathing…” I spoke, releasing a held breath as I collapsed back down into the same spot where I had been refusing to leave for longer than a few minutes. My elbows and fists were probably imprinted on the cream knit blanket.
“Who found her?”
“I did…” My brother exhaled, recalling that nightmare moment all over again, his hand trembling at his side as he aimlessly stared at one of the machines. He still hadn’t worked up the nerve to tell me everything that happened, just bits and pieces before falling silent, numb, all over again.
“Were there signs?”
“No… none. Everything seemed so… perfect… normal, at least that’s what we thought…” Levi spoke up as I reeled over the question I had been asking myself on repeat since we arrived.
“You wouldn’t have known... Tess hid her pain well. Knew precisely how to hide her feelings and faults better than any—”
“She’s not flawed.” I cut in, slamming my fist down on the sheets with a slight edge to my tone. No one, not even he, had the right to state otherwise.
“I never said she was…” Theodore murmured, ignoring my outburst as he took her right hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Tess has been perfect since the day she was born… I only wished she had the parents and a life to match.”
Lifting her hand, Theodore pressed his lips to the back of her palm, shutting his eyes as he fought to hold back a tear that lingered in the corner.
For a man who looked as though he could take out an entire army, he appeared more broken than we did—the guilt radiating off him in waves as he opened his eyes to stare down at the woman he believed he’d failed.
“How’d you do it?” He asked, lifting his gaze to meet ours from across the bed.
“Do-Do what?” We stumbled together, our shoulders tensing at the question.
“Flip thenarrative? Because I saw the photos and the video on TMZ. That was unmistakably my Tess in all of them. So, whoever made the allegations against her disappear had to possess considerable power, effectively painting the woman who sold her out as the star of the show instead. Brandi, was her name, I believe…”
We couldn’t tell him the truth, even if we wanted to…
But it was true. No more than two hours after Brandi was delivered to Dustin, the script was reversed in our girl’s favor—Brandi was accused of falsifying everything she’d sold to profit off Tessa’s disappearance as if it were nothing more than a joke at the public’s expense.
My brother and I stared at each other, trying to figure out what the fuck kind of excuse we could give that would be reasonable enough for Theodore to accept without jeopardizing our status or asking more questions…
Levi was better at handling complex conversations, always knowing the right thing to say to get us out of a troubling situation. So while he took the lead, pulling Theodore aside, their conversation turned into nothing more than a mumbled hum and I returned my attention to my princess. Clasping her left hand tightly between mine, rolling her ring with my fingertips as I leaned in by her ear and whispered words that I hoped she would hear.
Words that I prayed would bring her back to me.
