Chapter 19.

**Tessa’s POV**

Hastily, I grabbed my suitcase and hopped off the bus, eager to put some distance between Kevin and I. I was about to walk away when he came down from the bus, “Tessa”, he breathed out, “I am sorry. I do not want us to fight- ever. How about I catch up with you tomorrow morning for breakfast?”, I wanted to decline because the last time I had ‘breakfast’ with one of the step-brothers, my relationship was doomed but instead of doing what my brain instructed, I found myself nodding at him.

He went into the bus and I walked toward the staff building, tired and exhausted from the day’s activities. I took at my key from my back and unlocked the door, pushing it open with my feet. The whole place was dark and I could barely see where I was going so I turned on the flashlight on my phone, not bothering to turn on the living room lights.

“Where the hell were you?”, I should have known that the angel of darkness was hiding in the shadows,

I let out a stress-filled sigh, “I am not in the mood Bethel”, I said as I dragged my suitcase across the carpeted floor,

“You are not in the mood? How dare you leave for half a month without telling me?”, she scolded with a snarl placed on her stupid face,

I narrowed my eyes at her and leaned my bag on the couch to free my hands- if she wanted this fight, I would serve it to her hot and spicy, “Quit talking like you care or like you were actually concerned with my wellbeing”, my voice came out as a yell, “I was gone for three weeks without telling you and you did not even bother to call. Now that I am here, you decide to give me shit about it?”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that, Tessa. I am your mother”,

“No, you are not. You are my egg donor and nothing more”, I pointed at her and took a step forward, “And don’t you dare call yourself my mother- ever. You are a witch”, I told her before grabbing my suitcase and walking out of the living room and into my room. I threw the luggage in my hand on the floor and practically flew unto the bed, the soft material I had been craving for so long felt heavenly and I found myself dozing off the next second.


The next morning, I had to push myself out of bed when my alarm rang, telling me that I had to go for breakfast with Kevin, I was seriously contemplating taking a raincheck on him since I was so tired and sleep deprived but I just could not do that to him.

I took a quick shower and put on a summer dress and sandals, I combed my messy hair out and let it flow down my back. Usually, I preferred to pack it up into a ponytail but today was one of those days when I felt too lazy to do anything. I grabbed my phone from the bed and made a bee line to the main door, hoping to not come across my mother so early in the morning or even, at all. She staying away from me would make my life so much easier and do me some good.

Walking across the garden, I pushed the back door that led to the kitchen open and was surprised or more, shell shocked to see him there. What was he doing in the kitchen? This place wasn’t exactly his scene.

On hearing the door, he turned his face that was buried in the freezer towards me and I let out a gasp, “Oh my God, Alex! What happened?”, somehow, even after what he did to me, I still cared for him a lot, “Are you alright?”, my legs moved a step forward, not knowing whether or not it was okay for me to go close to him.

He let out a loud snort, “You talk like you care”,

I looked at him incredulously and whispered, “I do care”,

“No, Tessa, you don’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t have left me like you did that day. You wouldn’t have disappeared into thin air like you did”, he raised his voice at me,

“Did you come after me? No! So don’t you dare talk about me not caring for you”, I screamed at him,

“You know who cares about you a little too much than he is letting on?”, he placed a sinister smirk on his busted lip and I just knew he was about to stir up some shit. He was an asshole and I wondered how I had not seen that earlier,

“I really do not want to know”, I was not going to let my curiosity get the best of me, falling into his trap would be like falling into the deepest pit of hell- endless and painful,

“Don’t you want to know who did this two me just because I broke your tiny little heart?”, he was trying to pull my strings, trying to get me to drink the glass of poison he was offering. I shook my head at him but my failure to move contradicted everything as I was actually very curious to know who had done this to him. His bruises looked fresh, no more than two days so I assumed that it had to be Kevin, who else in this household would stick up for me like that?

“You don’t have to waste your time, I know who it was”, I said confidently,

“Do you really?”, eyes narrowed into slits and he tilted his head to the side, his smirk unwavering on his stupidly handsome face.

“Yes, it was obviously Kevin”, I rolled my eyes at him and folded my arms across my chest. Alex let out an ear split laugh, making me feel extremely stupid and self-conscious, I shifted uneasily when he took a few steps closer to me,

“Gabriel”, my eyebrow suddenly cocked up in confusion, Gabriel? Why would Gabriel do that for me? Why would Gabriel want to stand up for me? He hated my fucking existence, didn’t he?

I was about to reply him when the door was pushed open, “Step away from her, Alex”, Kevin said from the door, “You have done enough damage”,

Alex put his hands up, as if surrendering, “I’ll back up”, he moved away from me before grabbing the bag of ice on the counter, “I was just about to leave anyways”, he shrugged and turned to me, “See you around, babe”, he winked at me and I so badly wanted to throw him the middle finger, just a souvenir for his troubles.

I saw Kevin come into my line of vision, “Are you okay?”, I nodded at him but I had something else burned into my mind, Gabriel had beaten Alex up, for me? It was impossible, impractical even and I just couldn’t comprehend it or find any sensible reason to it. Maybe Alex was lying, maybe- just maybe Gabriel had beaten him up for another reason that didn’t concern me. Yes, that had to be it.