Stolen by my Dad best friend
At twenty-one, Tessa Hale is tired of being betrayed. After catching her boyfriend, Blake Monroe, cheating yet again, she finally walks away from the relationship she once believed would last forever. But moving on becomes complicated when her father sends his longtime best friend, Daven Morgan, to bring her home during a storm.
Daven is thirty-eight, successful, protective, and everything Blake never was. He is also the one man Tessa should never want—the best friend of her father and a man seventeen years older than her. What begins as an innocent ride home soon becomes a dangerous attraction neither of them can ignore. Lingering looks, unexpected jealousy, and stolen moments slowly blur the line between friendship and desire.
Then Tessa meets Rose, Daven’s twenty-year-old daughter, and an unexpected friendship draws the two families even closer. But there is more beneath the surface than either family realizes. While Tessa struggles with her growing feelings for Daven, Blake refuses to accept that she has moved on. When he publicly humiliates her at their class reunion by revealing a deeply personal secret, Daven steps in to defend her—and Blake decides revenge is the only way to get her back.
Jake Hayes, Tessa’s charming classmate, also enters the picture, offering her the genuine affection she deserves. Suddenly, Tessa is caught between the man from her past, the man who wants her future, and the man she was never supposed to love.
As jealousy turns dangerous and hidden family secrets begin surfacing, Tessa must finally choose for herself. Will she return to the love that betrayed her, choose the safe path with Jake, or risk everything for Daven—the one man who could cost her family, her future, and her heart?
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Chapter: Chapter 54: The Living witnessTessa's POVVictor's words kept echoing through my mind as we rushed back to Westbridge Medical Center: *"The second witness was inside the hospital when you were born."*A nurse. Someone with access. Someone my mother had trusted. Someone who had been close enough to see everything and do nothing to stop it. The reality of that kept twisting through my thoughts—the fact that while my mother was disappearing, while my life was being rewritten, there had been someone standing right there, bearing witness, and choosing silence.Daven drove with his jaw clenched, his hands gripping the steering wheel with enough force to turn his knuckles white. The tension radiating off him was almost tangible. I could feel his mind working through the same puzzle pieces I was, arranging them into patterns, trying to make sense of how a single nurse could connect to everything—to Adrian, to my mother, to the entire conspiracy that had shaped my existence."You're quiet," I said, breaking the silence tha
Last Updated: 2026-10-08
Chapter: Chapter 53: The inside witnessTessa's POVThe initial stared up at me from the paper, impossibly small and impossibly heavy: *V.*One letter. That was all we had. One letter and a deadline that was counting down by the second. Victor stood across from us in the hospital corridor, his expression unreadable in that way it always was when he was wrestling with a secret too large to contain. But I knew him. I'd known him my entire life. And right now, watching the tension in his jaw, the careful way he held his body, the deliberate refusal to meet my eyes—I knew he was hiding something that changed everything."Dad," I said quietly, stepping toward him. "Who is the second witness?"His jaw tightened. I could see the battle playing out behind his eyes—the war between a father's protective instinct and the truth that could no longer stay buried. "Tessa—""Don't." My voice came out sharper than I intended. "Don't tell me you don't know."He looked away.That single gesture was confirmation."You do know," I said, and my
Last Updated: 2026-10-08
Chapter: Chapter 52: The Hidden NameTessa's POVThe message on my phone burned like a brand: *ASK DAVEN WHO WAS STANDING BESIDE VICTOR THAT NIGHT.*I couldn't stop staring at those words. They twisted through my mind, wrapping around every piece of trust I'd built with Daven, every assumption I'd made about the people around me. Daven read the message again, his expression darkening with each word, and when he finally looked at me, I could see the weight of something terrible pressing down on him."Don't believe everything Adrian sends you," he said quietly. His voice carried a calm that felt forced, constructed—the kind of calm that comes right before a confession."But what if he's telling the truth?" My voice cracked slightly. "What if there was someone else there, and you've known about them all along?"Daven's jaw tightened. "He wants you to doubt everyone. He's already made you question your own father."I stared at him. "Do you know who was standing beside Victor that night?"He hesitated.That single moment of h
Last Updated: 2026-10-07
Chapter: Chapter 51: The wrong faceTessa's POVThe gunshot echoed through the building like thunder, reverberating off concrete walls and swallowing everything in its aftermath. For a single moment, time seemed to suspend itself—I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but cling to Daven as he pulled me against him, his body shielding mine instinctively."Stay close!" he commanded, his voice cutting through my panic.The air smelled like smoke and something acrid I couldn't identify. Somewhere ahead of us, something heavy hit the floor with a sickening thud. Daven immediately positioned himself between me and the sound, his protective instinct overriding everything else."We need to see who was shot," I said, my voice steadier than I felt."Tessa—""If someone is hurt, we can't leave them."He hesitated for only a moment, then nodded. "Stay close to me. Don't move away."We moved slowly through the darkness, the emergency lights flickering overhead in sputtering intervals that barely illuminated the corrid
Last Updated: 2026-10-07
Chapter: Chapter 50: The Architect of EverythingTessa's POVThe speaker crackled and then fell silent, leaving only the echo of Adrian's words hanging in the darkness like a threat. I could hear my own breathing, feel the rapid pulse of my heartbeat in my throat. Daven still held my hand, but his attention had shifted entirely—every muscle in his body coiled and ready, waiting for Adrian's next move.He pulled at the doors behind us. Once. Twice. They didn't budge."Adrian!" His voice cut through the silence like a whip. "Where is she?"A slow, deliberate laugh filled the space—the kind of laugh that suggested Adrian had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. "You really thought I'd let you simply walk out?" Adrian's voice dripped with amusement that made my skin crawl. "After everything I've waited for?""Let us see her," Daven demanded. His tone was controlled, but I could feel the vibration of rage beneath it."Eventually," Adrian replied, stretching out the word like a promise and a threat combined.I stepped around
Last Updated: 2026-10-05
Chapter: Chapter 49: The price of sacrificeChapter Forty-Nine: The Price of SacrificeTessa's Pov The file was still in my hands when I heard footsteps echoing through the hallway. Not Daven's. Someone heavier, someone moving with the weight of years and certainty. My father.Victor appeared at the end of the corridor, and I immediately knew he'd been searching for us. His eyes scanned from the abandoned wing door to the file in my hands to Daven's face—cataloging everything, understanding nothing yet. But he would. The pieces were already arranging themselves in his mind."The old east wing," Victor said quietly, his gaze fixed on the sealed doors. "Adrian has always been predictable."Jake handed him the hospital note, and I watched my father's expression shift as he read the demand: *BRING THE PENDANT. TESSA COMES ALONE.*The pendant around my neck suddenly felt like it was burning. The one my mother had given me years ago, the one Monalisa had pressed into my hands with a warning I never fully understood. It had belonged
Last Updated: 2026-10-05
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