Mag-log in“Tessa, please listen, it’s not what you think, okay?” Daven said, looking directly into my eyes.
“What should I think? That I’m in my dad’s friend’s house and I’m getting touched?” I asked him, voice sharp even though my pulse was already climbing.
“I read the text when you slept.”
“What text?” The words left my mouth before the realization hit. I hadn’t cleared my screen. The messages to Jake were still sitting there in plain sight—plans for tomorrow night, the birthday, the virginity I had been saving.
“You want to gift him your virginity as a birthday gift? Really?” Daven asked, lying on my bed only a few inches from me. His voice was low, almost disbelieving.
“No. I’m not doing that anymore. He cheated earlier today. I’m not giving him anything for his birthday. We’re done.”
“Are you sure, Tessa?”
“Yes, Daven. Now let me catch some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”
He stood, turned back, and leaned down to kiss me goodnight for the second time. This time he was shirtless, wearing only white shorts.
The front of his shorts tented slightly, and my eyes locked on that bulge before I could stop myself.
God, that was a massive cock. Heat flooded my body. My pussy swelled and grew slick in seconds.
“Yeah, Daven. Goodnight,” I managed after what felt like a full minute of staring.
“What took you so long to answer? Why were you staring for too long?”
“No—never mind. I… just goodnight.” Shame burned my cheeks as I yanked the brown bedsheet up to my chin.
Sleep came eventually, but it brought no peace. In the dream, Daven was on top of me, mouth open against my throat, that heavy bulge grinding between my legs until I woke up soaked and aching. My nipples were tight. My thighs were slick. Jake wasn’t taking this virginity, not after what he did. I’d rather give it to Daven.
I sat up, grabbed my pillow, and walked down the dim hallway toward his room. He wasn’t asleep either. He lay with one arm bent behind his head, staring at the ceiling. The moment he saw me, he sat up, concern flashing across his face.
“What happened? Nightmare?”
“No. I couldn’t sleep. Let’s talk about the text.”
I sat on the edge of his bed and placed my right hand on his bare chest. His skin was warm. I dragged my palm slowly down over the hard plane of his stomach, through the trail of dark hair that disappeared into his waistband.
He didn’t stop me. He only watched me with a tight face pretending he didn’t understand exactly what I was doing.
“Okay,” he said carefully. “The text. What about it?”
“A lot about it. But let’s start with my virginity. I want you to take it, Daven.” The words came out shameless and clear.
His eyes widened. “No, Tessa. Victor is my friend. I can’t betray him like that.”
“Really?” I slid my hand lower, under the elastic of his shorts, and wrapped my fingers around the thick, hard length of him. He was already fully erect, hot and heavy in my grip. “But you’re hard, Daven.”
A rough sound escaped his throat. He didn’t pull away. His hips twitched once, pushing his cock into my fist for a second before he forced himself still.
“Tessa...”
"I'm not a child, Daven, and as for my dad? Unless you would tell him"
Daven’s hand closed around my wrist, but he didn’t stop the slow glide of my fingers. His breathing had gone uneven. In the low light, I could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his abs flexed every time I squeezed.
“You’re his daughter,” he said, voice strained. “You’re staying under my roof. This is....”
“What I want.” I leaned in and pressed my mouth to the side of his neck, tasting salt and skin. “I woke up dripping because of you.” I gave his cock another firm stroke. “If you tell me to leave, I will. But don’t lie and say you don’t want it. Your body already answered.”
For several long seconds the only sound in the room was our breathing. Then Daven moved. He grabbed the hem of my oversized T-shirt and yanked it over my head in one rough motion, leaving me bare except for the thin cotton panties that were already soaked through. His eyes dragged over my breasts, my stomach, the dark patch of fabric between my thighs.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “You’re serious.”
“Completely.”
He was about to push in when we heard voices at the door outside.
"Who's in, Daven! Tessa!" a voice shouted.
My God, I'm finished. That is my dad's voice calling from outside. I looked at the wall clock hanging on the wall, and it was already 6am.
"I'm finished, Daven, that's my dad," I said, still looking at his tensed face while I lay there under him, hopeless.
"Yeah, I can see that. I can see him with a lady too. They're holding hands, but I can't figure out who she is."
"A lady?" I asked and stood up. Since I was a teen, I only knew one lady my dad loved that much, and that was Catherine, so hearing he was outside holding hands with a lady made my heart jump out of my chest.
"Let's pretend we're still asleep, Daven. Please, this could get me into trouble."
"No, I can't do that. Quickly, put your clothes back on and go to your room. I'm going to get the door."
He seemed dead serious, so I had to obey immediately. I put my gown back on, grabbed the pillow, and ran back to my room.
A few minutes later, I heard him open the door, so I came out, forming sleepy eyes. At the door stood my dad, with a young lady I had never seen in my life.
"Dad, you're here already," I said, stretching out.
"Yes darling, sorry I woke you up. I had to come take you home before I leave. I have an appointment early this morning."
He came to give me a peck, which I received wholeheartedly. From the corner of my eye, I could see Daven hugging the lady my dad came with, so I had to turn to them.
"So..." I said slowly, "you two already know each other?"
The young woman laughed and slipped her arm through Daven's.
"Know each other?" she echoed. "He's my Dad."
Tessa'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
Tessa'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
Tessa'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
Tessa'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
Tessa'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
Chapter 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







