All Chapters of HE PAID ME TO FORGET MY SON…NOW I WORK FOR HIM: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

🌹TESSA🌹The shock of seeing Dwayne in that hallway did not leave my body until I got home.I had walked through the rest of my workday on autopilot, nodding when I was supposed to nod, typing when I was supposed to type, pouring coffee at the right temperature at the right time, and none of it had touched the place where his face was still burning behind my eyes. Not until I unlocked my own front door and saw Wayne's shoes kicked off by the couch did something in my chest finally loosen enough to let me breathe.That was four days ago.Work had been going smoothly since. I was starting to learn the rhythm of Reddington Group Holdings, the names of the executives who nodded at me in the hallway, which conference rooms ran cold and needed the heater switched on before a meeting, how Raymond liked his documents stacked so the most urgent sat on top without a label telling him so. I had not spilled anything else on his desk. I had not made another mistake I could not undo. I told myself

🌹TESSA🌹 Max lifted his glass before anyone had properly settled into their seats, and the small cluster of conversation around the table quieted to make room for him. "To Raymond Reddington," he said, his voice pitched just loud enough to carry, "for finally gracing us with his presence tonight, and to the partnership I hope this dinner marks the beginning of." Glasses rose around the table. I did not have one in my hand, and no one seemed to expect me to. I sat with my tablet balanced on my knee, pen ready, my spine held so straight it ached, and I kept my eyes fixed on the blank notes screen like it was the only solid thing left in the room. Raymond gave the smallest possible nod in return, the kind of gesture that acknowledged the toast without actually agreeing to anything it implied, and set his glass down without drinking from it. "Shall we discuss the terms properly this time," he said, "or is there another gala waiting after this one." A ripple of polite laughter went

🌹TESSA🌹"Ma'am, we already confirmed the building is empty. The landlord gave notice to all tenants. No one filed to stay."The worker's voice reached me from somewhere far away, muffled beneath the roar of my own heartbeat, and I did not have the patience left in my body to explain myself to a stranger in a hard hat."My son is inside," I said, and I did not wait for permission. I ducked under the tape before his hand could close around my arm, and I was running, my heels abandoned somewhere on the cracked pavement behind me, my bare feet slapping against the concrete stairs two at a time, past the peeling paint and the busted light fixture on the second landing that had never once worked in three years of living here.I fumbled the key into the lock with hands that would not stop shaking. The door gave way and I stumbled into the dark apartment, and for one terrible second I could not find him, could not see anything but shadows and the shape of furniture I did not have time to sa

🌹TESSA🌹The door opening was what woke me.My eyes shot open before my brain caught up. Bright light. Full morning. Not the gray from before. I had no memory of falling asleep. None. I had been so sure I was still awake, still watching the window, still telling myself just a little longer and then I would clean everything up before anyone came in.I did not get up in time.And standing in the door that just opened was my boss.My baby daddy.Raymond Reddington.My whole body went cold at once, like someone had opened a window straight onto ice. He was just standing there. Not moving. Just looking down at us like we were something that had leaked onto his floor overnight.Oh God. Oh God, no. Not like this. Not now. Not with no warning at all.Wayne was still against me, his back to the door, his breathing slow and deep, that heavy sleep he only fell into when his body finally believed it was safe. I did not move. I could not move. Every part of me had locked up the second I understoo

♠️RAYMOND♠️I was late to work because Dwayne had insisted I go with him to school, even though I was not the one driving.I had not driven a car myself since the accident. Not once, not for the length of a single block, not even on the mornings I woke up restless enough to want the wheel in my own hands just to prove to myself I still could. Oliver had learned a long time ago never to ask why, and I had never volunteered an explanation, not to him, not to Eleanor, though I suspected she carried her own quiet theories about it filed somewhere in that chart of mine she refused to let me read in full.This morning I sat in the back beside Dwayne instead, his small shoulder pressed against my arm, his backpack wedged between his knees, watching the city slide past through glass I was not the one steering. Something in me had let go, just slightly, sitting there with him. I did not examine it too closely. I rarely let myself examine the moments that felt good, out of some old fear that lo