Chapter 2 - The Voicemail His Cousin Buried
For some reason, that was the sentence that made her sit down.
Not trust.
Not forgiveness.
Just exhaustion.
She returned to her chair.
Rowan took the chair beside her but left an empty seat between them.
The medical assistant looked at Tessa.
“I can give you a few minutes.”
“Thank you.”
The door closed.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Rowan said, “Are you all right?”
Tessa laughed once.
It sounded terrible.
“There are three babies inside me, Rowan.”
He looked down at his hands.
“Yes.”
“I make seventeen dollars and eighty cents an hour at St. Bartholomew’s urgent care.”
“I didn’t know.”
“My roommate is moving home in January because her father’s sick. I can barely cover that apartment with her half of the rent.”
He said nothing.
“My mother lives three hours away and thinks I’m doing great because I lie to her every Sunday.”
Still nothing.
“My clinical rotation starts in February.”
His eyes lifted to hers.
“And yesterday a doctor used the phrase high-risk pregnancy six times in twenty minutes.”
She swallowed.
“That’s why I’m here.”
Rowan’s voice was almost inaudible.
“Are you planning to end the pregnancy?”
Tessa stared at him.
Then she looked toward the inner door.
“I don’t know.”
He nodded once.
It was a small movement, but she saw the effort behind it.
“All right.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know. Men like you always have something to say.”
“Men like me.”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“Yes.”
He leaned forward, forearms on his knees.
“If you want these children, you will never have to wonder how to feed them.”
Her face hardened.
“There it is.”
“That isn’t ownership.”
“It sounds exactly like ownership.”
“Then I said it badly.”
He looked at her.
“If you decide to continue the pregnancy, I will pay what I owe as their father. You choose the doctors. You choose where you live. You choose your lawyer. You choose whether you ever live under the same roof with me.”
Her mouth tightened.
“And if I don’t continue it?”
His eyes flicked toward the floor.
There was a long silence.
“Then I’ll drive home,” he said, “and spend the rest of my life knowing I was four days late to the most important conversation anyone ever tried to have with me.”
Tessa felt something sharp behind her eyes.
She hated him for saying it quietly.
She would have preferred arrogance.
Arrogance was easier to fight.
His phone vibrated.
He ignored it.
It vibrated again.
Then again.
Tessa wiped beneath one eye before the tear could fall.
“You should answer.”
“No.”
“It sounds important.”
“So are you.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Say things like that.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know if you mean them.”
Before Rowan could answer, the phone vibrated a fourth time.
He pulled it out.
One message appeared.
From Elias.
SYSTEM AUDIT COMPLETE.
MESSAGE WAS NOT LOST.
MANUALLY ARCHIVED SATURDAY 2:47 P.M.
CREDENTIALS USED: NOLAN MERCER.
Rowan stopped breathing.
Tessa watched the color leave his face.
“What?”
He locked the screen.
“Nothing.”
Her expression changed instantly.
“Don’t.”
“Tessa—”
“You came here demanding honesty.”
“I didn’t demand anything.”
“Then don’t start lying now.”
His phone was still in his hand.
She held out hers.
“What happened?”
For the first time that morning, Rowan hesitated.
And that hesitation frightened her more than anger would have.
“Someone inside my company received your voicemail.”
Her hand slowly lowered.
“What do you mean?”
“They saw it Saturday.”
“And?”
“They removed it from the system.”
Tessa’s face emptied.
“Who?”
Rowan said nothing.
“Who, Rowan?”
His voice was low.
“My cousin.”
The clinic seemed to become very quiet around them.
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Then another message arrived.
Rowan read it.
Elias again.
There was only one sentence.
NOLAN ALSO ACCESSED HER ADDRESS.
Rowan stood so quickly the chair legs struck the tile.
Tessa flinched.
He looked down at her.
Every trace of the vulnerable man who had entered the clinic disappeared.
Something colder replaced him.
“Tessa.”
“What?”
“Did you come here alone?”
“Yes.”
“Where is your car?”
“Garage across the street.”
“Has anything strange happened at your apartment in the last four days?”
Her face changed.
Rowan saw it.
“What?”
She stared at him.
“Yesterday morning, somebody had moved the doormat.”
“That’s all?”
“I thought so.”
“What else?”
“My landlord said a man had asked whether I still lived there.”
Rowan’s jaw locked.
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tessa.”
She stood.
“What is happening?”
He looked toward the clinic windows, then toward the hallway.
And when he spoke again, the fear in his voice was no longer for himself.
“I think my voicemail wasn’t delayed by accident.”
Tessa did not go back into the exam room that morning.
Not immediately.
Instead, she sat in a private consultation office while Rowan made one phone call.
Only one.
“Elias,” he said. “Nothing happens to Nolan until I’m there.”
A pause.
“No one speaks to him. No one warns him. And put two people at Tessa’s apartment without approaching the building.”
Tessa stood up.
“No.”
Rowan covered the phone.
“What?”
“No people at my apartment.”
“They won’t contact you.”
“I said no.”
“Tessa—”
“You promised.”
His mouth closed.
She stared at him.
Five minutes earlier she had been a frightened woman in a clinic trying to decide what to do with an impossible pregnancy.
Now she was arguing with a man whose cousin apparently had access to her home address.
“If I say no surveillance, I mean no surveillance.”
Rowan looked at her for a long moment.
Then he returned the phone to his ear.
“Cancel the apartment detail.”
Elias apparently protested.
“Cancel it.”
He ended the call.
Tessa’s anger did not disappear, but something inside it shifted.
“You actually did it.”
“You told me no.”
“That usually stops people around you?”
“No.”
“Interesting.”
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Then the medical assistant returned.
“Ms. Vale, Dr. Halpern can still see you.”
Tessa looked at Rowan.
This moment had been hers before he arrived.
It still had to be hers now.
She inhaled slowly.
“I want you in the building.”
Rowan said nothing.
“But not in the room.”
He nodded.
“All right.”
“And if I come out and I’m still pregnant, that doesn’t mean I chose you.”
“I understand.”
“If I’m not—”
His face tightened.
She stopped.
Neither needed the rest.
He nodded again.
“I’ll be here.”
May you like
Tessa walked through the door alone.
