AFTER YOU SAVED ME // ZESSA

Chapter 37: The Hard Truth

Tessa's POV

"You what?" I ask, the paramedic disinfecting my wound while the ambulance bumps along the pot-hole riddled road.

"I got married," my mother repeats, smoothing down my hair as she speaks. She is also wiping at my face, wetting her thumb with the tip of her tongue as she tries to scrap away who-knows-what is currently crusted onto my forehead. I usually hate when she does this, but I do not mind it right now.

"To who?" I ask, my eyes going into slits as I cross my arms, still unhappy with it taking her almost a month to notice I was gone.

"To Charlie, my boss. I'm sorry honey, I'll never be able to forgive myself for not reaching out to you while I was away," she says, tears sprinkling her weathered eyes – though she tries to hide it, her age is beginning to show.

"I mean, weren't you suspicious after, like, a week of not hearing from me?" I look away, feeling the pangs of forgottenness building in my chest. I wish Zed were back here with me, but there was only room for one more to stay in the back. My mother insisted it was her, so Zed is up front with the driver.

"Honey, I know it's no excuse. Let me explain. I didn't even realize my phone wasn't taking calls from the US until a week in. All my co-workers Paris calls went through, and no one else said they were missing calls, so I assumed you were just enjoying your life. Then I left my email on my voicemail and when I didn't receive any, I figured the same. Plus, I was...distracted," she says, biting her lip.

"With Charlie?" I answer, turning and raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," she says reluctantly, "with Charlie." She repositions herself on the small metal bench next to me, pulling her work skirt down a bit. "I just haven't felt this way about a man ever. And we were in Paris, and I was so busy with work, and I just got lost in the moment. And once we decided to elope by the Eiffel Tower all I saw was us. I should have found a way to contact you and I'm sorry," she says, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze.

I feel my face falter as I take in her sad smile and tense demeanor. She really is sorry – as she should be. And honestly it is not like she could have done much if she found out I was missing, anyways. Zed and Hardin knew immediately, and it still took them what felt like forever to find me.

"Honey, the minute I found out about you 'running off' or being taken, whatever the police said on the phone, I was on the first flight back. I just can't believe they found you while I was landing," she frets, as quiet tears dance down her perfectly made-up cheeks. "I'm just so happy you're okay and the babies are okay."

"That we know of," I say, biting the inside of my cheek and looking out the back of the ambulance door window. I only make out the blur of whizzing street lights as we fly down the road, when Hardin's dead eyes suddenly flash to the forefront of my mind.

"You okay?" the paramedic asks, noticing my visible recoil.

I nod. "It just burned a little, that's all," I lie, looking at the much cleaner gaping hole in my arm.

"I mean, everyone should be okay, right?" my mother asks, still unaware of the entire situation.

"No, Carol. No not everyone was alright. In fact, someone died back there... maybe two someone's," I whisper the last part, visions of Anna/Heather reaching out for me as blood dripped out of her mouth and Hardin staring up unresponsively flooding my brain.

My mother does not say anything, only leaning back a bit to look away and wipe her eyes.

We do not speak again until we reach the hospital. Since I have a gunshot wound, I am seen immediately and given a room.