After 3

Chapter 273.

Songs for this chapter are:

 This time- John Legend

These four walls- Little Mix

Turning tables- Adele

Hardin's POV.

Her screams fill my ears, my empty chest, and finally rest somewhere inside of me that I wasn't quite sure I could reach anymore. Only she can, and always will.

"What are you doing here?" Noah jumps to his feet and tries to stand between me and the small bed like some fucking white knight designated to protect her, from me? She's still screaming, why is she screaming?

"Tessa, please." I'm not sure what it is I'm asking for but her screams turn to coughs and her coughs turn to sobs and her sobs turn to choking sounds that I simply can't handle. I take a cautious step toward her and she finally catches her breath.

"Tess, do you want him here?" Noah asks her. Her haunted eyes still rest on me, burning a hole into me that only she can fill. It's taking every ounce of self control to ignore the fact that he's here in the first place and he's really pushing it.

"Get her some water!" I tell her mum. She ignores me. I'm not leaving the room.

Tessa's head moves swiftly back and forth, denying me, triggering her protector.

"She doesn't know what she wants! Look at her!" I throw my hands in the air and ignore Carol's manicured nails digging into my arm. She's lost her shit if she thinks I'm going anywhere, doesn't she know by now that she can't keep me away from Tessa?

Only I can keep myself away from her, a stupid fucking idea that I can't seem to hold to.

"She doesn't want to see you and you would be best to leave," Noah stands in front of me. I don't give a fuck that he has seemed to grow in size and muscle mass since the last time I've seen him, he is nothing to me. He will soon learn why people don't bother to even attempt to come between Tessa and I, they know better and he will too.

"I'm not leaving." I turn to Tessa. She's still coughing and no one seems to care.  "Someone get her some god damn water!" I yell through the small room and the noise echoes from wall to wall. Tessa whimpers and pulls her knees to her chest.

I know she's in pain and I know that I shouldn't be here but I also know that her mum and Noah will never be able to truly be there for her. I know Tessa better than the two of them combined and I've never seen her this way, so surely neither of them will have a clue what to do with her while she's in this state.

"I'll call the police if you don't leave, Hardin. I don't know what you did this time but I'm sick of it and you have no place here. You never have and you never will." Carol's voice is low and threatening but I could give a fuck less.

I ignore the two intruders and take a seat on the edge of Tessa's childhood bed. Much to my horror, she scrambles away again, this time using her hands behind her back and falls to the floor. I'm on my feet in seconds to bring her into my arms. The sounds she makes when my skin touches hers is even worse than the horrified screams that sounded from her minutes ago.

 "Get off of me!" A broken scream leaves her dry lips and slices clear through my chest. Her small hands pound at my chest and claw at my arms, trying to break my hold on her.

As much as it kills me to see her so desperate to get away from me, I'm honestly so fucking happy to see her react at all. The mute Tessa was the worst for me and her mum should be thanking me that I brought her out of that phase in her grief.