After 3

Chapter 284.

Songs for this chapter are:

Near to you- A fine frenzy

She is- The Fray

Never say never- The Fray

Hardin's POV.

I've called forty-nine times.

Forty-nine fucking times.

Forty-nine.

Do you know how many rings that is?

A fucking lot.

Too  many to count and I can't think clearly enough to count them but if I could, it would be a massive amount of fucking rings.

If I make it through the next three minutes, I plan on ripping the front door of the damn hinges and smashing Tessa's phone, that she apparently doesn't know how to answer, against the wall.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't smash her phone against the wall. Maybe I'll accidently step on it a few times until the screen cracks under my weight.

Maybe.

She's going to get a god damn earful that's for fucking sure. I haven't heard from her in the last two hours and she has no fucking idea how torturous the last five have been. I sped here, going twenty over the limit, to make it here as fast as possible.

It's three in the damn morning and Tessa, Vance, and Kimberly are all on my shit list. Maybe I should smash all three of their phones since they obviously have forgotten how to answer the fucking things.

As I reach the gate, I begin to panic, even more than I already have been for the last five fucking hours. What if they decided to close their security gate? What If they changed the code?

Do I even remember the fucking code? Of course not. Will they answer when I call to ask the code? Of course not.

What if they aren't answering because something happened to Tessa and they took her to the hospital and she isn't okay and they don't have service and..

The gate is open when I reach the driveway and I'm a little annoyed by that too. Why wouldn't Tessa turn on the security system when she's here alone? As I drive up the  winding road, I see that her car is the only car parked in front of the massive house.

Good to know that Vance is here when I need him.. Some fucking friend he is. Father, not friend. Fuck.

When I step out of my car and approach the door, my anger and anxiety grows. The way she was talking, the way she sounded.. it was like she wasn't in control of her own actions.

The door is unlocked, of course, and I make my way through the living room and down the hall. My hands are shaking when I push the door to her bedroom open and my chest tightens when I find her bed empty. It's not only empty, it's untouched, perfectly made and the corners are folded in in that way she does that's impossible to recreate. I've tried it, it's impossible to make a bed like Tessa can.

"Tessa!" I call her name as I walk into the bathroom across the hall. I keep my eyes closed as I turn the light on. Nothing.

My breath is released in a heavy pant and I move to the next room. Where the fuck is she?

"Tess!" I yell again, louder this time.

After searching nearly the entire fucking mansion, I can barely breathe. Where is she? The only rooms left are Vance's bedroom and a locked room upstairs. I'm not sure if I want to open that door..

I'll check the patio and yard and if she's not there, I have no fucking clue what I will do.

"Theresa! Where the hell are you? This isn't funny, I swear-" I stop yelling as I take in  the curled up ball on the lounge chair. Her knees are tucked up to her stomach and her arms are wrapped around her chest as if she fell asleep while trying to hold herself together.