Chapter 5
Tessa
Tessa walked into her house. All the rooms looked dark from the outside. She was sure that Rick had taken himself to bed. She was glad. He needed to sleep off the liquor he’d drunk, before they could talk properly. The floorboards groaned under her light weight. Tessa longed for a home that didn’t feel the need to talk back.
“Tessa?” Rick’s voice followed the groan of the floor boards. “Is that you?”
“Who else would it be?”
The sound of stumbling footsteps grew closer to her. The door to the kitchen opened and he fell out into the hallway. “We need to talk,” he slurred, as he made his way towards her.
She turned her head when he was close enough for her to be able smell him. She could smell the girl’s perfume that he’d been fucking in the bar. It turned Tessa’s stomach and for a second, she thought that she was going to be sick. “I’m not going to talk to you when you’re like this,” she told him firmly.
“What do you mean you’re not going to talk to me? You’re the reason that I’m in this state to begin with,” he dug at her.
She laughed bitterly. He wasn’t a stranger to passing the blame, but she was curious as to how he was going to twist this one. “Oh, how exactly is it my fault?”
“You’re damn face,” he snapped at her. “You couldn’t just be happy with the party that I threw you. You had to throw it back in my face, didn’t you?”
“You didn’t throw that party for me Rick. You threw it for yourself.”
“You’re such an entitled bitch,” he shook his head. “Nothing is ever good enough for you is it? The only reason that my friends were there, instead of yours was because, you don’t have any,” he taunted. “What am I supposed to do about that?”
“Go to hell.”
“I’m already there,” his eyes met hers in the dark hallway. “Stuck in this crappy house with a ungrateful girl who can’t appreciate how much her man does for her.”
“How much her man does for her?” Tessa repeated in disbelief. “The only thing you have ever done is hold me back. I wouldn’t even be in this crappy town if it wasn’t for you.”
“That’s just not true,” Rick smirked at her. “You were never going to be anything special. I never changed that.”
“I slept with somebody tonight,” Tessa cut through his taunts. She saw the shock hit his eyes and enjoyed it. She soaked it in. She memorized every fraction of change in his expression, so that she would be able to replay it later.
“You’re a fucking liar.”
“No, actually I’m not,” she held his eyes, so that he would know. “I met a guy at the bar. I took him into the woods and I fucked him. I let him touch my bare skin with his hands. I climbed onto his sweaty body and ran my tongue down his hard abs. And, do you know what?”
“What?”
“I loved it.” Tessa smiled cruelly at him. She could see the hurt she was causing. He deserved it. This was karma. He’d slept with the girl in the bar and now they were even. How could he even act surprised?
“You’re a fucking whore,” he spat at her. “I thought we’d be able to talk this through, but we can’t. It’s over. I can’t even look at you.”
“Do you think you have any right to judge me?” Tessa asked with anger trembling into her words. “Do you think you have any right to tell me that it’s over?” She took a step closer to him. The smell of perfume on his skin wasn’t making her feel sick anymore. It was just a reminder. A reminder of what she was walking away from. “This was over before I fucked him. This was over from the day that I met you. It just took me a really long time to see that.”
She turned and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” Rick called out behind her. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“Anywhere that isn’t here,” she called back to him without breaking her pace. She pulled open the front door and walked out into the night. It was cold. The shorts she’d worn to the bar earlier hadn’t been designed with moonlit walks in mind. She headed over to her car and quickly got in, before goose bumps could take over the entirety of her body.
What was she going to do? She rested her head against the steering wheel, as she tried to think of a plan. There wasn’t a plan. She just knew that she couldn’t stay there. She turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the driveway, just as Rick walked out the front door. “Tessa,” she heard him call from the porch. “Tessa, you can’t just leave like this,” he sounded desperate, because he knew full well that she could.
The road was empty. She drove out from the town into the outback. She didn’t have a destination in mind. She just wanted some space between her and Rick. She figured she could sleep in her car. At least it was better than being out on the streets. She drove aimlessly until the sick feeling in her stomach subsided a little and then pulled over.
The night was dark and cold. The stars that had been shining brightly when she’d been in the woods had been covered by dark clouds. It seemed fitting though. Tessa was surrounded by the darkness she felt inside. She pushed her chair back, so that she could lie down and closed her eyes. She needed to sleep or at least to rest. That was the only way that she was going to survive the deadly hours of the night.
Chapter 6
Ash
Ash couldn’t look at his brothers. They were making him feel sick to his stomach. It was their father’s funeral. It was the last day that they would ever have to think about him again, but they weren’t. They were only thinking about the will reading, which was taking place the day after.
Ash looked in the mirror. He looked smart in a tailored black suit. It seemed a shame that he would never wear the suit again. It wasn’t the suits fault. It was that it would be forever tainted with the memory of his father. Ash walked away from the mirror. He could hear his brother’s talking loudly in the study below his room and did his best to block them out.
“I’m the oldest,” Caleb broke through Ash’s mental block. “So, I’ll get the fortune.”
“You know that father won’t have left you all the money,” Cain said, as though he was being the reasonable one. “He was a good man; he will have split it between us.”
“Maybe,” Caleb sounded resentful. “I’m the eldest though, so he’ll have left me the most.”
“You’d have it all if you had your way.”
“As my father’s heir, I believe I’m entitled to it all,” Caleb said without hesitation. “The fact that he went on to have any more children should be irrelevant.”
“You’re such an ass sometimes.”
“Being right doesn’t make me an ass.”
“You’re right about that, but you’re still an ass.”
Ash walked out of his room. His attempt to get away from his brothers before the funeral had been a futile. The voices carried through the house. There was no escaping them. He knocked on the study door and then walked in. “Are you both ready?” he asked, as they looked his way.
“Ready for what?” Cain looked confused.
“Are you being serious?” Ash asked him in disbelief. “It’s our father’s funeral.”
“Oh, right,” Cain nodded. “Sorry, I was just in a bit of heated debate with Caleb.”
“I know,” Ash said sternly. “I heard it all.”
“Oh, you did?” Cain almost looked guilty. It wasn’t actual guilt. It was like he knew he should be feeling it, but couldn’t quite make himself.
“Yes, now shall we all set off, before we end up missing it?”
“Would it be that big deal if we did?” Caleb said walking towards the door. “The guy is dead. It’s not like he knows whether we’re there or not.”
Ash opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t think of what it was that he wanted to say. His brother was truly amazing and not in a good way. The level of arrogance and selfness that he displayed was somethingwhich couldn’t be matched.
There was a car waiting for them outside. It was a shiny, black thing that came with its own driver, so that all of the brothers could drink after the funeral without worry. It didn’t take long to get to the church. It was a small wooden building that had been painted white, but had turned a dusty gray as a result of the dirty rain.
The funeral was simple and short. Ash had arranged it all. He’d picked out the prayers and the stories that the vicar told the small crowd that had come to pay their respects. He’d asked his brothers for help, but they’d wanted no part to play. They were only focused on the will and what they would gain from the loss of their father.
Ash waited by the doors to thank each person for coming. Some paid their respects and others told him that the funeral had been good, at least, considering the circumstances. After the last of them had left he took a moment. The coffin was still in the room; The honey dew colored wood held the body of the man who had brought him to life.
The air outside the church felt cold. It was impossible. The sun was blazing against the pale blue sky that was unbroken by clouds. He felt cold to his bones. Ash felt cold and alone. The car had taken his brothers to the wake without him. He wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t really expected his brothers to think about him, before they drove off to have the party of their lives.
The wake was being held at a small restaurant in the town. It was walking distance. He knew that it wouldn’t take him long by foot, so he sat down on the church steps. He wasn’t in a rush. He didn’t need to party the night away. He needed to sit and remember the man that had left his life forever. Ash had always looked up to his father. He had been a provider. He had provided him and his brothers with everything they needed. It wasn’t his fault that none of his sons had turned out well. It wasn’t his father’s fault that Ash had gone off of the rails and that Cain and Caleb were money hungry and nothing else.
“Ash?” a soft voice broke through his thoughts. “I was told that I might be able to find you here,” Tessa said, when he looked up to find her blocking out the sun from skin. “Can we talk?”
“What are you doing here?” he asked her. He hadn’t seen her since the night they’d spent together, which was also the night that his father had died. That was four weeks ago. It had taken three weeks to get their father’s death certificate after the autopsy.
“Right,” she nodded at his curtness. “I’m sorry about how I left things,” she added timidly.
“You’re sorry about how you left things?” Ash mocked her. “Look, I don’t have time for this. What do you want?”
“I didn’t mean to piss you off,” she said quickly, but that only agitated Ash more.
“Look, what is it that you want? Do you think that you’re in love with me or something because we fucked? Is that it? Because, I can tell you now, you don’t love me and I don’t love you.”
“No, that’s not it,” she flinched away from his harsh glare. “I’m pregnant.”
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