Chapter 5 - Finding Tessa
693 Words
Morning arrived quietly.
Sierra woke to pale light filtering through thin motel curtains and the steady hum of traffic from the highway beyond the parking lot. For a few moments, she remained under the stiff sheets, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling while the weight in her chest returned with the same quiet certainty it had carried through the night.
It didn’t fade or shift with sleep. It stayed with her, settled so deep it felt like part of her breathing.
She pushed herself upright slowly and took in the small room. Daylight made everything feel more exposed. The chair by the window, her suitcase resting near the door, and clothes draped over it because she hadn’t had the energy to unpack. It was temporary, and that thought felt grounding in a way it hadn’t before.
Her phone rested on the bedside table.
She stared at it for a long moment before picking it up, already knowing what would be waiting for her.
The screen lit with missed calls and messages.
Most were from Jax Ryder.
Her thumb hovered over his name. Her chest tightened, but she didn’t open the messages. She lowered the phone again, letting it rest against her leg like something she wasn’t ready to carry yet.
She loved him. That had never changed. Even now, even with everything stretched between them, that truth remained steady.
But love had never been enough to close the distance that had been growing for a long time.
Yesterday only made it impossible to ignore.
Long before she learned she was pregnant, she had already started noticing it. The way her life bent around his without her meaning it to. Time measured in his absences. Plans shifting when his world pulled him away. Conversations interrupted by calls that always seemed more urgent than anything she needed to say.
She had adjusted without realizing how much she was giving up.
Her gaze moved further down her contacts until she found Tessa.
The name pulled something familiar into focus.
Cramped offices filled with case files stacked too high. Cold coffee forgotten on desks while they argued over details until they made sense. Nights spent following leads that sometimes led nowhere and sometimes changed everything. Building their private investigation agency from nothing but persistence and refusal to quit.
That life had belonged to her completely once.
She wanted it again.
Not to erase what had happened, and not to replace what she had lost, but because standing still inside grief had started to feel impossible.
Tessa had called too many times to count over the past months. Messages left unanswered. Calls she had intended to return when life eased.
Life never eased.
A faint smile touched her lips as she imagined Tessa’s reaction.
About damn time, Hart.
The thought brought a flicker of warmth through her chest.
Before hesitation could grow, she pressed call.
The phone rang twice before Tessa answered.
“Well, well,” Tessa said immediately, voice bright with familiar mischief. “Either my phone is broken, or Sierra Hart has finally remembered she exists.”
A breathless laugh slipped out of Sierra before she could stop it.
“Hi, Tess.”
A pause followed, softer when Tessa spoke again.
“Hey, stranger.”
The words settled into her in a way she didn’t expect. Her throat tightened and her eyes burned, but she let it happen.
“I need your help,” Sierra said quietly.
No pause came through the line.
“Say the word and I’ll bring coffee, sarcasm, and a shovel if we need to bury a body.”
A shaky laugh broke through her tears, real even if unsteady.
Tessa came into focus in her mind as she listened. Long red hair usually tied back loosely, always falling forward anyway. Always moving, always thinking ahead of everyone else in the room. The kind of presence that filled silence without trying.
For the first time since she left, the future stopped feeling like it was disappearing into distance.
It felt like something she could walk toward instead.
Still uncertain. Still heavy.
But no longer empty.
And that was enough to keep her moving.
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