My chest aches as I watch Christian wrap his arms around Kimberly and lift her off the floor in a loving embrace. I'm so happy for her, I really am. It's just that it's hard to sit and watch someone get something that you wanted, no matter how happy you are for them. I would never want to take even an ounce of her happiness away but it's hard to watch as he kisses both her cheeks and slides a gorgeous diamond ring onto her finger.

I stand up from my seat, hoping that no one will notice my absence and I manage to make it to the living room before the tears fall. I knew this would happen, I knew I would break. If he wasn't here I could handle it but it's too surreal, too painful to have him here.

He came here to taunt me, he had to have. Why else would he be here and not speak to me at all? It doesn't make sense, he has avoided me for the past ten days then he shows up here when he knew I would be here. I shouldn't have came, I should have at least driven myself  so I could leave right now. Zed won't be here until... Zed.

Zed is coming to pick me up at eight and it's seven thirty now. Hardin will kill him, literally, if he sees him here.

Or maybe he won't, maybe he doesn't care at all.

I find the restroom and close the door behind me. It takes me a moment to realize the light switch is a touch screen panel on the wall. This house is too damn high tech for me.

I was absolutely humiliated when I dropped the wine glass at the sight of him. He seems so indifferent, like he could care less about me being here or how awkward his presence really is. Has it even been hard for him? Did he spend the first few days crying and lying in bed the way I did? I have no way to know and he isn't giving off the heartbroken impression.

Breathe Tessa. You have to breathe. I have to breathe regardless of the sharp knife lodged in my chest each time that I try.

I wipe my eyes and look at my reflection. My makeup hasn't smudged thank goodness and my hair is still perfectly curled. My cheeks are slightly flushed but in a way it makes me look better, more lively.

When I open the door Trevor is leaning against the wall with concern clear in his features.

"Are you okay? You ran out of there pretty fast." He takes a step toward me.

"Yeah..I just needed some air." I lie.

A stupid lie at that, it doesn't even make sense to rush to the bathroom for air. Lucky for me Trevor is a gentleman and would never call me out on my lie the way Hardin would.

"Okay, they are serving desert now if you're still hungry." He tells me as we walk back down the hallway.

"Not really but I'll have some." I respond.

"How do you know?" Smith's small voice says from inside the room we are passing.

"Because I know everything." Hardin replies.

Hardin? In the room with Smith?

"You go on, I .. uhm.. I'm going to talk to Smith."

"Are you sure.. I can wait." He offers.

"No, I'm fine." I politely dismiss him so that I can impolitely eavesdrop.

"Not everything." Smith says.

"I do though, I know everything." Hardin's voice is calm as I lean against the wall next to the door.

"Will she die?"

"No, what is with you always thinking everyone's going to die?"

"I don't know?" The little boy tells him.

"Well it's not true, not everyone dies."

"Who dies?"

"Not everyone."

"But who Hardin?" Smith presses.

"People, bad people I guess. And old people. And sick people, oh and sad people sometimes."

"Like your pretty girl?" My heart races.

"No! She won't. She's not sad." Hardin says and I put my hand over my mouth.

"Yeah huh."

"No, she's not. She's happy, and she won't die. Neither will Kimberly."

"How do you know?"

"I already told you how I know, it's because I know everything." His tone has changed since the mention of my name.

"No you don't." Smith half laughs.

"Are you okay now? Or are you going to cry more?" Hardin asks.

"Don't tease."

"Sorry, are you done crying though?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Good."

"Don't mock me. It's rude." Hardin says.

"You're rude."

"So are you, are you sure you're only five?" Hardin asks and I wonder the same thing.

Smith is so mature for his age, but I guess he has to be considering what he has been through.

"Pretty sure. Do you want to play?" Smith asks him.

"No, I don't."

"Why?"

"Why do you ask so many questions, you remind.."

"Tessa?" Kimberly's voice startles me and I nearly scream.

"Have you seen Smith? He took off and Hardin out of all people went after him." Kimberly looks confused yet touched by that.

"Uhm, no." I hurry down the hallway to avoid the humiliation of being caught by Hardin.

I know he heard Kimberly call my name.

When I get back to the dining room I approach the small group that Christian is speaking with and tell him how much I appreciate him inviting me and I congratulate him on his new engagement. Kimberly appears moments later and I hug her goodbye before doing the same with Karen and Ken.

I check my phone, it's now ten minutes until eight. Hardin is occupied with Smith and obviously has no intention of speaking to me and that's fine. That's what I need, I don't need to apologize and tell me that he's been miserable without me. I don't need him to hold me and tell me we will find a way to work this out, to fix everything he has broken. I don't need that. I want that more than anything, but I don't need it. And he won't do it anyway so it's pointless to need it.

It hurts less when I don't need it.

By the time I reach the end of the driveway I am freezing. I should have worn a jacket, it's the end of January, I don't know what I was thinking. It has begun to snow, lightly but enough to make me even colder. I hope Zed is here soon.

The icy wind is unforgiving as it whips my hair around and I shiver, wrapping my arms around me in an attempt to keep warm.

"Tess?" For a moment I think I'm imagining the boy in all black walking towards me in the snow.

"What are you doing?" Hardin asks me, coming even closer.

"I'm leaving."

"Oh..." He rubs his hand over the back of his neck like he always does.

I stay quiet.

"How are you?" He asks and I'm baffled.

"How am I?" I turn to look at him.

I try to keep my cool as he stares at me with a completely neutral expression.

"Yeah.. I mean are you..you know, okay?"

Should I tell him the truth or lie..

"How are you?" I ask, my teeth chatter.

"I asked first." He responds.

This is not how I had envisioned our first encounter going. I'm not entirely sure what I thought would happen but this isn't it. I thought he would be cursing me out and we would be in a screaming match. Standing in a snow dusted driveway asking how one another are doing is the last thing that I imagined happening. The lanterns hanging throughout the trees lining the driveway make Hardin appear to be glowing, like an angel. An obvious illusion.

"I'm fine." I lie.

He looks me up and down slowly, making my stomach leap and my heart pound.

"I see that." His voice carries over the wind.

"How are you?" I want him to say he is doing terribly.

But he doesn't.

"Same. Fine."

"Why haven't you called me?" Maybe this will evoke emotion from him.

"I..." He looks at me then down at his hands before running them through this snow covered hair.

"I..was busy." His answer is the hammer that takes down the rest of my wall.

"You were busy?" Anger overpowers the bone crushing hurt that is threatening to take over at any  moment.

"Yeah..I was busy."

"Wow."

"Wow what?" He asks.

"You were busy? Do you know what I have been going through the last eleven days? It has been hell and I felt pain that I didn't know I could endure and at times I didn't think I could. I kept waiting.. waiting like a fucking idiot!" I scream.

"You don't know what I've been doing either! You always think you know everything but you don't know shit!" He yells back and I walk to the very end of the driveway.

He is going to lose it when he see's who is picking me up. Where the hell is he anyway? It's two minutes after eight.

"Tell me then! Tell me what was more important than fighting for me Hardin." I wipe the tears from under my eyes and beg myself to stop crying.

I'm so sick of crying all the time.

Hardin's POV.

When she starts to cry it becomes much harder to keep a straight face. I don't know what would happen if I told her that I have been through hell too, that I felt pain that I wasn't sure I could endure either. I think she would run into my arms and tell me it's okay. She was listening to me talk to Smith, I know she was. She is sad, just the way the obnoxious little boy claimed but I know how this ends. If she forgives me I will just come up with some other fucked up thing to do to her next. It's always been that way and I don't know how to stop it.

The only option here is giving her a chance to be with someone much better for her. I believe that deep fucking down she wants someone that is more like her. Someone with no tattoos, no piercings. Someone without a fucked up childhood and anger issues. She thinks that she loves me now but one day when I do something even more fucked up than the last, she will regret ever speaking to me and the more I look at her crying in this driveway as the snow falls down around her, I know that I'm not good for her.

I'm Tom and she's Daisy. Lovely Daisy who is corrupted by Tom and she's never the same after. If I beg for her forgiveness right now, on my knees, in this snowy driveway, she will be the awful Daisy for eternity, all of her innocence will be gone and she will end up hating me, and herself.

If Tom would have left Daisy at the first moment of her uncertainty, she could have had a life with the man she was destined to be with, a man that would have treated her the way she deserved to be treated.

"It's none of your concern really, is it?" I say and watch as my words rattle her to her core.

She should be inside with Trevor, or back home with Noah. Not with me. I'm no Darcy, and she deserves one. I can't change for her.

I will find a way to live without her just the way she will without me.

"How could you even say that? After everything we have been through, you just toss me aside and you don't even have the decency to give me an explanation?" She cries and headlights appear on the dark street.

I'm doing this for you! I want to shout at her but I don't. I just shrug my shoulders.

Her mouth opens then closes as a truck stops in front of us.

That truck..

"What is he doing here?" I croak.

"He is picking me up." She tells me and the news nearly brings me to my knees.

"Why would.. why is he..what the fuck?" I pace back and forth.

I had been trying to push her away from me and trying to let her move on so she could be with someone like herself, not fucking Zed out of all people.

"Have you..have you been seeing him?" I am aware of how frantic I sound but I don't give a shit as I step towards his truck to drag him out.

"Get out of the god damn car!" I shout.

He surprises me when the door opens and he climbs out, leaving the ignition running. He's a fucking idiot.

"Are you alright?" He has the nerve to ask her.

"I knew it! I knew you were waiting for your moment to swoop in and make a move on her! Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

He looks at her and she looks at him. Holy fucking shit, this is really happening.

"Leave him alone Hardin." She says and I snap.

One of my hands wraps around the collar of his jacket and the other connects to his jaw.

Tessa screams but it's barely a whisper, lost in the wind.

He stumbles back holding his jaw but steps toward me. He has a death wish.

"Did you think I wasn't going to find out! I fucking told you to stay away from her!" I move to hit him again, this time he blocks me and manages to hit me right in the jaw.

Anger mixes with the adrenaline of being in a fight for the first time in weeks. I have missed this feeling, the energy flowing through my bloodstream getting me high.

I hit him again, this time he falls to the ground and I am on top of him in seconds, hitting him again and again. I will give him credit, he has managed a few punches but he has no way to overpower me.

"I was there.. and you weren't." He eggs me on.

"Stop it!! Stop Hardin!" Tessa pulls on my arm and I knock her backwards onto the driveway.

I immediately snap out of my rage and turn to her as she backs away with her hands and stands to her feet.

"Don't you fucking go near her!" Zed yells behind me.

What the fuck did I just do?

He is by her side in no time and she is looking at me like I just murdered an entire village of innocent people. I wish I would have, this is much worse.

"Tess..I didn't mean to do that. I swear, you know how I get when I'm angry.. I'm so sorry. I.."

"Can we go please?" My heart leaps until I realize that she is talking to him, to Zed.

How the fuck did this happen?

"Yes." He drapes his jacket over her shoulders and opens the passenger seat of his truck for her and helps her inside.

"Tessa.." I call again but she doesn't acknowledge me as she buries her face in her hands and her body rakes with sobs.

"This isn't over." I threaten him and he nods.

When he reaches the back of his truck he turns around to look at me.

"I think it is, actually." He smirks and climbs inside his truck.

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