A/N: Hello everyone! I'm still on the road and busy with other projects but I couldn't skip today's update. I think you're going to enjoy this one. We only have one chapter left before this is done but hey, that just means new stuff to look forward to, right? 

Hope you enjoy!

***

Tessa

I remained slumped against the wall long after Jake wished my father goodnight and left.

I seemed to have lost feeling of my legs in the last hour or so, since I accidentally overheard their conversation. I'd been strolling along the garden and thought to check on Dad if he wanted tea before bed. I was about to walk in through the external door that connected Dad's study to the garden when I heard their hushed conversation. Jake wouldn't have known that I'd been staying with Dad in the past week. I came on the excuse of helping prep the house for his upcoming birthday party but more than that, I just felt safer here from the maddening urge to pick up the phone and call Jake over. Since our last emotional conversation where I'd bared my heart and soul, I've been in constant torment with myself. A part of me remained extremely paranoid while another wanted to toss caution out on its ass and take what I wanted. Sure, I might get hurt. But I might not be. Besides, I've been hurt before and even if it's not perfect, I managed to put myself back together. I could take those risks.

So the debate had been left as to whether Jake's promise was worth anything. It's one thing to survive potential heartbreak. It was something else entirely to put everything at stake for an empty promise.

There's nothing empty about it when the man goes straight to your father for his blessing.

I didn't actually need my father's blessing but it meant a lot to me. There's no man I respect and admire more, and my older brother's a pretty decent guy. And I had no doubt that Jake felt the same way about Dad. Coming here tonight to talk to him, to admit that he'd once hurt me already and still insist on having a second chance—this wouldn't have been easy for him. He risked losing pretty much the closest thing he had to a real family by coming forward.

Because the man's not kidding, Tessa, and it's probably time you realize that.

But how was it possible that Jake Hastings could love me?

Because there's so much to love, Tessa, even if you're the last person to see it.

I blinked back the tears from my eyes and took a deep breath.

I wanted to go to him as soon as he stepped out of the study but I couldn't. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know where to start. Coming forward to my father meant that this wasn't a secret anymore. That I couldn't hide forever without questions or consequences. I had to decide whether I could trust Jake and trusting him meant trusting that yes, he could love me.

"Sweetie, are you going to come in or not?"

I jumped at my father's voice and quickly rolled my eyes. Of course, he knew I'd been listening. Nothing got past him.

I pushed the door open and walked inside, a perfectly innocent smile on my face. "Hey, Dad. I was just wondering if you wanted some tea before going to bed."

My father just raised a brow at me. "Tessa Marie Maxfield, you're old enough to know it's not nice to listen in on other people's conversations."

My shoulders hunched. "I didn't plan on it. Besides, shouldn't it be my business considering it's about me?"

Dad just shook his head. "Now you're interested in making it your business when it seemed you wanted nothing to do with it?"

"Dad! Stop playing me like you did, Jake," I protested, plopping down the same armchair Jake had occupied earlier. I tried not to be obvious about it but I swear I could still smell him on it. "How did you even find out about any of this?"

"It's no thanks to either of you, that's for sure," Dad said with snort. "But you don't get to be a father my age, Tess, without understanding your children to some degree. I know all of you well despite what you think."

"Oh, I know that," I said. I was quiet for a moment before I added, "Was I that obvious? When I was a kid, writing on my diary, day-dreaming of Jake?"

Dad smiled. "To me, yes. It wouldn't have been to you and Anna or Jake or Brandon. When you're young, your whole world mostly revolves around yourself—the new things you know, your friends, the small things that seem to make up the grand scale of your reality at that moment. It's easy to miss what's going on around other people. But I could see how your eyes would light up when you saw Jake, how you'd hang on to his every word, how romantic of a child you were if you could listen to yourself then. I saw the drastic change in you one day and I knew that reality had struck. Jake was a man in his prime who maximized all his charms with the ladies—it was bound to happen."

I narrowed my eyes, feeling the sting. "So you didn't think it was possible for him to have fallen in love with me then?"

"Tessa, I don't think it's fair to judge Jake's lack of attention as a fully-grown man back when you were barely old enough," my father said lightly. "You were a beautiful girl with a good heart and he admired you for it but you were a young girl. He didn't have any business admiring more than that about you and that should never be a discredit to you now as a woman."

I couldn't really argue that because Dad was right—I had been too young then.

"If he now wants the all grown up Tessa who's become more lovely with time and smarter and stronger with experience, then I say good for him because he's an idiot if he fails to see what a catch you are," Dad added, smiling broadly at me.

I couldn't help but grin back as I got up from my chair and plunked down next to Dad to wrap my arms around him. "You don't have to tell me I'm lovely, Dad. As you said, I'm all grown up. I can take the truth."

Dad tipped my chin up and frowned. "Sweetie, you look like your mother. I will never, in this lifetime, see you as anything but lovely. Do you know what it was like for me when I first met her?"

I shook my head but waited expectantly.

In all my memories of my parents together, they were always happy and obnoxiously in love—the kind you wouldn't appreciate as a kid but would envy later on when you're an adult and you realize very few lucky people ever find that in life.

"She was one of five women who participated in a fund-raising date auction at a charity luncheon," Dad said, his gaze growing distant. "She was up there on stage with Boston's most glamorous young socialites at that time. She was the last to be called forward. Every lady before her was snapped up in very competitive bids. But Evelyn was just twenty-years-old then and painfully shy. She wore a simple rose-colored dress that appeared more conservative than it really was in comparison to the other women's dazzling outfits. She was so pale and even though a serene smile was fixed on her face, I could tell she was a nervous wreck by the way she was gazing intently at no one in particular. Her shoulders were so stiffly squared as if daring anyone to say anything."

Dad chuckled and shook his head in amusement. "I wasn't in the pool of young bucks vying for a date back then. I was a thirty-four-year-old widower with a somber five-year-old son. I was pretty sure I was done with all of that. I only came to write a nice check."

"I took a long look at Evelyn as a few half-hearted bids came in," Dad continued. "I think half the guys didn't know what to do with her. She wasn't a standard beauty, she was all closed up and even a little cold if one didn't look close enough to catch the fire that would flash in her eyes whenever someone made a snide remark here or there when the bids were lagging."

I grinned. "Of course, you being you, saw something else entirely."

"I saw in her a kind of resilience someone could easily interpret as defiance," Dad said softly. "She was scrutinized and embarrassed and it shred her already battered confidence but she wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of having her falling apart. She thanked me later for taking pity on her but the truth was, it wasn't pity. Not at all."

Dad's blue eyes had a sheen to them as he continued. "I called out from the back of the room with a bid no one could ever compete with because I was drawn to all that fire burning hot and bright so primly banked behind a cool exterior. She was beautiful in a way she'd never considered and it took me a while to make her see herself through my worshipping eyes. That's what love is, Tessa. It magnifies everything—the best and worst in us—and pushes us to choose which side we allow to prevail."

My gaze lowered and my chest felt tight as Dad's words stirred all the weight I'd allowed to settle inside of me lately. I couldn't ignore the parallelism. I was stubborn, not stupid.

When Dad took my hand and gave it a squeeze, I glanced up and saw him smiling so kindly at me. "You brought out the best in Jake but he seems to have only brought out the worst in you. You gave sharp definition to everything that was unknown and uncertain to him while he made you question rock-solid resolutions you've made for yourself all these years. He's determined to give you everything he'd never dreamed of offering another woman and you're determined to remain convinced you don't deserve it. You're exactly on the opposite sides of where you were with each other many years ago—with one wanting it all and the other having none of it. Either one of you will have to catch up with the other or you'll both have to meet somewhere in between. Because there can be an in between, Tessa, but only if you help each other."

I couldn't articulate anything to say so I just threw my arms around Dad's neck and rested my head against his chest like I used to when I was a little girl.

I sincerely felt like I was being ripped into half—the one part that's trying to desperately hold on to cold logic and the other that wants to have it all, for once, because I deserve it. It would be a bumpy ride, for sure, but it would still be better than being too afraid to take a single step to anywhere. I couldn't live life at a standstill.

"Dad?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"It might be one hell of a mistake."

"There's always that risk."

"I might get hurt. He might get hurt."

"No one goes into these things bulletproof."

"I might be crazy for thinking that Jake actually wants me after all this time."

"Love's got its own mysterious schedule. More importantly, it's got its own set of reasons why you fall for the person you do. Just as it doesn't need justification, it also doesn't need a counter-argument."

I looked up at Dad and grinned. "I'm going to do it."

He grinned back and winked. "That's my girl."

***

Jake

All hell broke lose before I could even map my way to heaven.

Whatever renewed optimism I felt after my talk with Martin was nearing a snapping point by the end of next week.

Everything that followed was a classic depiction of Murphy's law—anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

The night of Martin's birthday party, I was planning on asking Tessa to go away with me for a week or so, just to give ourselves time to be together like that day on the beach when nothing of our normal lives could intrude and interfere. My hope was that it would strip us of all our defenses and push us to make a decision once and for all.

The first of things to go wrong that night was that Tessa seemed to be dodging me. She was always draped in this sultry wine-colored dress and surrounded by people—mostly men, much to my irritation—all the time. She'd smiled and waved at me and made small talk and the soft light in her eyes in those few, brief moments made my knees weak but before I could steer her aside to talk, she or someone else would maneuver her away from me. The only reassurance I had was that one time she excused herself to welcome one of her father's old friends and she unthinkingly reached for my hand. Her hand lingered in mine, out in the open for people to see, before she moved away, only releasing me when the distance forced her.

Before I could sort out those mixed signals, a huge rift broke Charlotte and Brandon apart when I'd thought them unbreakable. But there had been no time to ask any questions because just when we though Bessy was on her way to recovery and a new life, packing up to leave town, Don found her and this time, his brutality had cost a life he had a hand in the making. Charlotte and I had to rush out of the party and stayed pretty much the entire night at the hospital. I spent the next couple days working with a private investigator to track him down because that son of a bitch needed to be fed to the wolves but he went into hiding. Then I learned that Charlotte had packed up and left Brandon who was newly appointed as CEO of Maxfield Industries due to Martin's early retirement. For a man who was finally getting something he'd long prepared himself for, he looked like he was dying. I knew that look, had seen it on my own face too many times the past few weeks before I sternly reminded myself that I had to give Tessa time. I couldn't do much about my own situation at the moment but I could help fix whatever Charlotte and Brandon did to each other because those two were too important to me. And selfishly, I needed Brandon to be in a good place when I finally approach him again about Tessa because the one time I tried, chasing him down the parkade as he headed for his car, he was about to ready to kill me. Brandon and I had scuffled with each other many times when we were younger but he'd never been this hostile. I thought that he'd somehow found out but I couldn't confirm because he was raving like a rabid animal that the only thing missing was the frothing mouth. Apparently, his reasons were far worse than I thought. When I finally managed to corner Charlotte, who'd been evading everyone, she broke down and admitted that Brandon thought I was having an affair with her.

So yes, shit had hit the fan and Tessa hasn't even heard the accusations yet.

Suffice to say, I was pulling my hair out because there was so much that I felt I should do but couldn't. Brandon wouldn't talk to me and Charlotte didn't want me to interfere and Tessa felt farther away from me than ever.

In what felt like a black hole where everything good was disappearing into, something flashed and suspended my universe.

It came the morning of the Rainbow Roof masquerade ball.

I was out on my deck, strumming gently on the guitar Tessa had bought me, when Sandros came in bearing a letter. It was in a pale yellow envelope that looked very familiar, with my name scribbled daintily on the back of it.

My heart pounded as my trembling fingers slowly opened it, taking care not to tear anything.

A scene from about eight years ago flashed in my mind—of pink braces, flushed cheeks and big and dark soulful eyes waiting so hopefully as they gazed at me.

Her handwriting was more polished and while I've received notes here or there from her over the years, this still captured the stark contrast of the sweetly naive girl Tessa had been and the more confident woman she is now.

Jake,

When I was twelve, I wrote you a letter confessing all my childish love and dreams—the same fanciful things I buried the day I realized you could never give them to me.

I write to you now because of a wiser, if a little cautious, love that has come alive since that night you refused to let me bury it again, and the new dreams you made me realize I could have with you.

So come find me tonight.

I'll be the butterfly, finally out of her cocoon, ready to fly with you.

Tessa

I carried that letter like the puzzling and fascinating creature that Tessa referred to as herself until I made my way back to the bedroom. With my free hand, I opened my nightstand drawer and rummaged through the few miscellaneous things in it until I found the thin envelope that laid flat in the back.

There was a slight crispness to the texture of the paper but the color of the stationery was almost identical to the new one. Slowly, I opened it and took out the letter I haven't looked at in ages. It was a letter that had made me smile and shake my head once, not knowing at that time how much I would come to treasure it.

I put the two letters side by side, my chest feeling inexplicably tight as I mentally framed everything that had happened in the last twenty years that led to this moment.

Then I grinned and shot to my feet because I had a ball to attend and a woman to win.

The old farmhouse where the Lady Championettes were hosting the ball was not only restored to its former splendor tonight—it was given a magical air by all the fairy lights and whimsical touches. It practically felt like a setting lifted out of a storybook.

I prowled the ballroom looking for a woman I'd know with or without a mask but she evaded me.

I told myself to be patient. I even managed to applaud loudly when Brandon and Charlotte were spotted clearly reconciled, caught kissing passionately in the middle of the dance floor before she was called up on stage.

It felt like something was at work here tonight and I crossed my fingers that the magic would find me and Tessa as well.

Then I saw a flash of iridescence from across the room and the world slowed down.

Her shoulders were bare, her neckline dipping slightly lower to gather in the center where the crystal beading gave the illusion of a butterfly trailing pearlescent wings all around the long, dainty dress, wispy mesh and lace appliqués shifting between lilac, pink, blue and pale gold in the light as she moved.

Her dark hair was piled up high on her head with a few locks curling softly around her face. She had no mask on but there was a smattering of gold, pink and lavender glitter and crystals around her eyes and temples that reminded me of a pixie.

Wordlessly, I approached her. When she slowly smiled at me, her eyes shining and her lips glistening a soft, delicious pink, the world came to full stop and I felt like staggering to my knees.

She's beautiful and she knows it now.

She offered me her hand and I raised it to my lips, kissing the back of it softly.

"Dance with me, Jake," she said as that same hand rested on my chest, right where my heart hammered.

I honestly couldn't remember the music—or anything else for that matter—the moment we glided into the dance floor. All I could see and feel was Tessa and I was sure everyone else could see that.

The moment the music stopped, Tessa slipped her arm around mine and slowly walked with me toward one of the doors that led to a winding path around the vast gardens. We passed a few other couples all clad in their costume until we found ourselves in a small clearing where we could still see the glow of the lights from the house and hear the music drifting from it. There was no one else there but us, the moon, the canopy of trees and the lights that wrapped around a few of them.

"You haven't said a word since you saw me tonight," Tessa said and her smile echoed in her voice. "Have I rendered you, the Jake Hastings of many smooth pick up lines, completely speechless?"

I smiled and shook my head. "My pick up lines don't work on you and I was afraid to break the spell."

She took a step closer to me, her arms sliding up around my neck and I held my breath. "This isn't a spell, Jake."

"It feels like it," I said as I touched the side of her face with one hand and slid my arm around her waist, gently pulling her close. "Because being this close to you, touching you and holding you like this—it hasn't been my reality for so long I was starting to wonder if my memories were in fact dreams of you."

Regret flickered in her eyes and I felt a pang of remorse. "I was scared, Jake. I was scared for a long time."

"I don't blame you," I said. "This is the most terrifying thing I've done in my life."

She laughed. "Is that supposed to reassure me?"

"Yes," I told her, pressing my forehead against hers. "Because it means you're not alone in putting everything at stake here, Tess. I'm in it with you."

"And that's what really matters, isn't it?" Tessa said with a slight grimace. "This past week, I saw two people who clearly loved each other suffer through their mistakes. And while it may have seemed like it in the surface, neither of them wanted to give up. And that's all you can do—stay together and fight for each other for as long as you're both in it."

"Are you in it with me, then?" I asked, holding my breath.

She smiled, her fingers running lightly through my hair. "I'll have to be because I love you."

"Good. Because I'm crazy in love with you." I smiled against her lips before claiming her mouth for a kiss that started out sweet and quickly spiralled into something heady that the world felt like it had started back up but was spinning in the opposite direction.

I released Tessa so we could catch our breaths and we were just smiling at each other when a gunshot rang through the night air and chaos erupted.

Grabbing her hand, I pulled her into a run as I traced our way back to the house, my eyes scanning the shadows for any signs of danger. As we closed in, we could see the people just outside of the house scatter in sudden panic. Tessa and I skidded into a halt before we could run straight into Brandon's fists as he pounded them into a man he had pinned with his knee on the ground.

"That's Don LeClaire!" Tessa gasped next to me. "Why the hell is Brandon—"

"Long story and I'll tell you about it one day," I told Tessa. We abruptly backed up a step when Gilles and a really big dude rushed over to try and pry Brandon away from an unconscious Don. I saw the glint of metal on the ground and bent to pick up the pistol and move it far away from Don's reach—or Brandon's—because as much as I wanted the other guy dead, I didn't want my best friend spending time in prison.

"Jake! Tessa! Over here!"

My head snapped up at the distressed female voice and found Nicole a few feet away, kneeling somewhere between two bodies on the ground. A chill shot through me as I made out the figures in the darkness.

"Charlotte! Oh, my god!" Tessa sank to the ground next to the prone form in an elaborate ball gown that was now stained with blood around the left shoulder and chest area. Then she glanced up and sucked in a loud breath when she recognized her cousin, Francis, cradled in Nicole's lap.

"What happened?" I couldn't see her face but Tessa's voice quivered with the sob she was trying to hold back. "Someone call 911! Please!"

The strangled sound of her voice snapped me back to focus and I fumbled for my phone out of my pocket, barely pressing the right keys to dial three numbers.

The wait felt like a lifetime before police and emergency responders descended on the area even though it was probably no more than ten minutes. By the time they came, I'd already warned on-lookers to stay away, only letting Anna and a few other friends get close. Gilles and the other guard were able to tear Brandon off of Don and restrain the unconscious man for the police's arrival.

"Love, come here," I said to Tessa as I pulled her up to her feet. She reluctantly released Charlotte to Brandon who crumpled to the ground next to his wife. He couldn't seem to hear any of us as he held Charlotte, his jaw set so hard, his eyes squeezed shut, and his every volatile emotion showing plainly on his face.

Tessa stumbled back against me and I wrapped her cold and shaking body in my arms and held her close. "It's going to be okay. Charlotte's wounded on the shoulder and Francis on the arm—they're going to be alright. Nothing serious. It's going to be alright."

The group of us watched, silently aghast, as several paramedics cleared the way to move the three bodies into stretchers.

Brandon didn't want to relinquish Charlotte at first until Anna stepped forward to pull him back. He jerked against her hold at first before his sister's loud, sobbing plea reached him and he hung back and put his arms around her, his own shoulders heaving.

Tessa whimpered at the sight of her distraught older siblings and I tightened my arms around her, offering whatever comfort I could summon in me throughout this nightmare.

It was a slow procession to the hospital and an even slower next couple of days as we all waited for Charlotte to regain consciousness.

Tessa and I didn't say anything to anyone—not even Brandon although he seemed unable to notice anything these days—but we stood by together. I took her back to her apartment late in the afternoon the day after the party as soon the doctors cleared both Charlotte and Francis out of danger. I slowly peeled her blood-stained gown off of her and sank to my knees next to the claw-foot tub where she soaked. We were both extremely tired but I washed her and her hair before lifting her out of the tub. When she was dry and changed into short nightdress, I carried her over to the bed before hopping into the shower myself.

I thought she was asleep when I finally climbed into bed with her but she turned toward me and fitted herself in my arms. I held her that way until we both fell asleep despite the grim memories that were still fresh in our minds.

When we were staying at the hospital, hanging around all day in case there was any progress, we made no effort to conceal our relationship. Martin had just smiled at us once or twice, and everyone else seemed unfazed about it—except Brandon.

"Jake, what the fuck?"

I broke off my kiss with Tessa and slowly turned around to face her irate brother. I didn't really want to deal with a fuming Brandon but this was the closest thing to an emotion he'd shown in the past couple of days.

Tessa and I had just stepped out into the hallway to head out to a coffee shop near the hospital when I grabbed her still for a moment to give her a quick kiss. I didn't realize Brandon had been right behind us.

"We might as well get this over and done with," I said as I looked at the man who'd been my best friend my whole life. I still had Tessa's hand in mine and I squeezed it lightly. "Tessa and I are together."

Brandon's eyes flashed. "The hell you are!"

"He's telling the truth," Tessa spoke up in a slightly unsteady voice. "And no, you can't be mad about this."

He looked wildly at his sister as if she'd grown snakes on her head. "Why not? This guy is a—"

"A what?" she interjected stubbornly. "A playboy? A commitment-phobic? A confirmed bachelor?"

Brandon blinked. "Well, yes..."

"Sounds like you're describing yourself before you met Charlotte, wouldn't you say?" she pertly finished.

That shut Brandon's flap like I've never seen and I fought to hide a smile.

He grimly surveyed us both with his eyes narrowed.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Tess," he started again, this time with a little less rancor. "You know I care about the both of you but I just don't know that the combination of you together..."

"Will give you good-looking nephews and nieces," I butted in, earning a jab on the rib from Tessa. "Not that we've been practicing. At least not lately."

Brandon's blazing glare nearly left me in ashes. I nearly backed up a step when I saw his shoulders tense but I held my stance. If we had to come to blows to move on from this, let it happen.

But Brandon's fists didn't go flying. Instead, he practically jabbed me in the eye with a finger. "I trusted you to be around my sister and this is what you do? How dare you, Jake?"

My own shoulders squared. "Dare what? Fall in love with your sister? You of all people should know how that can happen unexpectedly. Besides, you honestly think I can help it? She's the most beautiful and incredible woman I know."

That still didn't appease him. "So you just conveniently realized that about her all of a sudden? Woke up one day and decided that you're done with all the other women and will stick to one from now on?"

I raised a brow. "Again, are we still talking about me or you?"

"Stop being a smart-ass. This is my baby sister we're talking about!" This time, Brandon grabbed me by the collar.

"Brandon, stop it!" Tessa said, slapping his hands and trying to pry them off my clothing. "I've already done this whole drill with him. You can't possibly examine his motives any more than I already have. You'll just have to trust me and Jake to know what we're doing."

Tessa's voice caught and Brandon and I were both averted from glaring at each other. There were tears shimmering in Tessa's eyes and I cursed under my breath because I absolutely hated making her cry.

But even though she was sniffling, she still held her head high and bravely faced her brother. "I need you to be happy for us, Brand, because it took a lot for us to get here. You have no idea. If I can't change my own mind anymore, no one can so don't even try. I'm done being afraid of being with him. The only thing I'm afraid of now is losing him."

My frustration drained away and I pulled Tessa to my side, pressing my lips against her temple. "You're not going to lose me, Tessa."

"She better not or I'm going to kick your ass," Brandon muttered before letting out a loud sigh, kneading his forehead and showing all the exhaustion and emotional stress of the last couple days. "I'm not going to say another word about this again but before I do that, let me just get out the obligatory but fully-meant warning, Jake, that if you break Tessa's heart, I'm going to personally have you castrated and enjoy every moment of it. That's it. Rant over."

I could tell all the fight had left him so I dared and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, man. I'll deliver myself to the chopping table if I ever do something as stupid as that. Don't worry. I'm going to make her happy."

"I'll make sure he does," Tessa said with a roll of her eyes although there was a hint of smile at the corner of her mouth. "I need him with all his parts, after all."

Brandon scrunched up his nose in disgust. "Okay, I'm going to leave now because I don't need visuals or any other description. I just ran after you two to see if you can grab me a decent cappuccino because the one they serve here is absolutely vile."

"Of course, we will. Thanks, Brand." Tessa laughed and threw her arms around her brother. Brandon smiled and patted her head before looking at me and making the 'I'm-watching-you' sign at me with his two fingers.

I just flashed him a grin and shrugged.

"Well, it feels good to finally have it out," Tessa said as soon as her brother left and we resumed walking. "To finally say it out loud that yes, we're together."

I smiled and lifted her hand that I was holding to kiss the back of her fingers. "Forever and ever and always."

Her eyes lit up and I knew she picked up on the truth in my teasing.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Jake," she said flirtatiously.

I leaned down and kissed her squarely on the lips. "I don't."

***

So, what do you guys think?

Tessa and Brandon are such siblings. I'm actually an only child (I do have two older half-siblings who are much, much older than I am) so writing sibling relationships are always tricky for me. But I just plain love the Maxfield family and Martin's wisdom and kindness as a father was once again apparent in this chapter. 

I inserted a pic below of what Tessa's dress in the ball looked very much like. It's care of Pinterest, of course.

Love this song too!

XOXO!

-Ninya

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: Write On Me by Fifth Harmony ♪♪♪

Pick up the pen, put it on the paper

Write on my skin, bring me to life

Can't start again, there ain't no eraser

All of my flaws, you got them so right

Everything is blank until you draw me

Touching on my body like you know me

Write on me

Colour outside the lines

Love the way you tear me up

Baby, take your time

Write on me

Give me some wings, I'll fly

Love the way you tear me up

I'll never change my mind

Write on me, write on me

Write on me, write on me

(write on me)

Write on me (write on me)

Write on me

Love the way you tear me up

Write on me

You are my friend, straight and no chaser

Burns going down but it keeps me alive

Tell me the truth, I like the danger

'Cause in the end you will be mine

Everything is gray until you draw me

Touching on my body like you know me

Write on me

Colour outside the lines

Love the way you tear me up

Baby, take your time

Write on me

Give me some wings, I'll fly

Love the way you tear me up

I'll never change my mind

Write on me, write on me

Write on me, write on me