WITH A HEAVY HEART, Tessa folded one item after the next, stacking them neatly into her duffle bag. Sighing, she zipped it up before she got on her knees to pull her black suitcase out from under the bed to pack up the rest of her things that were still spread out on the queen sized bedᅳ the dark covers matching with her black clothes.

The morning sun shone through the small window in her room, something that usually always brightened her mood. But not today. Normally she only felt this shitty when she had to say goodbye to the one person her father kept away from her.

Her current emotional state only showed how important Maria had become to her, how much she enjoyed living with the woman who took her in from day one and treated her like family. Never before had any of her dad's former girlfriends treated her so warmlyᅳ and Tessa appreciated that.

That's why she hated her father even more. For once he could've thought about her, been happy that his daughter finally had someone who treated her well, who was nice to her. But Mikael Laney had never cared about anyone but himself. He didn't know love and affectionᅳ he was too corrupted by his own parents for that.

Two people Tessa couldn't stand. Her paternal grandparents. Even in their old age, they could spread nothing but hatredᅳ something Tessa despised.

But her maternal grandparents weren't much better. Apparently everyone in her family was pretty fucked up in different waysᅳ which made her appreciate Maria even more. Even though she didn't see the woman as a mother figure, she had built a close bond with her, which was now about to be torn again just because of her dickhead of a father.

A soft, bitter snort fell from her lips, her nostrils flaring as she threw the last item into her suitcase and finally collapsed onto the bed, facing the white ceiling.

Tears threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes, but Tessa wasn't one to show or admit her emotions, even when she was alone. She had learned to swallow all of it. She knew that this wasn't a good idea, ignoring the danger that at some point all emotions could boil up and cause an emotional breakdown.

The deep breaths she took were shaky, uneven evenᅳ but they helped her get her emotions under control. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she folded her hands over her stomach and hummed the one song her mom used to sing to her whenever Mikael allowed the woman to visit her.

It might have been weird, but the song always stuck with her and managed to calm Tessa down in her worst momentsᅳ even though her mom wasn't really a big part of her life. Involuntary, so Tessa couldn't blame her.

The raven-haired woman quickly jumped up when she heard the key in the lock and shortly afterwards voices muffling through the house. One of them was Maria's voice, which sounded muffled and deeper as usual, also not as cheerful. And the other one was Happy's, who urged his mom to lie down but the stubborn Latina wasn't listening.

Tessa collected the remaining things with her arms, threw them back into the closet and took another deep breath. With her duffle bag resting on her shoulder, she heaved the heavy suitcase out of the room, probably looking pretty stupid while doing so, and headed through the hallway that led directly into the living room, which you could reach as soon as you came through the front door.

"What are you doing here, Maria?" There was concern in Tessa's brown eyes as she put down her suitcase and walked towards the older woman. "Shouldn't you still be in the hospital? It's only been a few hours."

"I don't need a hospital." The woman waved her off with a smile, making Tessa wonder how anyone could still smile after such an incident. "It wasn't as bad as the doctors thought. My jaw isn't broken by the way."

Tessa gave Happy a questioning look, who only grunted with a shrug of his shoulders. He didn't seem thrilled that Maria was already homeᅳ but the woman had always had her way. Which Tessa thought was goodᅳ but in that case she wasn't sure if it was a good idea for Maria to be home already.

Half of Maria's face was covered in dark blue and purple bruises, with a greenish tone shimmering through in between. Two lacerations jutted out over her left eyebrow, right next to each other, and she had a black eye. Her nose was covered with a large, special plaster and white bandage-like compresses were placed under her nose. In addition, almost half of her face was swollen and just the sight of it left Tessa in shock.

"IᅳI'm so sorry, Maria,", Tessa stuttered concerned as she kneaded her hands with a guilt filled expression. "This should've never happened. I'm sorryᅳ"

"Stop it, sweetheart", the woman scolded softly as she approached Tessa, slowly and step by step. It still felt like her head was filled with cotton from the anesthesia. "You didn't do anything wrong, on the contrary. Without you I may wouldn't be here anymore."

"Maybe, but I wasn't here to stop him in the first place", Tessa said shakily, and it almost hurt her to have to look at Maria.

"Oh please, Tessa." Maria shook her head before gently taking Tessa's face in her hands. "It's not your responsibility to take care of your father. I should've ended this a long time ago."

The woman looked to the side, at the suitcase next to Tessa's feet, which were covered by knee-length black platform boots and ensured that she was still as tall as Maria herself. Her look was scolding as she locked eyes with Tessa again.

"What are you planning to do, Tessa?", she asked sternly, her eyebrows furrowed no matter how painful it was for her.

"Well..", Tessa looked up and down between her suitcase and Maria, shrugging slightly. "My dad's gone, I checked. All his stuff is goneᅳ so there's nothing here to hold me anymore."

"Do you want to insult me, sweetheart?" Maria's gaze darkened and now Tessa knew where Happy got that look from. But when it came to him, that look was always on his face and with Maria it was only very rarely. Whenever Maria got to the point where she looked at you like that, a chill ran down everyone's spine.

Even Happy cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at his mom, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I told you to lie down", he urged. "Let me take care of the rest."

"I won't lie down if there's any chance of her going back to her asshole of a father!" Maria looked up stubbornly, not intimidated at all by her son's gaze. "You see it the same way, right?"

"It's her decision, Ma", Happy replied with a shrug. "It doesn't matter what we want."

"Nonsense!" Maria hit her son's arm with the palm of her hand. "She's familyᅳ since when does that mean so little to you?"

"I never said family didn't mean anything to me", Happy grumbled from the side, his brows furrowed. "But she's an adult, you can't force her to stay here."

Maria took a breath, ready to protest again. Tessa had become an important part of her life and she wasn't going to let the young woman return to an abusive asshole like Mikael. But Tessa spoke up before Maria could.

"Maria, he's right", Tessa chimed in.

She didn't want to cause a discussion between mother and son, that's why she gently took Maria's hands in hers. "I have to find him, I have my reasons. Believe me, it has nothing to do with wanting to be with him. You were the first person I could really trust, and I appreciate everything you did for me. I would love to stay hereᅳ but I have to stay with that shithead."

"No, no, you can't do that", Maria insisted sternly, a hint of sadness in her eyes. "You belong here, where you are safe."

"Lie down, Ma", this time it wasn't a request but an order that Happy gave his mother when he saw how much it upset her that Tessa wanted to leave.

He had to talk to the young woman and get her to at least stay here until Maria got betterᅳ in his eyes, his mom had been through enough hard times alone and if Tessa's presence would bring her some peace, he would make sure she would stay.

"You wait here, I'll be right back. We're not done yet." His gaze spoke volumes as he literally stared at Tessa, his raspy, assertive voice sending shivers down her spine.

"Please don't go, sweetie", Maria pleaded in a soft voice as she squeezed Tessa's hands again before Happy gently pushed her towards the rooms. He looked over his shoulder again to make sure Tessa wasn't taking her first chance to leave.

The woman with the dark hair cleared her throat quietly, crossing her arms after slipping her duffle bag off her shoulder. Walking into the kitchen, she sat down and ran her fingers through her black strands, letting her gaze wander arouns. It was a relatively large kitchen that was tidy as always. One of the many things that were important to Maria was a tidy home.

A faint smile crossed her lips as Tessa remembered Maria telling her that she taught Happy to always be neat as a child.

"A clean house makes your day better", was probably one of Maria's favorite sentences. One Christmas she had proudly talked about how similar her son was to her and everyone present at the table could see and hear how proud Maria was to be Happy's mother.

Tessa had always admired the woman. After Maria told her that she had raised Happy alone because his father was also an abusive asshole, that she had two jobs so that she could fulfill her son's every wish, and was proud of what he had become, Tessa's admiration only increased and she hoped one day to be as strong as Maria was.

Her gaze lifted as she heard heavy footsteps approaching and watched Happy enter the kitchen. Without a word, but with that stoic yet stern, intimidating look, he pulled back the other chair and sat down.

"It better be something extremely important that Mike got from you", he said as he played with the pen that was on the table, his almost black eyes still staring into Tessa's. "And I want to know how long you need him to stay alive."

"Does that mean you're letting him live?" She looked at the man across from her with a glimmer of hope. "Thank you, thank you soᅳ"

Happy interrupted, raising a hand to silence her. "I want to know the reasonᅳ I want to know why I should let this fucker live. Then I can tell you if I'm going to let him live for a while longer or not."

The euphoria faded pretty quickly and Tessa collapsed back into her chair with a sigh. She hated talking about this topic. The one subject where she had little to no self-control and her emotions took over. But she probably had no other choice.

"He has actually two things that belong to me", she finally began, her eyes fixed on the table as she chewed on her long, black-painted nails before she continued. "The first thing is fifty thousand dollars that my mom gave him almost two decades ago, which was intended for me and my future."

"Why didn't you grow up with your mom if your dad is such an asshole?", Happy asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tessa let out a deep sigh as she lifted her gaze to look at Happy. "She didn't give me up voluntarily. My mom was only sixteen when she had me. With her parents being strict Catholics, it was only a matter of time before she had to give me up. Since my mom was against an abortion because she really wanted to keep me, my grandparents threatened to take me away once I was born. Since she wasn't eighteen yet, they had the rights over me. So she asked my dad to get me far away from Texas and never let me go back thereᅳ never let my grandparents see me again."

As Tessa became silent for a moment, Happy took in her facial features. Her feathery voice had already given away how hard this was to talk about. Tessa was someone who was usually brimming with self-confidence, at least it always seemed that way when he visited.

He had never seen her as helpless and vulnerable as she was in this momentᅳ and now he finally understood what his mom meant when she claimed that Tessa had her own demons to fight. Apparently there was more to the young woman than he and his mom knew.

"Then what happened?", he asked with his deep, gravelly voice, but still tried to sound empathetic.

"My dad promised to get her out of there. He really loved her until my grandparents offered him a huge amount of moneyᅳ suddenly the love for my mom was secondary. That fucker loves money more than anything else", Tessa spat, anger dripping from her voice. "They told him to keep me away from my mom, to hurt her in any way possible because she went against them and denied them their grandchild. When my mom was finally able to move out, she contacted my dad. He told her he'd allow her to see me if she would pay him fifty thousand. It took my mom two more years to scrape together the money. Mikael only allowed her to see me regularly for two years until he made sure she did stay away. My mom told me all of that shortly before I turned sixteen after she found a way to contact me without my dad noticing."

"Sounds like he's an even bigger bastard than I thought", Happy let out a bitter huff, but he wasn't really surprised. The killer has had a bad feeling about Mikael from the startᅳ but his mom had been happy so he kept his mouth shut, which he regretted now. "And you think he still has the money? Why do you even care?"

"I know he still has it. And not just her money but also from other women he's been screwing over the years. Why do you think I never wanted to leave him alone with Maria, huh? Because I know how fucked up my dad is", she snorted angrily, shaking her head. "And I want to give the money back to my mom. Even if it's no consolation for all the years without meᅳ at least it's something, and besides, it's hers."

"I get it. But money is no good enough reason for me to let him live after what he did to my Ma, Tessa." Happy's expression was deadly serious as he continued to look at Tessa, tapping the pen on the table. But then something else flashed in his eyes. Anger perhaps? Tessa couldn't really tell.

"Why didn't you warn my mom?", he finally asked, his voice so croaky that it made him sound ten years older. "If you care so fucking much about my mom, why didn't you say anything?!"

And here they came, the tears of guilt. Tessa's breath came in gasps, her bottom lip trembling as she tried desperately not to cry. Happy had every right to ask that question, he had every right to be mad at her.

"I would have, I wanted to say something so often. Ifᅳ", she sniffed, wiping the tip of her nose.

"If what, huh?" Happy demanded, sticking a toothpick between his lips after fishing one out of the inside pocket of his kutte. The pen flew to the side and rolled down the table, soon landing on the floor next to Tessa's feet. "If what, Tessa? Did you see Ma's face? What would've happened if you hadn't gotten off work earlier?!"

Tessa winced slightly, a whimper leaving her throat as Happy's voice rose so loud that he just yelled at her at the end of his sentence. If she wasn't so emotionally upset right now and Happy was yelling at her for no reason, she would have punched him in the face and would've leftᅳ but she deserved him to be mad at her.

"I swear if you don't talk soonᅳ" Happy became more and more impatient, his anger at Tessa's father so overwhelming that he didn't really notice how small Tessa was becoming compared to him, sinking deeper and deeper into her chair.

"He has my son, asshole! He's holding my son against me", Tessa now shouted back, her emotions all over the place. Sadness mixed with anger was never a good combination.

Sobbing and angry at the same time, she stood up and placed her hands, which were shaking with rage, on the table, her brown eyes locking with Happy's. "Is that reason enough for you?! I don't give a shit if you're interested in me or my life or not. I don't want pity or sympathyᅳ but if you know anything about family at all, you'll give me the opportunity to get my kid back before you put an end to my dad's miserable life!"

Something similar to shock crossed Happy's face for a second as he took in Tessa's words. This was something he hadn't expected. His hard features slowly softened, the muscles in his jaw slightly relaxing. Then he looked the young woman up and down in silence.

That changed a lot of his original plan and he wondered why neither he nor his mother had known about Tessa being a mother all these years.

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