Vegas Aces: The Wide Receiver Complete Series

CHAPTER 13 TESSA

“Oh, Tris.” A pause. “Wait. You’re serious?”

My brows crinkle as I listen to the message Tristan just sent me along with the text that said, Hope this is enough for you.

Is that…Savannah?

I hear Tristan’s voice next. “I can see now that you were just doing what was best for me. You wanted me to know the truth about my past. You wanted me to know that I was with the wrong woman, and you were right. I never should have been with someone who could so easily lie and manipulate me.”

I gasp as I click the phone off and throw the phone away from me.

My heart stops beating and a knot tightens in my stomach.

He hopes this is enough for me? For what…to break my heart?

To break me ?

As if I haven’t been living out my worst nightmare, he thought this was a good way to put the final nail in the coffin that was us?

I must be mistaken.

With trembling fingers, I pick my phone back up and play the rest of the message.

I start it over and hear the same heartbreaking words again. And then he continues. “I just have to know something. It’s been eating away at me. How the hell did you find all this out?”

“It was easy,” her voice chimes in. “I’ve known the stuff about Tessa awhile.” My blood boils as I continue to listen, and I hold my breath as I wait for his reply to her words that she wants to get back together with him.

“I want that, too. I want to be with someone I trust, and you’ve proven that I can trust you.”

My brows dip at his words.

Wait.

What?

He can trust her? After everything she’s done, he trusts her?

“You…you do? You want to get back together?” She sounds as surprised as I feel…if that’s even possible.

“It’ll take some work, but the charity event, and lunch today—they’re leading us somewhere, you know? You just keep proving I can trust you, okay? That’s what’s going to make this work.” Something doesn’t sit right with me about his words. Why would he send this to me? It’s not like him to purposely hurt anybody this way, let alone me , the person he claimed to love more than anybody else in the world. I guess things change.

I hear some glasses clink before Savannah speaks again.

I listen as she tells him about a nurse at the hospital where I gave birth all those years ago. The knot in my stomach twists tighter as I listen to how she got her hands on the sealed adoption paperwork. It’s sickening. It’s hurtful. It’s disgusting.

It's illegal.

An idea sparks in my mind.

“Thanks for all you did to help me.” His voice is flat. Emotionless.

Unaffected.

The recording ends there.

I know him.

I fucking know him.

He would never get back with Savannah. Not after everything she did.

Was he trying to give me evidence against her? Maybe he sent this to me by mistake, and my first instinct upon hearing his words—especially his words against me—was that he was trying to hurt me.

But he would never do that.

He’s getting close to her to get the truth out of her. If she can’t see that, she really is as delusional as we feared she might be.

And she’s falling right into his trap…which is perfect, actually. I have a gut feeling Tristan knows what he’s doing.

I’m not sure how to respond, but I save the recording and forward it to Richard Redmond, whose number I still have programmed into my phone.

Me: Tristan may have sent this to me by mistake. I thought you should have it.

And then I wait.

I debate asking Sue for the millionth time to let me take a peek at the adoption papers, but something stops me every time.

I feel like it’s something Tristan and I should do together…assuming, of course, he hasn’t already looked at them and gotten in touch with the child’s parents.

And so I focus on the baby and on the tasks Ellie has been sending me. She’s keeping me busy, which is very much appreciated as I near the final weeks of my pregnancy.

My mom and I set up a small nursery in the corner of my room. I’m still not sure if I’ll live in the house on the corner or if I’ll be staying with my mom. I’m still not sure whether I’ll move to Vegas or stay in Fallon Ridge. The more time that passes without contact from Tristan, the more I assume I’ll stay here.

As much as that breaks my heart, that strange voice recording he sent to me today somehow gives me hope. He’s got a plan in motion, and even if it doesn’t end with the two of us together, hopefully it will end with Savannah facing the consequences of her actions.

Or, you know, maybe she could just…drive off a cliff.