Chapter 4 - THE TAPE RECORDINGThey brought her back to the mansion under the cover of a storming sky.
Ronan didn't put her in the servants' wing. He carried her up the grand staircase, past the endless silent corridors, and laid her down on the massive king-sized bed in his own master suite.
Dr. Mercer, the family’s private physician, tended to her bruises and patched her cut shoulder while Ronan stood silently by the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the rain. He had changed his clothes, but he still held the small cassette tape he had recovered from her hidden stash under the floorboards.
When the doctor left, the room fell into a deep, heavy silence.
Tessa sat propped up against the velvet pillows, looking tiny and fragile in one of Ronan’s silk robes. She wouldn't meet his eyes. The shy maid had returned, her defensive walls slamming back into place.
"You're going to tell me everything," Ronan said gently, sitting on the edge of the mattress. "Not as my maid. As Theresa."
Tessa swallowed hard, her fingers clutching the bedsheets.
"Vance killed my family," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the patter of rain against the glass. "I saw him execute my father. I ran. I hid in the shadows for four years, changing my name, moving from state to state. But Vance’s hunters were everywhere. The only place they didn't search... was the shadow of the lion."
She finally looked up, her soft brown eyes filled with profound sorrow.
"I took the job here because I knew Vance would never dare launch a strike against your compound. But when I got here... I saw how you lived. You were surrounded by men who feared you, enemies who wanted you dead, and fake friends who wanted your money. You had no one watching your back when the lights went out."
She took a shaky breath.
"So I made a choice. If I was going to hide behind your power, I was going to earn my keep. I checked your food. I checked your medicine. I left the light on so you would know... that even in a house full of blood and secrets, someone knew you made it home alive."
Ronan felt a sharp, stabbing ache in his chest. He reached into his pocket and placed the cassette player on the nightstand. He pressed play.
A scratchy, four-year-old audio recording played through the speaker. It was the sound of Vance’s voice talking to a traitorous Gallagher lieutenant—a man Ronan had trusted deeply back then.
Audio Voice (Vance): "Once Gallagher’s blood pressure medicine is tampered with, his heart will give out within six months. It'll look like natural stress. Then we take Boston."
The recording clicked off.
Ronan sat in stunned silence. The heart attack he was supposed to have four years ago... was prevented because she had intercepted the delivery, taken the train in a snowstorm, and brought the untainted medicine directly from an untracked pharmacy in Hanover.
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She hadn't just served him potato soup and folded his clothes.
She was the reason his heart was still beating.
