Tessa's P.O.V:
Ryder looks away from me and up at Marshall who paces up and down infront of us. Iris stays seated next to her twin brother and keeps her hand wrapped around his as she plays with the chain around her neck nervously with her other hand.
"And you live with a foster family?" Marshall asks. I glance at Ryder and watch him nod once. "Where do they live?" Marshall asks.
"Chicago." He says, making Marshall quickly look towards him.
"What are you doing in Detroit. Do they know you're here?" Marshall asks.
"Yeah. My foster mom came to Detroit to see family." He explains, making Marshall nod.
"It's two in the morning." I state. "Does she know you're here? At our home?" I ask.
"Yeah." He shrugs, making me look up at Marshall. Marshall looks away from me and lets out a sigh.
"Can he stay?" Iris asks. I let Marshall take this one and look up at him. Marshall doesn't say anything and gestures for me to come towards him.
"We can't let him stay." Marshall whispers as I stand next to him with my back turned towards the twins.
"Why not?" I whisper.
"He's got a fucking tag on his ankle." He says. I look back at Ryder and my gaze drops down on the tag that's covered with his jeans. "He's probably on probation which means he shouldn't be here....In Detroit." Marshall adds.
"He's staying." I state.
"What?" He says quickly.
"He's staying." I repeat.
"You can't let him stay." Marshall hisses.
"He is staying, Marshall." I sigh.
"It's my house. I make the rules here." Marshall says, making me let out a laugh.
"And I am your wife so this is my house too and I get a say in this." I say and walk past him.
"Tess!" Marshall says but I ignore him and walk towards Ryder and Iris.
"Shall I show you the way to a spare bedroom or do you want to stay in Iris' room?" I ask Ryder.
"He can stay?" Iris asks.
"Tessa." Marshall calls me again.
"Yes he can stay." I nod and hear Marshall let out a sigh.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Iris jumps up and wraps her arms around me.
"Go show him to your room." I say as I hug her back. "I'll see you in the morning, sweetheart. Goodnight." I say before I peck her cheek.
"Night." She mumbles. I watch her walk past me and hug Marshall before he lets out a sigh and hugs her.
"You have a lot of explaining to do." He says to her.
"I know." Iris nods. "Night dad." She says and walks away.
"Night baby." I hear him mumble before he lets out a sigh and watches Iris walk away towards the door.
"Come on, Ry." Iris says before she walks off. We watch Ryder stand up from the couch and expect him to say thank you for letting him stay or mumble a good night but instead he just stares at the both of us before he walks out.
"You're dealing with the cops when they come looking for him." Marshall says before he walks past me, making me let out a sigh.
***
"You have an interview to go to and you're performing live!" Leroy says as I look for my wallet. I ignore him as he follows me in and leans against the wall. "You have fans waiting." He adds.
Yeah. Guilt trip me.
"I'll make it up to them." I shrug.
"Tess-" Leroy starts but I quickly cut in.
"Karla just gave birth, Leroy. I wasn't there when she gave birth. I want to see her baby." I say slowly as if I am talking to a baby before I walk past him. I place my wallet down on my bed and pick up my clothes that I set out on the bed.
"Right well, you go see her then." He says, making me stand up straight.
"Really?" I say slowly.
"If you're back on the flight to Detroit two hours later." He adds, making me roll my eyes.
"I'm staying for a couple of days." I say and watch him sigh.
"Tess-" He starts but I cut in.
"I need to get ready." I say. "You have to go." I add.
"Two hours." He says and walk past me.
"Five days." I shoot bsck.
"You're are staying for two hour!" He says and pulls open the door.
"I am staying for five days and-" I start and get cut off by him slamming the door behind me. "And you can't do anything about it, Leroy!" I yell after him. "Well...Apart from shooting my husband and bestfriend and leaving me half dead." I mumble to my self and let out a sigh.
I pick up my clothes and walk towards my bathroom, away from the camera's that Marshall claims are not working but probably are. I get dressed, do my make up, grab my bags and my jacket before I walk out.
I make my way down the hallway and down the stairs before I place my bags by the door. I make my way back upstairs to see Marshall but stop halfway when I find Ryder standing in the middle of the room on his own.
It's been two days since we let him stay and he's barley said a word to us apart from Iris. We can tell he doesn't like us and about his ankle bracelet, it hasn't gone off. There haven't been any police or reports about a missing child. Nothing. We even called the police department but nope. No one is looking for a Ryder Mitchell. Makes you wonder if everything Iris or Ryder has told is a lie.
"Ryder." I say as I walk in. The glass frame drops out of his hand and smashes on the floor.
"I'm sorry." He says quickly as his face turns pale.
"It's fine." I say and walk towards him. I crutch down and start to pick up the smashed
photo frame.
"It wasn't my fault." He says, making me look up at him quickly.
"It's fine, Ryder." I smile at him lightly.
"You just....Scared me and it slipped. It's not my fault." He says. I stand up straight and stops infront of him. "I'll fix it for you. I didn't mean to break it...It...It...J-just slipped." He shrugs.
"It's fine, sweetheart." I say softly. "I can get it replaced some other day." I shrug.
"It's your fault." He says quickly. "You came out of no where and scared me. You did this and now...Now you're going to blame it on me just like Sally did." He says.
"Sally? Who is she?" I ask.
"Steven is going to beat me up for it because you're going to blame it on me just like she does." He says as he takes a step back wards. "You're.....Just like her.......You're going to hurt me. You're going to blame it all on me. I can't get away from people like her, can I?" He asks.
"Ryder. Honey. I am not trying to hurt you. I'm not trying to blame anything on you either." I say softly and watch him shake his head.
"Again with these tricks!" He yells.
"It's not a trick." I state.
"I can't take this anymore." He shakes his head. "Iris! We're leaving!" He yells.
"Ryder you need to calm down." I say. "You're Iris' brother and we're he-" I start and get cut off when he turns around and slams his fist into my nose.
My eyes sting with tears as I stumble back a little and hold onto my nose. I remove hand and look at the red stain on my hand before I look up at Ryder who's staring at me in horror. He takes a step back making me shake my head.
"I...I..." He stutters as he runs his hand through his hair. He walks backwards only to fall on the ground. I see him push himself backwards towards the door as he keeps his eyes locked on me.
"You alright?" I look up at Marshall who's looking down at Ryder. Marshall helps Ryder up and before he can say anything else, Ryder runs past him. "What happened to him?" Marshall asks as he turns his back towards me and watches him run.
"Beats me." I mumble and turn my back towards him. I reach for the tissue box and pull out a tissue with my shaky hands before I press it against my nose.
"I have to talk to you about something." Marshall says as he sits down.
"I'm listening." I mumble and try to hide my minor injury.
"I walked into Iris' bedroom this morning to wake her up for school." Marshall starts. I'm going to be late for my damn flight. "Ryder...He was walking out the bathroom and he was topless." He says.
"And..." I mumble.
"He had scars and cuts on his body." He says making me turn to face him quickly. I watch him stare at his hands as he shakes his. "He had bruises...And..." Marshall lets out a sigh. "Some where old...Some looked new." Marshall adds. "His has stitches on his shoulder." He mumbles.
"My god." I whisper and let out a small sigh.
"He saw me in the doorway and quickly turned around. He just stood there, frozen in his spot. He....Had white bandages in his hand and I saw cuts on his arms." Marshall adds. "I think he ran away from his foster family." Marshall shrugs.
"But there's no one looking for him." I say.
"They probably don't care for now...In a couple of days they might-" He starts and quickly stops when he gets a glimpse of my nose that bleeding. "What the fuck happened to you?" Marshall says quickly as he stands up, making me turn my back towards him.
"I bumped...Into something." I lie and curse at myself under my breath at the lame lie. "The wall. I bumped into the wall." I add. Marshall turns me around and shake his head.
"Damn." He mumbles as he looks at my injury. Marshall cups my face and moves my head right to left. "Does it still hurt?" He asks.
"Yeah." I nod.
"Looks like you hit it pretty hard." He says.
"It was a hard door." I shrug. Marshall pushes my face down towards him. He scans my eyes for a few seconds before he glances back at the doorway and back at me.
"Here." He mumbles as he pulls out more tissue from the box before he holds it against my nose. "Big door?" He says.
"Thanks." I mumble. "And huge." I nod.
"Yeah. Which door was it?" He asks.
"Kitchen door." I say.
"Hm." He raises his brows and drops them again.
"What?" I shrug.
"Nothing." He shrugs and reaches for more tissue.
"What is it?" I ask again.
"Well it's just that you said you bumped into the wall first and then you changed your story and said you bumped into a door. A huge door." He says, making me roll my eyes as I sigh. "You suck at lying." He adds.
"Whatever." I sigh.
"So. Why did Ryder punch you?" He asks, clearly pissed.
"He didn't." I shrug.
"Again with the lies?" He raises his brow. "Come on, baby." He says.
"I think he's scared of us, Marshall." I say.
"Why?" Marshall asks.
"Well...If you think that his foster family caused those marks then he probably thinks we're gonna do the same." I shrug.
***
I walk around with the newest member to the family wrapped up in my arms as my bestfriend talks to my husband on the phone. Milo climbs up onto the bed by his mother's legs before he looks down at his baby brother Jameson.
"So. Ryder?" Karla says, making me look up at her as she places my mobile on the bedside table. Milo jumps towards Karla and cuddles her as I start to walk around with Jameson.
"I never thought I would meet Ryder." I say. "Mainly because Iris never really talked about him." I explain.
"So what's going to happen now?" She asks. I let out a sigh and shrug.
"I don't know." I mumble. I haven't told Karla about all the marks on Ryder's back and how he punched me.
Marshall and I haven't really talked about it either. I was going to stay with him so we could talk to Ryder but Marshall didn't let me and told me to go see Karla so that's what I did. It's my fifth day in California and I have an hour until my flight back to Detroit.
"I want him to stay." I say, making Karla look up at me.
"What?" She lets out a small chuckle in confusion.
"I want him to stay with us...I want him to stay with his sister." I shrug.
"Okay....And have you talked about this to Marshall?" She asks.
"Nope." I say and let out a sigh.
"Well before you start to make plans, talk to him. It's house. His rules." She says.