Chapter 11 - Tessa Blake Wanted Her Name Back For A Different Reason
Tessa answered Hale the next morning.
Not me.
Good.
She then called me.
Less good.
“You caused a gala fistfight.”
“Mason caused half.”
“You caused a gala half-fistfight.”
“Accurate.”
Tessa laughed.
She had left the Army six years ago.
Owned a small physical therapy practice in Arizona now.
I knew that part.
I did not know why she wanted her name restored.
“For my son.”
I went quiet.
“He’s twelve.”
“You had him right after Return Track.”
“Yes.”
“Does he know?”
“That I was injured. That I got out.”
“And?”
“He thinks I quit because I couldn’t handle it.”
My jaw tightened.
“Who told him that?”
“No one.”
She sounded irritated.
“He’s twelve. He built a stupid theory.”
Fair.
She continued.
“I've never shown him Return Track stuff because I hated the photos.”
“So?”
“If the history says I was in the first cohort, that's enough.”
“Public wall?”
“Yes.”
“Photo?”
“No.”
“Quotes?”
“Ask.”
Specific again.
Then Tessa said:
“Why do you want yours back?”
I looked toward the hotel window.
Morning light over Fort Mercer.
“I don't know.”
She laughed.
“You dragged six tags into a ballroom.”
“I wanted the erasure explained.”
“That isn't the same as wanting your name restored.”
Exactly.
She understood too quickly.
“You remember when I stopped answering the group?”
“Yes.”
“You thought I was depressed.”
“I assumed.”
“I was dating someone.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“He hated military people.”
I laughed.
“You disappeared because of a boyfriend?”
“See? This is why I didn't tell you.”
Fair.
She continued.
“I needed one place where I wasn't injured-Tessa.”
“That’s why you ignored us?”
“For a while.”
“Then?”
“Then it became awkward.”
Eight years of privacy could begin with something that ordinary.
No trauma revelation required.
Tessa said:
“You used to treat everybody's silence like a problem to solve.”
I stared.
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“You were useful.”
She added:
“And exhausting.”
I almost smiled.
“Devon said something similar.”
“Devon is usually right after he finishes being unbearable.”
Then Tessa got serious.
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“If you leave your name off, don't do it because you think staying absent is somehow cleaner.”
That annoyed me.
“Don't tell me what my decision means.”
She stopped.
Then laughed softly.
“Look at you.”
“What?”
“Actually telling me instead of disappearing.”
I rolled my eyes.
She continued:
“Fine. Your decision.”
“Thank you.”
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“Hale asked whether I thought you spoke for us back then.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did you say?”
“That sometimes I let you.”
That was different from authority.
“And sometimes I resented you for not knowing when I didn’t.”
I sat with that.
Tessa continued:
“That part was mine too.”
No one got to make me the only person responsible for a dynamic six people had used.
Good.
May you like
Messier.
More accurate.
