<h4>Chapter 47: Just a scratch</h4>


    Roman narrowed his eyes to mere slits when he heard more than one door banging shut at the same time, the sound echoing through the empty halls, but he wasn’t alone.


    Cody and Daniel also frowned as the unnatural noise reached their ears, their bodies tensing in unison when they heard the noise. Cody even had it worse because, despite the fact that the front door did not open or bang shut, it still vibrated with eerie persistence as if someone pushed it with unseen hands, and he was sure with cold certainty there was no oneing inside the house.


    "What was that?" Roman asked, his voice low and dangerous, moving his gaze to Daniel, who looked confused as well, his usualposure slipping for a brief moment.


    "I’m not sure, boss," Daniel answered.


    "Is Liam at home?" Roman threw another question sharply, and Daniel shook his head, his dark hair swaying with the movement.


    "Alpha Williams already left the house a while ago," Daniel revealed, his eyes darting toward the staircase. "It’s just me and Cody and the servants in the house.jr."


    Roman turned his face from Daniel, a deep frown etched on his features. Without another word, he advanced towards the stairs with predator-like grace, Tessy’s room burning brightly in his mind like a beacon.


    Oblivious to the confusion that was happening downstairs, Tessy moved like a zombie through the room. Her movements were sluggish and uncoordinated, the weight of her predicament finally sinking in and weighing her down like chains around her soul.


    She fell on the bed face t with a muffled thump, the mattress swallowing her form as shey there motionless, clenching her palms until her knuckles turned white as bone. She released a muffled, heart-rending scream into the mattress that shook her entire frame, pouring all of her pent-up frustration into the scream until her lungs burned for air.


    What she didn’t know was that, just at the same time as she screamed with raw anguish that seemed to vibrate through the walls, a few items in the room were lifted up from their ces without any help or external force and floating about in the air as if caught in some invisible current.


    The sharp pain from the unintentional elongation of her nails, which pierced deep into the tender skin of her palms like tiny des, forced her to unclench her fists with a sudden gasp and stop screaming. But as soon as her scream died down into choked silence, the sound of falling objects crashing to the ground jolted her back to reality.


    She jumped up from the bed with a start, her heart pounding wildly, and looked around the room with wide, disbelieving eyes, wondering what the hell just happened.


    Already hurrying to her room when he heard her scream echoing through the halls, Roman literally ran towards the door with barely restrained urgency when the second noise reached his ears, his boots pounding against the floors.


    Believing she was in trouble and needed help immediately, he didn’t bother with knocking or pleasantries. He pushed the door open with enough force to make it shudder in its frame and hurried inside the room, his body tense with readiness, only to halt abruptly when the strong metallic smell of fresh blood hit his nostrils like a physical blow.


    In less than a second, his sharp eyes scanned the messed-up environment, taking in every overturned object and out-of-ce item, before the pair settled on her trembling form, catching a hint of her confused state in the way her eyes darted wildly about. But what made Roman widen his eyes in genuine rm was the sight of bright red blood trailing in thin rivulets down her pale fingers, stark against her skin.


    Unhesitatingly, he marched towards her with purposeful strides, his arms already reaching out to steady her, but she also took backward steps away from him in quick session, her bare feet shuffling against the carpet, panic shing in her eyes like a cornered animal’s.


    "Stay away from me," she said to him, her voice barely above a whisper, still moving away despite the fact that he had slowed down and was giving her a puzzled look that did nothing to calm her racing heart.


    "What do you mean, ’stay away from you’? You’re hurt, Tessy. What happened to your hands?" Roman asked, his deep voiceyered with concern he couldn’t hide. Yhat was when Tessy noticed the blood on her palms for the first time, her mind still reeling from recent events.


    Shock was an understatement of how she felt at that moment, her breath catching in her throat. Her mind had been too upied by the falling objects that seemed to defy gravity that she forgot about the stinging pain she had initially felt on her palms, now throbbing in time with her heartbeat.


    "How..." she trailed off, her voice breaking slightly as she struggled to form words, trying toe up with an exnation as to how the injury on her hands came about that wouldn’t soundpletely insane.


    Roman made to approach her again, his movements deliberately slow and non-threatening, but she retreated hastily as if burned, moving to the side with jerky motions when her back met with a solid obstruction in the form of her dresser. "Don’te close to me, please," she pleaded, her eyes wide and vulnerable, keeping her eyes on him like he might attack at any moment.


    "Did you hurt yourself intentionally?" Roman asked point nk, his gaze never leaving hers, searching for any telltale signs of deception in her face.


    Having no exnation that wouldn’t soundpletely unbelievable, Tessy quickly came up with a lie that tasted bitter on her tongue. "It’s nothing serious. Just a small ident, as you can see," she pointed weakly to the mess in the room that told a story of chaos. "I’m a nurse, and I can take care of it myself. I just want to be left alone, please. I’m not in my right frame of mind right now."


    Although Roman’s jaw worked visibly as he clenched and unclenched his teeth, he still nodded curtly after a long moment and slowly turned around, his broad shoulders tense beneath his shirt, walking away from the room.


    He knew she was lying or hiding something important - he could see it in the way her eyes refused to meet his for too long and had detected it from the abnormal way her heart was beating a frantic rhythm against her ribs. But he didn’t want to push her or force her when she was clearly distressed, as he feared with growing dread that she was trying to harm herself on purpose in some twisted form of release.


    He had tried to kill himself several times in his long life, each attempt more desperate than thest, but nothing he did worked no matter how creative or violent the method. But feeling that the one person he would dly live for was trying to take her own life gave him a kind of primal fear that he had never experienced before.


    As soon as he stepped out of her room and shut the door behind him with a soft click, he saw Freya approaching the room in a hurrry, her usually cheerful expression now one of concern and sadness that aged her youthful features prematurely.


    "Good morning, Mr. Gavriel. I’m here to see Tessy," Freya greeted and announced formally, lowering her head slightly in respect as Tessy’s mother’s words re-echoed in her mind.


    "She’s inside," Roman answered, his voice rough with unspoken emotions, and was about to walk away when he decided to confirm if his darkest suspicion was right, turning back abruptly. "Freya," he called, and Freya looked up at him with startled eyes full of questions she didn’t voice. "Does Tessy practice self-harm?" The words tasted like ash in his mouth.


    Freya was taken aback by the unexpected question. "No," she answered immediately, her voice firm and unwavering, leaving no room for doubt in her conviction. "She has never done that ever since I’ve known her, not even at her lowest points. Why did you ask? Is she okay?" Freya panicked, her words tumbling out faster as her mind conjured worst-case scenarios.


    "She’s physically fine," Roman said carefully, choosing his words with precision. "Please do your best to help her calm down when you see her. She is extremely stressed right now, and I think the recent grief is making her lose touch with reality." With that ominous statement hanging between them, he walked away without another word, his tall form disappearing around the corner like a shadow.


    Freya didn’t waste another second before rushing into the room, her movement halting abruptly when she found the cepletely messed up. She remembered Roman’sst words about Tessy losing it, and she instantly thought of the worst possible oues.


    "Tess," she called out, her voice higher than usual with worry, but didn’t wait for a response before she rushed to the bathroom instinctively, following the sound of running watering from that part of the room.


    Relief washed over her in a warm wave when she saw Tessy by the sink, her back turned as she methodically washed her hands under the stream. But the relief didn’tst more than a heartbeat because she suddenly realized with dawning horror that there was blood swirling down the drain from the girl’s hands.


    Freya hurried towards the girl without thinking. "What happened to your hand, Tess?" she asked, reaching out but stopping short of touching her friend, not wanting to startle her further.


    "Nothing serious. Just a scratch I got by ident," Tessy replied automatically, her voice t and distant, grabbing onto a bandage from the open first aid kit with practiced ease and wrapping it around the wound with clinical precision despite the slight tremble in her fingers.


    When she turned around to face Freya properly, the girl’s face held all the sadness in the world in her expressive eyes, forcing Tessy’s carefully controlled grief to bubble up to the surface once more like a tidal wave.


    "I’m justing from the house. I’m so sorry, Tess," Freya said softly, her gentle words finally breaking through Tessy’s fragileposure and making her break down into fresh tears that streamed down her pale cheeks unchecked.


    Freya wasted no time in offeringfort. She moved at that instant to wrap Tessy in her arms without hesitation, pulling her close, providing her some small measure offort even as her own silent tears fell from her eyes onto Tessy’s shoulder.