God. She felt like a fool. She was an idiot for believing him and never doubting his words, and now the pain was going to be worse because she gave him her whole self. She didn’t think she would recover this time.
The elevator door closed before Tessa pressed her face against her knees, curled her arms around her bent legs, and cried until she was gagging.
She realized she’d been there a while when she glanced outside and saw the streetlights were on. The site she was in was lit but barely, and it started to scare her because everything looked so foreign to her, and the plastic they had up everywhere seemed to be alive with the way it moved.
She stood and rubbed her hands off on her skirt before wiping the tears from her face. She needed some time away tofigure out her next move.
The house she grew up in still hadn’t sold, but all of her furniture was in a storage building somewhere in the city. She had no idea where it was, or where her money was, or even something simple like how to get out of this building.
Tessa pushed the button for the elevator. She thought she could use a phone if she could get down to another level. Now that she thought of it, she had no idea what her friends’ phone numbers were. She bit down hard on her tongue to keep from crying out.
She heard the elevator come back up and then stood back when the doors opened. She pushed for the second floor because she remembered Lacey had an office there that she shared with her daddy.
The elevator stopped suddenly on the third floor, and her heartbeat tripped in her chest when a man she vaguely remembered stepped on it. She’d seen him during an office party. She pressed herself against the back wall.
She knew he didn’t work in the building, and she hoped he didn’t know Nate because he’d take her right back to him.
The man was surprised to see her. His smile quickly fell when he got a look at her face. She knew it didn’t look good. Anyone would have been able to guess she’d been crying for a long time. She was probably still red, and she knew she was swollen.
“What in the world? What happened, honey?” His hand cupped her shoulder.
“Nothing.”
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“I…”
His brows snapped together when she didn’t answer. “Who do you belong to, honey?”
“No one.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I’ve seen you somewhere. Have we met?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“You look familiar,” Tessa said.
“My name is Gage. I have a little named Brylee.”
“I might have met her.”
“Oh, where?” he asked.
She pressed her lips together.
Her sighed. “How about you come home with me until we can find your daddy? All the offices are closed for the night.”
She shook her head. “No, thank you, and I already told you I don’t have one.”
They got off on the ground floor.
“I need to go back up, sir,” Tessa said.
“No, you don’t.” They walked over to a guard Tessa had never met.
“Stan, do you know who she belongs to?”