The Wrong Girl and the Wronged Girl (Stella and Ethan) novel Chapter 816

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Chapter 816 You Call That Fatherly Love

Remembering Artemis‘ warning before he came, Dale forced himself to speak gently to Tessa. “Come back to Black Mountain with me; that’s your home.”

He had thought long and hard before choosing those words.

But the moment Tessa heard them, her brows furrowed. “You think if I go to Black Mountain with you, all our problems will magically disappear?”

“What do you mean?” Dale looked at her, confused.

“I was nothing but a cover for the Ashen Pact uprising,” Tessa said flatly. “Finding me won’t help you.”

Ever since she’d been following Victor, Tessa could feel the deep, bone–deep hatred he carried for the Ashen Pact. That kind of hatred could only come from years of blood–deep enmity.

Tessa wasn’t stupid.

So when Dale came looking for her now, she didn’t mince her words.

“You were just a cover?” Dale frowned.

Tessa nodded. “Yes.”

Dale fell silent.

Just a cover. The phrase hit him hard; the news couldn’t have been worse.

If Tessa really was just a pawn in the Ashen Pact conflict, then things were far more complicated than he’d hoped.

He looked at her face–those eyes and brows that so closely mirrored his own.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, “Then what do you think we should do about the Ashen Pact’s current crisis?”

“I don’t know.” Tessa’s tone was cold.

She really didn’t; and even if she did, she wouldn’t say. Her parents stood on opposite sides, and she could only side with her mother.

That was something she’d understood clearly the moment she came to Redwood.

As long as she knew where she stood, she knew how to act when things came to a head.

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And right now…

Facing Dale, she couldn’t afford to care about anything else.

Besides, she had grown up without a father; at such a crucial moment, it was better to have none than to have one like him.

Dale’s expression darkened.

He looked at Tessa, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Tess, I know you hate me–for not being there, for not being the father I should’ve been.”

“But Tess… I am your father.”

Those last words came out weighted, deliberate–as if to remind her where her blood truly came from.

How could I not hear it? She might seem careless most of the time, but when it mattered, she was sharper than anyone.

Hearing her words, Tessa’s lips curved into a smile–one full of mockery.

Dale could hardly bear that look from someone so much younger. He drew in another deep breath. “Come back to Black Mountain with me, will you?”

These past few days, he’d been frantic–either searching for Tessa or desperate to see her. Now that he finally had, he needed something to come out of it.

In his mind, with how close Tessa and Victor seemed to be, if she returned with him to Black Mountain, Victor would have to think twice before making a move against the Ashen Pact.

But Tessa wasn’t a fool.

Her mocking smile deepened. “You say you’re my father?”

“I am,” Dale said, his tone firm.

“Father? Hah!” Tessa sneered. “What you really want is to take me back as a hostage.”

“My life has been nothing but misery.”

Go back to Black Mountain?

That place was crawling with people who wanted her dead–the twisted twins, the scheming stepmother who played innocent, Manny, Dan… all of them had tried to hurt her before.

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Every one of them was dangerous.

And as for her father–he’d only ever acknowledged the children born of his precious wife.

He wanted me to return to that hell? Tessa thought.

“Do you take me for a fool? Or do you really think I’m so desperate for some illusion of fatherly love?”

Every word cut like a blade.

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