With her right hand, Tessa wiped her tears. She now was in front of Magnus' apartment. She knocked the door and waited for a few seconds.

"Yes?" A cautious voice came from the other side of the door. Magnus used not to do that when somebody came to his house. "It's me, Magnus," Tessa said. Then realized that this sounded really stupid, she came closer to the door and swallowed. "It's Tessa."

Magnus then without another thought opened the door and hugged the girl. "By the Angel," he said. His black hair was messier than ever. It was as if he came back from a war. "You're okay."

Tessa dropped her school bag in the beginning of the living room, then went to sit on the purple sofa. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" she asked, looking cautiously around if anyone was there, but there was no one except for Magnus himself and his annoying cat Chairman Meow. Magnus sat on the white sofa which was next to Tessa's. "You know, because of the stuff going on between Mortmain and Lizzy."

Magnus loved calling Elizabeth "Lizzy". Tessa loved that, too, but the matter was beyond that. How did he know about that? Did Tessa's mother tell Magnus about the stuff? But how? And more importantly, why?

"How do you even know about this?" Tessa's eyes were looking curious. Magnus grinned. "Love, me and not knowing your family matters? I'm the first person Lizzy would run to in a matter like this."

Tessa smiled and tried hard not to show her curiousity about this. Elizabeth never used to tell important stuff to people, even to Magnus. The only ones who knew about this were Herondales, Grays and some members of the Lightwoods. Well, actually, every Lightwood except for Gabriel and Gideon.

"Anyways," Tessa continued. "If you know it, than you know that Will knows it, too."

Magnus grinned. "You're in a danger of being kidnapped, and you still think about Will?"

Tessa shook her head. "I don't. He thinks about my safety. And if we know these guys will try to kidnap me, why don't we go to the policemen? Wouldn't that be more helpful?"

Magnus laughed really loud. Tessa looked around without a reason, then looked at the man again. Tessa was sixteen now, and Magnus was at least thirty six, but they looked like they were the same age. "Firstly, I'm sick of this tension going on between you and Will. Fix it, or live with the pain of it forever. Secondly, we're not sure, love. And even if we were, if we gave them to the policemen, they could find us years later and never let go of us. We have to finish it in this timezone, or we don't do anything. At all."

Tessa stared blankly at the ground. Why would someone involve crime in a situation of jealousy? Benedict Lightwood obviously was jealous of Tessa's mom's place in their work, but why didn't he just tried harder to be better than Elizabeth, and instead, why did he made a companionship agreement with one of the most dangerous businessmen of London? Was he really that stupid?

"God, I don't know what to do," Tessa talked to herself. Magnus heard that, and smiled with sincere. He touched to the girl's shoulder. "Everyhthing's going to be all right, love. You just go to your school and think about Will. The rest is up to us."

Tessa shook her head. "Look at you, Magnus," she said. She raised both of her eyebrows in an underestimating way. "One of the strongest and sassiest men of London, now hiding from Mortmain, whom I shouldn't be afraid of."

Tessa just confessed that she was afraid of Mortmain. She stood up, took a few steps back, then stopped. She was not afraid of Mortmain, but she was afraid of what he could do. He could kidnap Tessa, and do nothing to her, but force Elizabeth to quit her job, and then what? They were going to be poor, without any money, without a father to their family, without a house to their family... They were going to be a big zero. Tessa didn't want for that to happen. She didn't want for Elizabeth to lose this job. They were now rich and it was good this way. She didn't want to be poor again.

"I'm not afraid of Mortmain, love," Magnus finally could say. "I didn't open the door, because I was afraid it could be Elizabeth or Will or Edmund telling me you were kidnapped. That," He swallowed. Tessa took a few steps closer to the man now. "Was what made me feel afraid."

The girl hugged the man, then thanked him a few times. Magnus put his hand on the girl's head whilst hugging, and whispered to her ear. "We're going to fix all this, love. Don't you ever worry."


A week passed by like that. Tessa wasn't talking to Will anymore, and she wasn't hanging out with the gang, too. Jem, however, was the nicest of them and in the mornings, he was walking with Tessa when Thomas was not around. But when Thomas was around, they weren't even looking at Tessa in the face. They were right.

That morning, Cecily came next to Tessa whilst the girl was walking to the Social Studies Campus. "Morning, Tess," she smiled, then gave a kiss on the cheek to Tessa. Tessa smiled. "Morning, Cecy."

Cecily started walking a bit faster now. "What's happening, Tessa?" she asked. Tessa stopped, then looked at the girl. They were now in front of the big, creme coloured middle sized building. The Social Studies Campus. "What?" Tessa replied with a dumb face on. She actually did understand the matter. "Oh, you do know what the hell I'm talking about."

Tessa tried to smile. "Nothing, Cecy, best friends can sometimes be mad at each other. It will be better, don't worry."

Cecily shook her head, she wasn't convinced. She blinked her big blue eyes. "You are more than best friends, Tessa. Well, actually, this is not called friendship anymore, to be honest. He now hangs out with that Tatiana whore and he really doesn't like her. I can see that."

Tessa swallowed. She spoke without thinking. "Does he hang out with her now?"

Cecily grinned. "Look, you're jealous."

Tessa shook her head. She was just about to answer, they both heard an iPhone ring. That was Tessa's phone.

NO CALLER ID

The two both looked at each other. Cecily made a fake grin. "Probably someone's just mocking."

Tessa made that grin, too. She opened the phone, and as soon as she did, Cecily sticked her ear to the other side of the phone, too. "Yes?" Tessa said with a shaking voice. She could feel Cecily shaking, too.

When nobody replied, Cecily started shouting. "This girl didn't buy this phone for you to mock her, you fucker!" she said. Tessa took a few steps back to be away from Cecily, then threw a look at the girl meaing "What the hell are you doing?" and Cecily got it.

"If you're mocking, then at least speak."

Tessa then did regret saying this. The man on the other side of the phone started taking deep breathes to make the girls hear him. Cecily came closer and sticked her ear to the phone again. "C'mon, just speak." she said. Then, after hearing this, the man did speak.

"It's the prince's heir speaking, Ms. Gray and Ms. Herondale. The prince just wanted to wish you a good day."

Then he ended the conversation. Tessa and Cecily both looked at the phone, then to each other. Cecily fake laughed. "That was the worst joke ever."

Tessa fake smiled, too. "Yeah, totally. The worst. Joke. Yeah."

The girl put her phone back to her pocket, then got her arm wrapped into Cecily's. Cecily did the same thing, then they got into the campus. They didn't talk about this, but they both knew, they weren't going to say anything to anyone.


That Sunday was the eighteenth of December. It had been a month since they weren't doing a classic Herondale-Gray meal. So, Tessa was going to go, too.

She did wear a beautiful, white dress. It was a long with a really small decollete dress that looked perfect on Tessa's body. Then she wore her scarlet coloured high heels.

When she got ready and came down the stairs, she saw her beautiful mother.

Elizabeth wore an emerald green dress, made a messy bun and a really natural make up. Tessa did look like her, but Elizabeth was much more prettier. She came next to the woman and hugged her. She smelled the pretty smell on Elizabeth's shoulder, then closed her eyes. "You look so pretty, Mom."

Tessa could hear the woman making a small laugh. "Sure not prettier than you, my beautiful girl."

Tessa smiled, too, then she held Elizabeth's hand and walked with her to the mirror. It was a longitudinal mirror so they could see from their feet to their heads.

Tessa was a few inches taller than Elizabeth even without the heels, and now with the heels, she was much more taller. Still, Elizabeth was tall, too.

"What if they're with their pajamas waiting for us?" Tessa asked whilst grinning. Elizabeth laughed, shook her head, then looked into Tessa's eyes from the mirror. "It's almost Christmas time, Tessie. I'm sure they're much more eloberated than we are."

Tessa nodded, then turned back to the door. After taking her small purse from the key chain, she got out of the house. She walked through to her mother's car, and when Elizabeth opened it, she got in.


Linette, Will's mother, opened the door. Elizabeth and Linette were really close friends, so they spoke for a few minutes like always, then Linette hugged Tessa, and made them get in.

The dinner table was longer than it had to be. Sophie was like always working, and when she saw Tessa, she came closer and hugged her. "Tessie, I love you, but I wish you didn't come."

Tessa hugged her, too, but then went a step back and looked at her in the eyes. "What?-"

"Look who's here!" A girl shouted. Tessa turned back to the entrance door of the dining room, and saw Tatiana standing, next to Will. She came closer to Tessa and hugged her. Tessa's arms were not wrapping Tatiana's back. "I'm surprised you're here."

Tessa looked at her hair. "I'm surprised you're here."

Whilst Tatiana was still squeezing Tessa, Tessa saw Will looking at her. When they made eye contact, Will looked to another side. Tessa then looked down.

When they sat, the dining table was not like always. The line was going like this :

The beginning seat belonged to Edmund.

On the right of him, there was Elizabeth, on her right, there was Will, on his right there was Cecily.

On the left of Edmund, there was Linette, on her right, there was Tatiana, and on her right there was Tessa.

"Okay," Edmund said, whilst Sophie was presenting the meals. Tessa looked at her and smiled. Then, when Edmund saw them smiling at each other, he turned back to look at Sophie. "Oh, by the way," he said. He was sincerely smiling. "Sophie, love, I don't want for you to work today. We will all take our meals by ourselves. I want you to sit, too."

Sophie first looked at Edmund, then Linette, and then Tessa. She smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Herondale."

Edmund shook his head. "Not Mr. Herondale. You can call me Edmund. You're a part of this family, too."

Sophie smiled again, and all in a sudden hugged Edmund. Edmund hugged her, too, then watched her sitting next to Tessa. Tessa held Sophie's hand, then smiled at her. Then all eyes went back to looking at Edmund's.

"What was I saying?" he said, then made eye contact with Will. "Oh, yes, everyone, Will has an announcement to tell you all."

Sophie squeezed Tessa's hand. Will smiled at everyone, except for Tessa, then started speaking. "Well, I know, this happened too soon, but myself and Tiana-"

Cecily stopped him. "Who the hell is Tiana?"

Will grinned. His sarcastic mode was full on the mode. "Tatiana, Cecy. Tatiana. Myself and Tatiana are officially in a relationship. I want for all of you to support us."

Tessa did let go of Sophie's hand. Cecily looked at Tessa, than shook her head. "What the bloody hell, Gwilym Owain?"

They all knew, when Cecily was to speak Welsh, she had to be really angry. "You can't date a Lightwood!" She shouted. Then looked at Tatiana with an ashamed face. Will laughed. "Cecy, you're with Gabriel?"

Cecily shook her head. Everyone knew he was right, but Cecily wasn't shaking her head because of that. "But both Gabriel and Gideon don't know anything. You are putting Tessa in danger!"

Everybody was silent now. Tessa waited for Will to answer her, but he was staring blankly at the food. When seeing that, Tessa stood up, and looked at Edmund and Linette and Elizabeth. "I'm sorry guys," she said. "For ruining your meal." She took a few steps back. Looking at Will, she saw him staring at her dress and body. She shivered, but tried hard not to show it. "I'll be back in five."