Hardin returns from London after Richard’s death

Hardin returns from London after Richard’s death in response to a call that turns his attention from his own collapse to Tessa’s immediate crisis. The scene makes the return an act of urgent, imperfect care: learning that Tessa found her father dead, Hardin resolves to reach her even though Landon fears his voice may worsen her shock. The passage follows that resolve toward the airport rather than showing the completed journey or reunion.

The Call and the News

The sequence begins with the line going dead. Hardin is left trying to make sense of Landon’s abrupt, unexplained call; panic drives his thoughts toward the worst possibility, and he calls back at once. He pushes through a couple of people into an empty hallway to speak privately. When Janine comes into the hallway, apparently to eavesdrop, he leaves for the rental car he has been keeping.

Landon’s explanation overturns Hardin’s fear in a different way: Richard is dead. Hardin feels the loss despite his claim that he barely knew the man, and resents the feeling even as it arrives. The shock is not only Richard’s death. Hardin understands that Landon’s repeated calls were not, as he had assumed, an attempt to lecture him about leaving Tessa; Landon was trying to tell him that her father had died.

Tessa’s Condition and Hardin’s Decision

Hardin immediately asks where Tessa is. Landon says she is at the house, waiting for her mother to come and get her, and that she has been in shock since finding Richard. The detail that Tessa herself discovered her father’s body makes the news more devastating to Hardin. He clutches his chest as he takes it in, and his attention fixes on reaching her rather than on the estrangement between them.

Tessa had gone to Hardin’s apartment to collect the last of her belongings and return his car. Even after their separation and the way he treated her, she had thought to take care of that practical obligation. Hardin’s response is to ask to speak to her. He has been longing to hear her voice and, for the previous two nights, has fallen asleep listening to the automated message saying that she changed her number. The call brings the distance between them into sharp focus just as he learns how severely she is suffering.

Landon warns that Tessa has not spoken or moved for two days except, perhaps, to use the restroom, and that she will not eat or drink. Faced with those details, Hardin stops trying to push his own feelings away. He decides that he needs to talk to her regardless of the consequences for himself or his remaining composure.

The Return Set in Motion

Hardin reaches the rental car and starts toward the airport, pleading silently that he will not be stopped on the way. He tells Landon to put the phone to Tessa’s ear so she can hear him. Landon hesitates, worried that Hardin’s voice could make her condition worse; Hardin insists, then asks again, trying to keep his voice calm while his distress rises.

The cast on Hardin’s hand makes the practical urgency visible: he strikes it against the steering wheel and notes how difficult it is to drive with it. The passage ends with him still trying to reach Tessa by phone as he drives. It establishes his decision and immediate movement toward the airport, but does not yet show the flight, his arrival, or Tessa’s response.

Significance

Richard’s death redirects Hardin’s attention at the moment when his relationship with Tessa is already strained by separation and silence. His first impulse is not to defend himself or reopen their argument, but to find out where she is and hear her voice. Yet the scene does not present contact as uncomplicated comfort: Landon’s hesitation leaves open the possibility that Hardin’s presence could intensify Tessa’s distress. The return begins, therefore, as an urgent attempt to be there for her, shadowed by uncertainty about whether his intervention will help.