It had been a few years since Tess had left Mcleod Drovers Run. In fact, it was almost 13 years.
After she and her husband broke up because he fell in love with someone else, Tess moved away. When she started attending Drovers Run again a few years later. She and Nick had made up again and when Tess came back two years after leaving Drovers, she had started something like an affair with Nick that only she and Nick knew about. This affair had resulted in three daughters whom only Tess knew about. Since she only visited the farm for a few weeks every six months or so, no one had noticed anything about her pregnancies. At that moment Tess was just packing her things because she wanted to go back to Drovers Run for eight weeks. Her daughters were on summer vacation and drove to Hawaii with Tess' best friend Judi McCann and her family. They were supposed to be picked up in three hours and Tess wanted to leave too. But there was still chaos. "Mom did you see my bikini?" Claire called, the eldest of the girls from downstairs to her mother who was in her room, while eight year old Elizabeth searched the entire shoe rack for her new flip-flops and four year old Isabel was crying on the Stair sat. "In the bathroom Claire, Elizabeth I've already packed your shoes and what's the matter with you my sweetie?" Tess asked, kneeling down to Isabel and hugging her. When the girls finally left the house three hours later, Tess could leave too. It took her a good eight hours by car to get there. What nobody on the farm knew was that she was a star in town. Her mother had died on the way to town and Tess had been adopted by a very wealthy and well known man.
When Tess finally reached the farm, she was already expected. "Hey, how are you?" Asked Stevie, walking up to her and hugging her. "I'm fine and all of you?" Late in the evening, Tess was in Nick's arms. They were in a little hut on one of the pastures and lay in the straw. They always met in this hut so that no one would find out about their affair.