Chapter <b>13 </b>


    (Jasper’s POV)


    I sit in my office, staring at thetest stack of receipts from private investigators. Denver. Pornd. Seattle. Phoenix. Every major city west of here, and some small towns too. All dead


    ends.


    She’s vanished like she never existed.


    “You’re doing it again.”


    Virginia’s voice cuts through my thoughts. She stands in my doorway holding two cups of coffee, wearing that soft smile she thinks will make me forget what she did.


    “Doing what?”


    “Staring at those papers like they’ll magically tell you where she is.” She sets a cup on my desk and perches on the edge, too close as always. “Jasper, it’s been four years.”


    “I know how long it’s been.”


    “Maybe it’s time to ept that she doesn’t want to be found.”


    My jaw clenches. We’ve had this conversation before. Every few months, Virginia suggests I stop looking. Every few months, I tell her the same thing.


    “She’s carrying my child, Virginia. I have a right to know them.”


    “Had,” she corrects quietly. “She was carrying your child four years ago. For all we know, she lost the baby. Or gave it up for adoption. Or-”


    “Don’t.” The wordes out sharper than I intended. “Don’t even say it.”


    Virginia’s face softens with fake sympathy. The same expression she wore when she told me she’d “helped” by signing those divorce papers. Like destroying my marriage was an act of


    kindness.


    “I’m just trying <i>to </i>protect <i>you </i>from more heartbreak.”


    “The only heartbreak I have is the one you caused.”


    Her smile falters. “That’s not fair. I was trying to help you see what everyone else could see- that marriage was making <i>you </i>miserable.”


    I stand up so fast my chair hits the wall. “You forged my signature. You ended my marriage


    < Chapter 13


    without my consent. How is that helping?”


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    “Because you weren’t happy with Scarlett. I was just helping you do what you were too proud to do yourself!”


    The mask slips. For a moment, I see myself the way Virginia described me–a man forced into a marriage against his will, bending to circumstances, yet too proud to admit he used a woman to achieve his sess. Spineless enough to me a woman who loved him for the disgrace he believed his life had be, failing to properly see his heart, blinded by shame and rage, until he lost what he never learned to cherish.


    The one pulling the strings behind the scenes for years, creating misunderstandings, timing her panic attacks exactly when Scarlett and I had ns might’ve been Virginia.


    But looking closely, I am the one to me for where our rtionship is at the moment.


    “I loved her,” I say, smiling bitterly. I loved her, but failed to understand my heart, failed to express my feelings for her, leading to this situation.


    “No, you didn’t.” Virginia stands too, coffee forgotten. “You felt guilty about her. Obligated.


    But love? Real love? You don’t know what that looks like.”


    “And you do?”


    “Yes!” Her voice cracks. “I’ve loved you since we were kids, Jasper. Through everything. When your family had nothing, when you were too proud to ept help, when you married another woman because her father offered you money. I’ve loved you through all of it.”


    The raw pain in her voice almost makes me feel sorry for her. Almost.


    “We’ve been together for four years now,” she continues, stepping closer. “Four years of me taking <i>care </i>of you, supporting you, being here when you needed someone. Doesn’t that mean anything<i>? </i>Can’t <i>you </i>spare even a little bit of your heart for me?”


    I look at her–really look at her. The woman I’ve known since childhood. My first friend, my constantpanion through school, the person who held me when my father died. There’s history between us, shared memories,fort.


    But there’s no fire. No desperate need to see her smile or hear herugh. No ache in my chest


    when she’s not around.


    Not like with Scarlett.


    “Virginia.” I reach for her hands, hating the hope that flickers in her eyes. “You know my feelings for you aren’t the same. We grew up together, we’ve shared experiences, but you’re


    not the one I love.”


    < Chapter 13


    Her face crumples. “Why? What does she have that I don’t?”


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    How do I exin it? How do I tell her that Scarlett’sugh used to light up rooms, that the dishes she cooked made me feel more at home than any five–star meal? How do I describe the way she’d curl up next to me while reading,pletely absorbed in her book but still reaching for my hand without looking up?


    How do I exin that I threw all of that away because my pride mattered more than her


    heart?


    “It’s not about what she has. It’s about what I feel when I’m with her. What I felt.” I correct


    myself. “She made me feel the warmth of having a home.”


    “I can make you feel that way too. If you’d just give me a chance-”


    “I can’t. I’m sorry, Virginia, but I can’t. You know my feelings for you aren’t the same. We grew up together, shared experiences, but that’s about it. I don’t feel for you the way I feel for Scarlett. It’s just not the same.”


    The words hang between us like a death sentence. Virginia’s hands slip from mine, and she


    takes a step back.


    “Then you’re going to spend your whole life chasing a ghost.”


    Maybe she’s right. Maybe Scarlett really doesn’t want to be found. Maybe she’s built a new life somewhere, with someone who deserves her smile, her gentle hands, her fierce loyalty.


    The thought makes me sick.


    “That’s my choice to make,” I say.


    Virginia picks up her coffee cup with shaking hands. “Japser, don’t destroy yourself. You’re wasting your feelings on someone who abandoned you.”


    “She didn’t abandon me. I drove her away.”


    “Stop lying <i>to </i>yourself. <i>You </i>and I both know Scarlett isn’ting back. She made that clear when she sent you those divorce papers.” She snaps and walks out before I cansh out on


    her.


    I sink back into my chair and pull out my phone. The same routine I’ve followed for four years. I scroll through social media, searching for any sign of her. I check missing person databases, pregnancy forums, hospital records.


    Nothing.


    < Chapter 13


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    My private investigator calls every month with the same report: no trace of Scarlett ke or Stone in any major city database. No credit card activity, no social security records, <i>no </i>hospital admissions. It’s like she disappeared into thin air.


    But people don’t just disappear. Especially not pregnant women.


    So where did she go? Why can’t I find her?


    :.


    <Chapter 14


    Chapter 14 <fnf5b5> Read full story at ?ovelFind</fnf5b5>