<i>(</i><i>Jasper’s </i><i>POV</i><i>) </i>
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Four years of searching, four years of hoping, and when I finally find her, she’s holding another man’s hand.
Bullshit.
The Scarlett I know, the woman who cried when she identally stepped on a spider, doesn’t just stop loving someone. That kind of love doesn’t disappear overnight.
She’s angry. She has every right to be. But this cold, distant version of her? That’s not real. That’s just armor she’s built to protect herself.
I can work with anger. I can fix anger.
By the time I pull into the driveway, my mind is already spinning with ns. I need to find out where she’s living, what she’s been doing these past four years. I need to understand how to get through to her.
The house feels too quiet when I walk in. Virginia’s heels click against the marble floor as she appears in the foyer, her face all fake concern.
“Jasper? You look upset. Is everything okay?”
I brush past her without answering, heading straight for my office. I need myptop, my phone. I need to start digging.
“Jasper, wait.” She follows me, her voice taking on that whiny quality that used to make me drop everything tofort her. Now it just grates against my nerves. “You’re scaring me. What happened?”
“I found Scarlett.”
The words hang in the air between us. Virginia freezes in the doorway, her face going pale.
“You… what?”
“I found her. She’s been here this whole time, running some bakery downtown.” I boot up myptop, fingers already moving across the keyboard. “Sunrise Bakes. How the hell did I miss
this?<b>” </b>
The taste of the bread, it’s hers for goodness’s sake!
The search results pop up immediately. Photos of artisanal bread, glowing reviews, articles
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about a local baker making waves in themunity. And there, in several of the photos, is my wife.
She looks different. Stronger. In a green hijab and an apron covered in flour, smiling at the camera like a radiant soul.
“This is her,” I murmur, clicking through photo after photo. “This is what she’s been doing.” And I missed it all.
I missed the biggest milestone of her life.
Virginia appears behind my chair, her reflection ghostly in theputer screen. “<i>Are </i>you sure it’s her?”
“I’m sure.” I click on another article, this one about sessful female entrepreneurs. Scarlett’s picture is front and center, the caption reading ‘Local Baker Rises from Nothing to Build Thriving Business.‘
From nothing. Because I left her with nothing. What the hell have I been doing with my life?
“The articles are all recent,” Virginia says quietly, reading over my shoulder. “From the past
two months.”
“Yeah.” I scroll down, looking for more information. “Looks like she started small, then opened the physical location about three months ago.”
There’s a video interview embedded in one of the articles. I click y before I can think better
of it.
Scarlett appears on screen, standing in her bakery. She’s talking to a reporter about her journey, her voice confident in a way I’ve never heard before.
“I started baking as a way <i>to </i>cope with some difficult times in my life,” she says, her hands moving gracefully as she shapes dough. “There’s something therapeutic about creating something from nothing. About making sweets that bringfort to people.”
The camera pans across her bakery, showing the warm lighting, the disy cases full of golden pastries, the small tables where customers sit with coffee cups in her hands.
“It looks like you have help,” the reporterments as a little girl runs through the frame, chasing what appears to be a cat.
Scarlettughs, the sound making my chest ache. “That’s Lily. Her mother works for me, and sometimes shees in after daycare. She’s be our unofficial mascot.”
Lily. The little girl from the park.
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“She’s adorable. Does she help with the baking too?”
she’s very
“Oh yes, approval.”
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serious about quality control. Nothing leaves this kitchen without her
The video ends, and I sit back in my chair, processing. <i>So </i>Scarlett has been back for three
months.
Three months in the same city, and I knew nothing about it.
It seems I need to investigate the people I’ve been paying. Such low quality of skill doesn’t meet the benefit they’ve been receiving as elites in their circle.
And if there’s one thing I hate more than being coerced, it’s being deceived.
Virginia’s handnds on my shoulder, her touch cold through my shirt. “Jasper, maybe you should leave her alone. It sounds like she’s happy.”
I spin around to face her, something dangerous rising in my chest. “Happy? You think I should just walk away because she’s happy? Let some other man have what’s mine?”
“She’s not yours anymore-<b>” </b>
“The hell she’s not.” I stand up so fast my chair rolls backward. “She’s my wife. The mother of my child. I’m not walking away from that even if she sues me.”
Virginia’s face crumples, tears starting to flow. “But what about me? What about us? I thought… after all this time, I thought…”
“You thought what? That I would make you my wife?” I snap, the wording out harsh, incredulous. “There is <i>no </i>us, Virginia. There never was. Scarlett is my one and only wife. And that fact will never change.”
“But you chose me! That night, <i>you </i>chose me over her.”
The memory hits like a p. Her panic attack, Scarlett begging me to stay, the choice I made that destroyed everything.
That was the biggest mistake of my life.
“And I regret <b>it</b>,” I say quietly. “From the moment Scarlett left, I realized what an i***t I was.”
She breaks <i>into </i>tears, sobbing, coughing intermittently, the kind of dramatic sobs that used to send me running <i>to </ifort her. Now all I feel is irritation.
“Virginia, stop. Just… stop.”
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“I love you!” The wordse out raw, desperate. “I’ve always loved you, and you know it. Why can’t you love me back?”
Because you’re not her. Because you never were her. Because even when I was too stupid to see it, my heart already knew the difference.
But I don’t say that. Instead, I grab my keys from the desk and head out the door.
“Where are you going?” Virginia’s voice is thick with tears.
“To tell James and ir that their daughter is alive and well and living twenty minutes away.”
The drive to Scarlett’s parents‘ house gives me time to think about how to break this news. They’ve been worried sick for four years, wondering if she was safe, if she was happy, if she
was even alive.
ir answers the door, her face lighting up with hope the way it always does when someone unexpected shows up.
“Jasper! Is everything okay? You look…”
“I found her,” I say without preamble. “I found Scarlett.”
The color drains from ir’s face. She grabs the doorframe for support.
“James!” she calls over her shoulder, her voice shaking. “James,e here. Now.”
He appears within seconds, still wearing his reading sses, a book in his hand.
“What’s wrong? ir, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“He found her,” ir whispers. “He found Scarlett.”
James drops his book.
“Where?” he demands, moving closer. “Where is she? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. More than fine, actually.” I follow them into the living room, barely able to contain my excitement. “She’s been in the city this whole time, running a bakery.”
“A bakery?” ir’s eyes fill with tears. “She always loved baking. Remember, James? She used to make those little cookies when she was stressed about exams.”
“Is she…” James clears his throat, struggling with emotion. “Is she happy?”
“She seems to be. The business is sessful, she has employees, she’s built a real life for herself.”
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“Employees?” Virginia speaks up from behind me, her voice carefully neutral. I can’t say I’m surprised she followed me here, because I’m not. She’s stuck with me since Scarlett’s disappearance. “What kind of employees?” <fna7ce> Latest content published on F?nd-Novel</fna7ce>
“None you should care about.” I walk into the house, settling into a chair.
ir and James exchange a look I can’t read.
“And Scarlett?” ir asks carefully. “Did you meet her?”
“Yes,” I smile, feeling bitter at the memory of her cold dismissal, the way she looked right through me, makes my chest tight.
“And how did she seem?”
“Angry,” I admit. “And rightfully so. I hurt her, we all did. But I’m not giving up. I’ll convince her, bring her back into my life again.”
“Jasper,” James says slowly, “it’s wonderful you found Scarlett. But don’t forget. She left on her own. No one forced her to.”
“She’s my wife. She left because I didn’t do well enough.”
“No. She left because she knew she wasn’t good enough. She was your wife, but not anymore,” Virginia again. “You said she moved on. Maybe you should too.”
The suggestion makes something dark and possessive rise in my chest. “I’m not moving on. She’s mine, and I’m getting her back.”
“But if she’s happy-” ir starts.
“She’ll be happier with me.” The certainty in my voice surprises even me. “I know I screwed up. I know I have a lot <i>to </i>make up for. But that’s not enough to destroy what we had. We belong together.”
James leans back in his chair, studying me with those sharp eyes that always made me nervous when I was younger.
“And what if she says no? What if she’s really done with you?”
“Then I’ll change her mind.”
Virginia makes a small sound from the couch, like a wounded animal. I nce at her, noting the way her hands are clenched in herp, her face pale.
“Are you okay?” ir asks, following my gaze.
“I’m fine,” Virginia says quickly. “Just tired. It’s been a long day.”
But we all know she isn’t okay.
We all know this is just the calm before the storm. Once Scarlett returns….
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“Virginia has been by your side since Scarlett’s disappearance. I hope you won’t let her down.” James says, but I’m no longer the young man from before.
His words wield no force, his cold face doesn’t impose on me the same pressure it did
before.
And recalling how Scarlett left, I make no effort to hide the threat in my voice. “I’m afraid I will have to let her down, James. Because once Scarlettes back, she will be my wife. And I expect Virginia to apologize to her for what she did in the past.”
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