<i>(</i><i>Scarlett’s </i><i>POV) </i>
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The world tilts on its axis as I watch Jasper kneel in front of my daughter–<i>our </i>daughter- tears streaming down his face like he’s found something he thought was lost forever.
“My precious baby girl,” he whispers, and those four words shatter every wall I’ve built around my heart.
No. This can’t happen. Not like this.
My hands shake as I watch Lily wrap her small arms around his neck, innocent and trusting. She doesn’t know. She can’t know what this moment means, what it’ll cost us.
What it’ll cost me.
Jasper will never let me go now. Never sign those divorce papers. He’ll fight for custody, take Lily away from me, use her as leverage to control my life…
I can’t breathe. The room spins, and I grip Dorian’s arm to keep from falling.
“Scarlett?” His voice sounds far away, concerned.
But I can’t answer. Can’t think past the panic wing at my chest. Four years. Four years of building a life for us, of protecting her from the chaos of this family, and now-
“Jasper.” Virginia’s voice cuts through my terror. “Jasper, you’re mistaken. This girl isn’t your child. She’s Scarlett and Dorian’s daughter.”
What?
I blink, focusing on her face. She looks calm, almost sympathetic, but there’s something sharp in her eyes. <i>Cold </i>and warning.
What…?
Then it hits me. Virginia doesn’t want Jasper to know the truth any more than I do. She wants him free, unconstrained by familial or emotional ties unrted to her.
She wants Lily to never recognize her father.
And for once, Virginia’s selfishness aligns perfectly with my desperation.
I don’t hesitate.
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“She’s right.” The lie burns my tongue, but I force it out anyway. I step forward and pull Lily from Jasper’s arms, clutching her against my chest like a shield. “Lily isn’t your daughter, Jasper.”
His face goes white. “No, I don’t believe it. She has my eyes,” he says, still staring at Lily like. she’s a miracle. “Look at her–she has my eyes.”
“Jasper, honey, look around.” Virginia steps closer, cing her hand on his arm. Her voice drips with false sympathy. “Scarlett’s been with Dorian for months. They’re together, living together, building a life together.” She gestures toward us. “She’s Scarlett and Dorian’s daughter.”
The silence that follows is deafening.
I should feel sick. Should be horrified that she’s suggesting I cheated, that I’m the kind of woman who would do such a thing.
Instead, all I feel is desperate relief.
This is my chance. My only chance to keep Lily safe from the chaos of this family. From the pain of being second choice the way I always was.
“That’s…” Jasper shakes his head, confusion written all over his face. “No. I refuse to believe it. Look at her. She looks exactly like <b>” </b>
“Dorian,” Virginia supplies smoothly. “Dark hair, dark eyes–it’s amon trait. And honestly, Jasper, don’t you think if she was your daughter, Scarlett would have told you? Don’t you think she would have asked for child support, for help raising her?”
I see the doubt creeping into his expression. The questions. The horrible, logical sense Virginia’s lies are making.
I feel a strange sense of humor at the irony of it all. Should I be grateful for Jasper’s blind trust in Virginia, disgusted at myself for supporting her lies, or sad for my past self at failing to see the truth that had always been in front of her?
Jasper always trusted Virginia more than me. And even this time is no exception.
“Is it true?” His voice cracks as he looks at me, his eyes desperate and pleading. “Please, Scarlett, tell me Virginia is wrong. Lily is mine, isn’t she?”
The question hangs between us and the pain in his eyes almost makes meugh.
I can tell him Lily is his daughter.
But then what? He’d fight me for custody. Use his money, his connections, his family’s
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influence to prove I’m an unfit mother, incapable of providing her with the best lifestyle. He’d take her from me, raise her in this toxic house with people who rotate around one individual.
Virginia.
Just like they did to me.
“She’s not yours,” I say, and the words burn hot as acid on my tongue. Jasper flinches, but I don’t spare his feelings. “Lily is my daughter. Mine and…Dorian’s.”
Let him believe the lie.
Because the alternative–losing my daughter to the man who already destroyed my heart–is unthinkable.
<b>(</b><b>Jasper’s POV</b>)
“Lily isn’t your daughter.”
I stare at Scarlett, searching her face for any sign that she’s lying. But her expression is stone–cold, distant. Detached.
“She’s mine alone.”
The finality in her voice should convince me. Should make me step back, ept what she’s saying, walk away.
But I can’t.
Because everything in my bones screams that she’s lying.
Lily’s age–four years old, which means she was born within nine months after Scarlett left. Her eyes, dark brown like mine, are nothing like Dorian’s hazel ones. The way she tilted her head when she looked at me, the same gesture I make when I’m thinking.
And the connection. That inexplicable pull I felt the first time I saw her at the bakery, like recognizing a piece of myself I didn’t know was missing.
If Lily is Dorian’s daughter, that would mean…
It would mean Scarlett cheated on me.
The thought makes my stomach turn. Scarlett–who used to blush when I kissed her in public, who cried during romantic movies, who never so much as looked at another man the entire time I knew her.
The woman who loved me sopletely it terrified me.
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No. Impossible. I know it’s impossible.
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She might have opinions about me now, might want nothing to do with me, but the Scarlett I know isn’t a liar, a cheater. She has principles, morals, a core of integrity that not even our destroyed marriage could ever shake.
So why is she standing there, clutching that little girl like I’m the enemy, telling me the child who looks exactly like me isn’t mine, but another man’s?
As I watch Dorian wrap a protective arm around her and Lily, I start <i>to </i>doubt.
What if I’m wrong? What if I’m so desperate to have my family back that I’m seeing
connections that don’t exist?
Scarlett has no reason to lie to me about something like this.
Unless…
Unless she’s so terrified of me finding out the truth that she’s willing to lie to protect herself. To protect Lily.
The realization hits me hard. To think that one day Scarlett would see me as an enemy? That I’ll hurt her and our baby, even use our daughter as a weapon against her?
Only God knows what kind of monster I became in her eyes to view me that way.
And she must see me that way. Because the alternative, that she cheated on me? I refuse to <fnd585> Content originallyes from FιndＮovel</fnd585>
believe it!
Dorian steps closer to Scarlett, his hand settling on her head in a gesture that’s both protective and possessive. The sight of him touching her,forting her, makes something violent twist in my chest.
But I force myself <i>to </i>stay calm. To push down the rage and jealousy and desperate need to grab Lily back and never let her go.
I don’t care what Virginia says. I don’t care what Scarlett ims. I know what I saw in that child’s face, and I’m going <i>to </i>find out the truth.
But first, I need answers about what the hell is happening here.
I turn to James and ir, who’ve been watching this entire scene unfold like spectators at a
car crash.
“What happened?” My voicees out rougher than I intended. “Why is Scarlett so angry?”
ir nces at James, guilt written all over her face.
“We… we might have made a mistake.”
“What kind of mistake?”
Another guilty look passes between them.
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“We took Lily from the bakery without telling Scarlett, James admits quietly. “We wanted to spend time with our granddaughter, and we thought-”
“You did what?” The words explode out of me.
“She called the police,” Virginia adds, and I can hear the me in her voice. “Filed a missing person report. Made a huge scene about us k********g‘ her precious daughter without knowing the truth.”
They took her without telling her?
Goodness.
No wonder Scarlett was furious. No wonder she looked ready to murder.
They took her child without getting her permission, and I walked into the aftermath looking like part of their conspiracy.
“Are you insane?” I round on James and ir, anger flooding through me. “You took a four–year–old child without asking her mother for permission?”
“We’re her grandparents-”
“She’s not your granddaughter!” The words explode out of me. “You don’t get to make decisions about someone else’s child, regardless of your rtionship to them!”
Silence falls over the room.
ir’s face crumples. “We just wanted-”
“I don’t care what you wanted.” I’m shaking now, years of frustration and pain pouring out. “Do you have any idea what you put Scarlett through? Do you understand the terror of finding your child missing?”
She should know. After all, they’d lost Virginia years ago, hadn’t they? And yet, despite what they experienced, they still did this?
I run my hands through my hair, as that knowledge sinks in, as everything that just happened goes through my mind.
The woman I married just lied to my face about our daughter not being mine. I realize now
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that we don’t have just some confusion or misunderstanding going on between us.
We have a serious problem. And the only way we can resolve our issues is to have a real
conversation.
I look at Scarlett again, and the way she clutches Lily nearly breaks me.
“Scarlett brought Lily into this world, and raised her alone,” I continue, my voice getting quieter but no less dangerous. “She’s more anxious than anyone when her child is lost. No one–and I mean no one–will take Lily away from her again without her knowledge. Including
me.”
The admission costs me everything, but it’s true. Whatever im I might have, whatever rights I think I deserve, Scarlett is Lily’s mother. She’s the one who’s been there for her thest four years when I wasn’t.
I can’t force myself into their lives, and I definitely can’t exercise any right over Lily when I haven’t done anything to deserve it.
I turn to face James and ir onest time.
“This will never happen again. Do you understand me? You will not take this child anywhere without getting Scarlett’s permission again.”
My voice drops to barely above a whisper.
“Because if you ever–ever–put Scarlett through this kind of hell again, you’ll have to answer
to me.”
The silence that follows is thick with tension. James looks like he wants to argue, but something in my expression stops him.
I walk over to where Scarlett stands, Lily still pressed against her chest. For a moment, our eyes meet, and I see a flicker of something that might be gratitude sh in her eyes.
And that more than anything pains me.
Because gratitude is an emotion reserved for strangers.
Violet Moon
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