(Jasper’s POV)
The scattered papers on my office floor blur together as Virginia kneels beside my chair. Her hand touches my shoulder, warm and steady, but I can barely feel it through the crushing weight in my chest.
“Tell me what happened,” she says softly.
I can’t form words. Can’t exin howpletely I’ve been yed. How the woman I thought I knew–the woman I married–was nning her escape with another man while I was too proud and stupid to see it.
My phone buzzes on the desk. Text message from an unknown number.
I almost ignore it. Almost let it sit there while I drown in the wreckage of everything I believed about my marriage. But something makes me reach for it.
DNA <i>test </i><i>results </i><i>attached</i><i>. – </i><i>Prestige </i><i>Labs </i>
My blood turns to ice. The DNA test I sent for yesterday. I requested the process to be speeded up. But the results are out? That fast?
My hands shake as I open the attachment, Virginia peering over my shoulder.
The words swim on the screen. Technical jargon about gic markers and probability percentages. But the conclusion is clear as day:
Probability of paternal <i>rtionship</i><i>: </i><i>0.00</i>%
The tested man is excluded as <i>the </i><i>biological </i>father<i>. </i>
The phone slips from my numb fingers, ttering on the desk.
Lily isn’t mine.
The little girl who called me daddy this morning, who held my finger while she slept, who looked at me with such trust and love–she isn’t my daughter.
“Jasper?” Virginia’s voice sounds far away. “What does it say?”
I can’t answer. Can’t breathe. Can’t process the magnitude of this betrayal.
Not only was Scarlett nning her life with Dorian while we were married–she was carrying his child. My marriage was a lie. My daughter was never mine. Every moment of guilt, every
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sleepless night searching for them, every desperate hope for our family–all of it was built on deception.
The pain hits me like a sledgehammer to the chest. Not just the anger at being deceived. Something deeper. Something that feels like my soul being ripped apart.
I love her.
The realization crashes over me with devastating rity. Not loved–love. Present tense. Right now, even knowing what she’s done to me.
I love Scarlett with every broken piece of my heart.
All these years, I told myself I married her out of obligation. That what I felt was gratitude, responsibility, duty to the family that saved mine from poverty. I kept her at arm’s length because I was convinced she saw me as nothing more than an investment. A project from the wrong side of town that her family took on out of charity.
But it was never about money or obligation. It was about fear. <fn77ce> Original content can be found at f?i?n?d?n?o?v?e?l?</fn77ce>
Fear that a woman like her–brilliant, beautiful, from a world of wealth and privilege–could never really love someone like me. Fear that if I let myself love herpletely, she’d eventually realize she deserved better and leave.
So I held back. Kept walls up. Let Virginia’s poisonous whispers convince me that Scarlett was just ying games, that she didn’t really care.
I was so busy protecting myself from heartbreak that I broke both our hearts instead.
And <i>now</i>? Now I finally understand what I’ve lost, but it’s toote. She’s gone. She was never really <i>mine </i><i>to </i>begin with.
“Jasper, you’re scaring me.” Virginia’s hands frame my face, forcing me to look at her. “Talk to
me.”
“She never loved me.” The wordse out broken, barely a whisper.
“What?”
“Our entire marriage was a lie.” I stare at the DNA results, the numbers blurring through tears I didn’t realize I was shedding. “She was with him the whole time. nning, plotting, using me while she built a life with another man.”
Virginia’s face crumbles with sympathy. “Oh, Jasper. I’m so sorry.”
“The baby was never mine. Lily–she’s not my daughter. She’s not-” The words tumble out of
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my mouth, sounding far and distant. They areing out of my mouth. Yet, it’s as if someone else is saying them, speaking through me.
It’s me saying them. But my heart doesn’t ept what my mind is telling me. What my eyes
have read.
Arms wrap around me, as Virginia pulls me against her shoulder. She smells like jasmine andfort, like childhood and simpler times when I thought I understood <i>how </i>the world
worked.
“I tried to warn you,” she whispers, stroking my hair. “I saw what she was doing, but you
wouldn’t listen.”
I should pull away. Should maintain some dignity, some distance. But I can’t. The devastation is tooplete, too overwhelming.
For four years, I’ve been torturing myself with guilt. Believing I failed her, failed our marriage, failed to be the husband she deserved. I’ve read every rtionship book, gone to therapy, worked on bing a better man–all for a woman who wasughing at me behind my
back.
“What do I do now?” I murmur into Virginia’s shoulder.
“You move on,” she says firmly. “You ept that some people aren’t worth your pain.”
Move on. The words should bring relief, but they just make everything hurt worse. How do you move on from someone you finally realize you lovepletely? How do you stop caring about someone who never cared about you at all?
Virginia pulls back, her hands still on my shoulders. “You deserve better, Jasper. You always
have.”
I look at her–really look at her–for the first time in years. The woman who’s been by my side through everything. Who’s never lied to me, never betrayed me, never made me question my
worth.
“I don’t know how <i>to </i>stop loving her,” I admit.
“You will.” Her voice is gentle but certain. “It takes time, but you will.”
(Virginia’s POV)
Finally.
I keep my expression sympathetic as I watch Jasper delete Scarlett’s contact information, but inside, I’m singing with triumph.
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Four years of careful nning. Four years of nting seeds, manipting situations, and waiting for the perfect moment. And it’s finally here.
Jasper is broken, devastated, ready to ept that Scarlett never loved him. The fake DNA results were the final nail in the coffin–brilliant, really. John outdid himself with theboratory letterhead and medical terminology.
The financial records showing Dorian’s support were risky to fabricate, but the payoff was perfect. Just enough truth mixed with lies to make it all believable.
And the timing–receiving the DNA results right when he’s most vulnerable, most willing to believe the worst–it couldn’t be more perfect.
“I should have listened to you,” he says, his voice hollow. “You tried <i>to </i>tell me what she was really like.”
“I just wanted to protect you.” I stroke his hair again, savoring the moment. “I’ve seen how much she hurt you. I couldn’t stand watching her do it again.”
He pulls back to look at me, and I see it in his eyes–gratitude, dependence, the beginning of something I’ve waited my entire adult life for.
“You’ve always been there for me,” he says. “Even when I didn’t deserve it.”
“Because I care about you.” I let just enough vulnerability show in my voice. “I always have.”
For a moment, the office is silent except for the sound of his ragged breathing. Then his phone buzzes <i>one </i>more time.
Another text from Scarlett, sent before he blocked her: <i>I </i><i>know </i>today was <i>hard </i>for both of <i>us</i><i>. </i>But seeing you <i>with </i><i>Lily</i><i>… </i><i>maybe </i><i>we </i>can <i>figure </i><i>out </i>how to co<i>–</i><i>parent</i><i>. </i>For her sake.
The words hit him like a physical blow. I watch his face crumble as the final pieces fall into ce–the woman he loves is still trying to manipte him into believing a child that isn’t his is his responsibility.
“She won’t stop,” he whispers. “Even now, she won’t stop using that little girl to get to me.”
“She’s desperate,” I say, injecting just the right amount of disgust into my voice. “She knows her lie is falling apart.”
He deletes this message too, then turns his phone face down on the desk.
“I can’t do this anymore,” he says. “I can’t keep letting her destroy me.”
“You don’t have to.” I take his hands in mine, feeling the tremor in his fingers. “You don’t owe
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her anything, Jasper. You never did.”
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The broken look in his eyes is everything I’ve ever wanted to see. Not because I enjoy his pain -I don’t. But because it means he’s finally free from Scarlett’s hold over him.
Free to see what’s been right in front of him all along…