(Jasper’s POV)


    I drive through the streets of Avalon like a man possessed, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tight my knuckles go white. The city blurs past me–familiar buildings, streets I’ve traveled a thousand times–but nothing looks the same anymore.


    Everything feels hollow. Empty. <fnc472> N?w ?ovel chapt?rs are published on find?novel</fnc472>


    Like me.


    I thought I knew what loneliness was. Growing up in that orphanage, watching other kids get adopted while I stayed behind. Working my way through college with <i>no </i>family to cheer me <ol><li>on. </li></ol>


    I thought I didn’t need anyone to share my sess with me. That I could handle anything life threw at me as long as I had the means, the power and influence to stand on my own.


    I thought wrong.


    I was wrong.


    I pull over at a red light, my chest heaving like I’ve been running for miles. A couple crosses the street in front of me, the womanughing at something the man whispers in her ear. He pulls her closer, possessive, protective.


    The way I should have held Scarlett.


    The way I should have protected Lily.


    My phone buzzes. A text from my assistant about tomorrow’s board meeting. Numbers and projections <i>and </i>quarterly reports. All the things that used to matter.


    None of it means anything <i>now</i>. Nothing matters besides Scarlett and Lily.


    Because they are my home. They are my only family. I…


    I can’t lose them to anyone.


    Not even to Dorian Cross.


    I delete the message without reading it fully and make a U–turn, heading back toward Scarlett’s apartment. I can’t give up. Not yet. Not when there’s still a chance.


    Not when there’s still Lily between us.


    :


    < Chapter 64


    More Rewards >


    By the time I reach her neighborhood, the morning has turned into early afternoon. I park across the street and wait, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird.


    I’m waiting. Waiting for my wife’s so–called boyfriend to leave so I can… what? Beg her to take me back? Plead my case like some desperate fool?


    Yes. That’s exactly what I’m about to do, what I’m going to do.


    Half an hour passes. Then another. My neck aches from craning to keep my eye on the building entrance, but I don’t move from the spot.


    After almost another half hour passes, I finally see him. Or more precisely, them.


    I sit in my car across the street, watching the yground through the windshield like some kind of stalker. The families scattered across the grass should make me feel hopeful. Normal. Instead, everyugh cuts through me like ss.


    Scarlett sits on a bench, her face soft in a way I haven’t seen in years. She’s rxed. Happy. Beautiful in that effortless way that used to make me forget how to breathe.


    She’s watching Dorian y with our daughter with a smile that stings my eyes.


    “Higher, Uncle Dorian! Higher!” Lily’s voice carries across the yground, bright with joy.


    Uncle Dorian.


    1 grit my teeth, telling myself to rx, to let it go. She only calls him Uncle Dorian. Not Daddy. Not Daddy like the way she calls me.


    Still, the title twists a knife in my chest. That should be me pushing her on the swings. Me making herugh.


    But this man is stealing my right.


    “Hold on tight, princess.” Hisughs, voice gentle, patient. Everything I should have been.


    I grip the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white. Calm down. Calm down.


    Jasper ke, calm the f**k down<i>! </i>


    An elderly couple walks past them with their dog. The woman stops, smiling at the scene. “What a beautiful family you have.”


    The words hit me where it hurts most. Family. The one thing I’vecked since I was a kid. The one thing I still long for to this day.


    They do look like a family. More than I would like to admit.


    <Chapter 64


    “Oh, we’re not-” Scarlett starts to correct her, but Dorian cuts her off.


    More Rewards >


    “Thank you.” He wraps his arm around her waist, pulling her close. The gesture is smooth, natural. Like he has every right to touch my wife.


    My wife.


    She leans into his touch instead of pulling away. That does it.


    I spring out of the car, my chest burning with fury or jealousy. The emotion is so intense, the urge to punch Dorian in the face makes me see red.


    I’m stomping over, breathing heavily when the older woman continues. “Your daughter has


    your eyes, young man.”


    I freeze. Lily does have dark eyes. Just like mine. Just like Dorian’s. Anyone looking at them would assume what that woman assumed. That they belong together. That Lily is his.


    I should leave. Should hurry back to the car, and drive away before they see me standing here like some pathetic stalker. But I can’t move. Can’t look away from the life that should have


    been mine.


    Dorian shoots a nce my way. I don’t have time to hide. Instead I turn away, showing them my back so I don’t embarrass myself. The shame of having to hide from my own wife, my own daughter, because of another man is unexinable.


    Still, I remain in the shadows, watching from afar. Did he notice me, I wonder, as Dorian takes Scarlett’s hand with one hand, and Lily’s with the other, almost provocatively.


    They stay at the park for another hour. An agonizingly long hour that feels like forever, before they start heading home. Dorian lifts Lily into his arms, and she wraps herself around him like a ko. Trusting. Secure.


    My heart bleeds. The sight makes my insides twist with agony.


    I follow at a distance, almost a stalker now, hating myself for it but unable to stop. When they reach Scarlett’s building, Lily’s almost asleep against Dorian’s shoulder.


    “Thank you,” Scarlett says quietly as he hands our daughter over. “For everything today. And for helping with thewyer.”


    Lawyer. Did he already get her awyer? Is she in that much of a hurry to divorce me?


    “Always.” He brushes something from her hair a leaf, bright orange against the dark fabric of her hijab. “You know I’d do anything for you two.”


    < Chapter 64


    More Rewards >


    The tenderness in his voice, in that simple gesture, wrenches my heart. This is how I should have touched her. How I should have spoken to her.


    Instead, I made her feel like a burden. Made her beg for scraps of


    my attention.


    Scarlett’s breath catches, and for a moment something passes between them. So intimate, so fragile that excludes the rest of the world.


    “I should get her upstairs for a nap,” she says finally, stepping back.


    But it’s toote.


    I already saw the conflict in her eyes. The expectation she’s trying to hide.


    She wants him. Probably already loves him. And maybe it’s me who’s holding her back. Our unfinalized divorce that’s stopping her from taking that step.


    I can’t breathe. Can’t think past the agony that sears my heart.


    My family – my wife, my daughter – they are slipping out of my hands, bing someone


    else’s treasures.


    I love them.


    God, I love them so much it hurts.


    But I’m about to lose both of the only two people I care about…


    And I don’t <i>know </i>how to get them back.


    VViolet Moon


    #Vote#!