<b>Chapter </b><b>116 </b>
(Scarlett’s POV)
“We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t.” I keep my eyes fixed on my car, parked just a few yards away. So close. If I can just reach it-
“Daddy!” Lily breaks free from my grip and runs toward him. My heart stops as sheunches herself into his arms, and he catches her like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“Hey, princess.” His voice is soft, different from the way he spoke to me. This is the voice he reserves for our daughter, and it makes my chest ache. “Did you have fun today?”
“So much fun! Aunt Margaret let me help make cookies, and Grandma Elena has a swing set, and there’s a garden with butterflies, and-<b>” </b>
“That sounds amazing.” He lifts her higher, pressing a kiss to her forehead. The look in his eyes is almost reverent as he rubs her head.
“Lily,e on.” I step closer, reaching for her. “We need to go home.”
“But I’m talking to Daddy.”
“You can talk to Daddy another time.”
“When?”
The simple question hangs in the air between <i>us</i>. When? When will she see her father again? When will I stop running from the man who won’t stop haunting me.
“Soon,” I lie, taking her from his arms. She goes reluctantly, looking back at him with confusion.
But before we can get far, Jasper’s quiet, yet hard as steel, voice freezes me in ce. “Why are you avoiding me?”
“Because I have nothing to say to you.” I settle Lily on my hip, using her as a shield between us. “We don’t know each other anymore, Jasper. Maybe we never did.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? Tell me, what’s my favorite book? What <i>do </i><i>I </i>do when I <b>can’t </b>sleep? What makes meugh until my stomach hurts?<b>” </b>
< Chapter 116
He opens his mouth, then closes it. The silence stretches between us, confirming what I already know.
“We were married for three years,” I continue, my voice getting stronger with each word ‘And you can’t answer a single question about who I am.”
“Scarlett-”
“But you knew everything about Virginia, didn’t <i>you</i>? Her favorite flowers, her panic attack triggers, the exact words to calm her down. You knew her better than you ever knew your own wife.”
His face goes white. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like? Because from where I stood, it <i>looked </i><i>like </i>you were married to her and I was the mistress who came between you.”
“Mama,” Lily whispers, sensing the tension. “You’re holding <i>too </i>tight.”
I loosen my grip immediately, forcing my voice to soften. “Sorry, baby.”
Jasper runs a hand through his hair, looking exhausted. “Scar, can we please let the past go and start over-<b>” </b>
“Start over? With you?” Iugh, the sound both cold and sorrowful at the same time. “You had your chance, Jasper. Three years of time. Now I’m done with you.”
“Scar….”
<i>“</i><i>Besides</i>.” I shift Lily to my other hip, my anger building like a fire in my chest. “If James and ir <i>were so </i>determined to sell the house, you should’ve just told me. I wouldn’t have found <i>strangers </i>throwing my childhood photos in a dumpster.”
“What are <i>you </i>talking about?”
<i>“</i>Don’t y dumb with me. You told me they weren’t selling the house.” <fnefe4> Newest update provided by FιndＮovel</fnefe4>
<i>“</i>Scarlett, I swear I don’t <i>know </i>what happened. When I talked to James, he said they were <i>keeping </i>the house. Virginia even got upset about it.”
Virginia. Of course.
“She got upset?” I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. “Poor Virginia. How terrible for her that James and ir preserved something connected to me.”
Something flickers in his eyes. Understanding, maybe. Or guilt.
< Chapter 116
“You think Virginia had something to do with the house being sold?”
+23 Point
“I think Virginia has had something to do with every bad thing that’s happened to me since the day she walked into our lives. And I think you’ve been <i>too </i>blind to see it because you’re so busy ying her knight in shining armor.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” The word explodes out of me.
“Scarlett, please.” Jasper’s voice breaks. “Let me exin about the house. Let me find out what really happened.”
“No.” I walk toward my car, Lily still clinging to me. “I’m done with your exnations.”
“Scar, please, don’t do this. Don’t shut me out.”
I stop at my car door, turning back to look at him onest time. He looks broken standing there under the streetlight, his hands hanging helplessly at his sides. Part of me – the part that loved him once- wants to go back, to believe that this time will be different.
But I’ve been burned one too many times to take the chance again.
Every time I see you, Jasper ke, I remember the woman I used to be. The one who begged for your attention. Who hung onto your words like an imperial decree.
“You were loved. You are still loved.”
“No.” I shake my head, opening the car door. “I was convenient. There’s a difference.”
“Mama, why is Daddy crying?” Lily whispers as I buckle her into her car seat.
I nce back at Jasper, and sure enough, there are tears on his cheeks. It should make me feel vindicated, seeing him hurt the way he hurt me. Instead, it just makes me feel empty.
“Sometimes grown–ups cry when they’re sad, baby.”
“<i>Are </i><i>you </i>sad too?”
I look at my daughter’s worried face, then at the man who gave her to me. The man who broke my heart so thoroughly I’m not sure it would ever heal.
“I was sad for a long time in the past,” I tell her, starting the engine. “But not anymore.”
Through the windshield, I see Jasper step forward, his mouth moving in words I <i>can’t </i><i>hear </i>over the sound of the engine. His hand is pressed against the ss like he’s trying to reach through it, trying to touch something that’s already gone.
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< Chapter 116
I put the car in drive and pull away, watching him disappear in my rearview mirror. He doesn’t chase us this time. Doesn’t call my name or demand that Ie back.
Maybe he’s finally learning that some things, once broken, can’t be fixed.
“Mama?” Lily’s voice is small from the backseat.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Will we see Daddy again?”
“I don’t know, baby. Maybe someday.”
“I hope so. I like it when he smiles at me.”
My throat tightens. “I know you do.”
“Do you miss him?”
The question catches me off guard. Do I miss him? I miss the man I thought he was. I miss the marriage I thought we had. I miss the version of us that existed only in my imagination.
But the real Jasper? The one who left me on a highway for another woman? The one who couldn’t answer a single question about who I really am?
“I miss the person I thought he was,” I say finally. “But that person never really existed.”
Violet Moon
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