Chapter 94 Stay
“That is why I called you here,” he said. “You will come with me. Today. I will take you under my protection again. The way I did before. I won’t risk losing you.”
Jasmine pulled her hand back slowly. “I can’t.”
His brows drew together. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I have a life here now,” she said. “I have—”
“You have a job, working for a man who lives in a world of guns and enemies,” he interrupted. “And a past that has come back to hunt you the moment your father stepped out of prison.”
Jasmine shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
She closed her eyes.
This was it.
She drew in a shaky breath and opened them again. “I didn’t just stay back in New York for work.”
He waited. “I stayed back because I signed a contract.”
His expression changed. “A contract?”
“Yes.” Her voice grew steadier as the truth finally escaped. “A contract marriage. With Damien.”
Silence fell between them.
“You married him for business?” Uncle Thomas asked slowly.
“No,” she whispered. “I married him to survive.”
And then the words poured out.
She told him everything, about Jace, the press, about the contract. About how she had been desperate and afraid and had believed she could keep her heart out of it. About how Damien had been kind when she expected him to be cold. How he had protected her when she didn’t know how to protect herself.
Then she spoke Raymond’s name.
Her hands trembled as she described the threats. The fear. The way Raymond had hunted her like prey. The night Damien had stepped between them.
“He tried to hurt me,” she said. “He would have, if Damien hadn’t been there.”
Uncle Thomas’s face darkened with fury. “Raymond is in prison.”
“Yes. Because of Damien.”
Her uncle leaned forward, elbows on the table. “And what happens when your father finds out you belong to Damien Blackwood?”
Jasmine’s throat tightened. “I don’t know.”
“That is why I must take you with me,” he insisted. “I can hide you. Protect you. Keep you away from all of this.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “You want me to leave him.”
“I want you alive.”
She shook her head. “I love him", the words surprised even her.
Uncle Thomas stared at her. “Love has never kept anyone safe in this family.”
Jasmine stood abruptly, pushing her chair back. “I’m tired of running. I’ve been running my whole life.”
“And where has that gotten you?” he asked quietly.
She hesitated.
“I don’t want to live in fear anymore,” she said.
“Damien makes me feel like I don’t have to.”
Uncle Thomas rose slowly as well. “And when his enemies come? When your father comes?”
She whispered, “Then I’ll face it.”
He reached for her hand, his grip firm but loving. “Jasmine, listen to me. You are not choosing between me and him. You are choosing between safety and danger.”
She looked up at him, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I’m choosing between hiding and living.”
Uncle Thomas leaned back, his jaw tight. “And what about your father?”
“I haven’t told Damien yet,” she admitted.
“That is dangerous,” he said sharply. “If he does not know what is coming—”
“I know,” she interrupted softly. “But I’m scared.”
He softened. “Of what?”
“That he’ll see me as broken,” she said. “That I’ll become another problem he has to solve.”
Uncle Thomas was silent for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“I will give you one month.”
She looked up, startled. “One month?”
“One month and this contract to end,” he said. “If you have not told Damien the truth by then… you will leave with me.”
Her chest tightened. “You’re giving me an ultimatum.”
“I am giving you time,” he corrected. “Time to choose. Time to be honest.”
She bit her lip. “And if I tell him?”
“Then we will see what kind of man he truly is.”
Jasmine lowered her gaze to the plate of food she hadn’t touched.
“I don’t want to run again,” she whispered.
“And I don’t want to bury you,” Uncle Thomas replied gently.
Uncle Thomas approached Jasmine slowly.
He pulled her into a hug. “I love you too much to let you stay in danger.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I know.”
When they separated, Jasmine nodded weakly.
“I’ll go back to him,” she said. “But I’ll think about what you said.”
“You must,” he replied. “One month, Jasmine.”
Jasmine sat back down, trying to finish the food but it didn't taste right in her mouth. She had one month, one month to bare her whole soul to Damien, otherwise she would he taken from him. I can trust Damien, right? He has protected me, kept me safe, held me, he told me he loved me. He will stand with me, even after I tell him about my sperm donor, after I tell him how I lost my mother, how I moved so he would not find me and finish what he started, how the demons in my heart and mind trouble me, how the same dream runs rampant in my mind every night. Every night before I signed that contract, before he met me. That I am broken, and I do not know how to fix myself.
Jasmine sat there, eating, trying her best to finish the food so the chef doesn't think she didn't like it. The staff here were the only family she had known growing up. When Uncle Thomas has just started the restaurant, he used to bring her here almost everyday and after school. She grew up around these people, they were kind to her, at first it was strange. Jasmine expected the other shoe to drop soon, her sperm donor had taught her that kindness never came without pain. It took Jasmine two years before she was able to warm up to them, they never blamed her, never asked questions. They understood what she had gone through and were patient with her.
Jasmine had never thought she would find people as sweet and as caring as them, but she had found Richelle, Darcy and Damien. After moving three times, she had finally found her people. She had to stay, had to fight.