“What do you… what do you mean?” Reality kept slipping away. What exactly did Lynn know?
Jasper looked both furious and worn down. He dragged a hand through his hair.
“Late last night an article went live. Some sort of investigative piece. It said you’d survived an assault when you were young, had a child… and left her. My name was mentioned too.”
“What…?” Nina managed, unable to believe any of it.
Now everything made sense. No wonder even those distant relatives had tried calling—everyone wanted confirmation straight from her. Or maybe they just wanted to offer their hollow sympathy.
“They don’t know that the child was Lynn,” Jasper went on.“I cleared every archive not so long ago so this could never come out. But she matched the dates, she realized shehad grown up without a mother, noticed I didn’t have a single photo of you… and she figured it out. I didn’t try to convince her otherwise,I didn’t want to make it worse.”
He fell silent and looked at Nina with guilt in his eyes. The pain in his expression echoed inside her.
Whatever had happened between them in the past, none of it should’ve touched Lynn. She shouldn’t have had to answer for her parents’mistakes.
And Nina felt her own guilt. If she hadn’t come back into their lives, none of this would’ve happened.
“Was it Frank?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“Who else?” Jasper shot back, anger flashing.“He was the only one who knew every detail.”
“Where is she?” Nina asked once she could speak again.
Jasper nodded toward the stairs.
“Locked herself upstairs. That’s why I called you. I want us to talk to her together.”
Nina dropped her gaze and curled her fingers into fists, her nails digging into her skin.
“I’m not sure…” she exhaled.“I’m not sure I won’t make it worse just by opening my mouth. What is there to explain, Jasper? Everything’s already been said.”
“I don’t want her to know the truth. The real truth. Not now. Not like this. We can convince her otherwise. She needs to believe it’s just another fabrication. A stunt pulled by our competitors. Anything—anything but this.”
Nina lifted her eyes to him.
“You seriously think she’s going to believe that?”
“I think no one provided any evidence. Because there isn’t any. There’s only a story without facts to back it up. We still have a chance to fix this.”
She stayed silent for a long moment. Each breath hurt, as if every cell in her body resisted the very act of breathing. And yet she agreed.
“All right. Let’s go.”
He touched her hand, and for the first time in a long while, she didn’t pull away. She was too overwhelmed to even notice. Her mind held only one thought: Lynn—this girl whose childhood had been carved out by cruelty and who had now learned that her birth had been a mistake of the past.
They climbed the stairs. Nina was trembling from the tension. She had no idea what to say. She hoped Jasper had a plan that he’d thought everything through before bringing her here.
They reached the door. Jasper knocked several times, but no one answered.
“Lynn, I’m coming in. We need to talk,” he said and pushed down the handle.
Lynn sat ramrod straight by the window, her chin lifted defiantly. She didn’t even turn when they came in. She only wiped her tears in quick, angry motions. Thingswere scattered across the floor, she’d clearly swept everything off the desk in a burst of fury.
Nina’s heart twisted.
She hadn’t raised this girl. Hadn’t heard her first words or seen her first steps. But she still felt a connection.In the short time since they’d met, Nina had grown too attached, far too quickly.
“Lynn…” Jasper spoke first.“Nina’s here. We’d like to talk.”
