Jasper turned his head sharply. His jaw tightened, his knuckles went white.
Still, he said nothing.
Why?
Why wasn’t he defending himself? Why didn’t he tell her she was exaggerating? Why wasn’t he calling her crazy like Frank always did?
“I should hate you,” she continued, her voice dropping lower, heavy with emotions she couldn’t contain anymore.“I should…”
She exhaled shakily and looked away for a moment.
“And yet… I’m standing here. Talking to you. Trying to understand. Why?”
She spoke that last word slowly, searching his face for an answer.
And then Jasper did something she absolutely didn’t expect. He laughed. Quietly. Harshly. Without an ounce of warmth.
Nina jerked her head up.
“You really want to know why?” His voice was rough, strained. He looked right at her, fists clenched as if holding pain inside.“Because I was a piece of shit, Nina. Does that answer satisfy you?”
She froze.
There was no mockery in his voice. No pride. Just a brutal, merciless confession.
“But if you think I never paid for it,” he continued,“you’re wrong.”
Her breath caught.
He looked at her in a way that made her want to turn away, want to run, want to hide.
But she didn’t.
“Your regret doesn’t help me, Jasper,” she said quietly.“It changes nothing.”
He nodded slowly, as if agreeing, accepting the truth she laid before him.
“Yes, it won’t change anything,” he said.
Nina took a deep breath.
“If you really want to atone,” she said calmly,“then make my pharmaceutical company go bankrupt.”
Jasper blinked. He looked genuinely thrown off, as if the words made no sense at all.
“What?” he asked sharply, staring at her, trying to figure out whether she was joking.
She held his gaze. Steady. Unflinching. Like someone who’d made a decision she would not take back.
“You heard me right. I want my father’s company… destroyed.”
The silence that followed was sharp, heavy, almost metallic. Jasper crossed his arms, slowly shaking his head.
“Why would you want that?”
“I just don’t want my husband to get a single cent in the divorce,” she shot back.
He studied her for a long moment. Nina didn’t want to dig through all the dirty details, so she gave him the stripped-down truth:
