So she sat down across from him.
The food smelled good, but her mouth was dry, her stomach a knot of emptiness and nausea at the same time.
Nina picked up the fork and poked at the salad. She rolled her eyes but lifted a small bite to her lips. Jasper watched her eat.
She wanted to take the fork and jab it straight into his eye.
Several minutes passed. The fork hit the bottom of the container, stabbing a piece of roasted potato. Nina put the food aside and wiped her mouth.
“I can’t eat anymore,” she said quietly.
Jasper leaned back, arms crossed, studying her.
“Can we talk now?” she asked, her patience ground down to dust.
He nodded slowly.
“Now we can.”
CHAPTER 31
Nina walked out of the clinic in a daze.
She couldn’t even describe what she felt—confusion, shock, a raw, twisting ache…
Jasper had received an anonymous letter about his daughter’s whereabouts. At first Nina had thought he was joking. Seriously—everyone had abandoned that child, including her. Only four people had known her secret, counting herself.
Who would have taken care of Lynn? Who would have known exactly which infant group home she’d been sent to?But then… It turned out the letter hadn’t come right after Lynn’s birth, but three weeks before her mother died.
It had been her. Of course it had been her.
Her mother had been a gentle woman—she never would’ve left her granddaughter unprotected. Most likely she’d watched over the baby all that time. And when her illness worsened, when doctors gave her the grim prognosis, she made a desperate decision.
She’d done the most reckless thing—never knowing whether her plan would work. She told Jasper Garth that he had a daughter.
Dying, her mother made sure the little girl would be safe. She hadn’t told anyone. Not once had she hinted that she knew where the baby was. She’d kept it all a secret, and the reason was almost certainly Nina herself.
Her mother had known how much her daughter hurt—known that the child reminded her every single day of what Nina had gone through while pregnant. That was why she hadn’t said a word.
And telling Nina’s father? Asking him to show mercy to a newborn girl? That would’ve been useless.
So her mother had taken the risk alone.
Nina slid into a taxi, shut the door, and felt her whole body twist in on itself. A sob tore loose, sharp pain slashing through her chest. She’d held herself together in Jasper’s office, but the moment everything clicked into place, she’d gotten up and practically fled.
Losing her mother had broken her. They’d been impossibly close.
She had just given birth to Daphne then—her mother barely had time to hold her granddaughter. And still… even then, she’d been thinking about Nina.
Because she’d known that one day Nina would blame herself for what she’d done.
Because a mother’s heart already understood what it meant to have a child of your own…
The driver kept quiet, though Nina noticed him glancing at her in the rearview mirror. They slowed at a traffic light; he adjusted his cap, hesitated, and finally asked, softly, as if afraid to disturb her grief:
“Are you all right, miss?”
She wiped her tears with a shaky hand, trying to pull herself together.
