Ah. This is the part where I’m supposed to express my gratitude.
My smile is flat. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for Noah and Tatiana.”
She presses her splayed fingertips on the edge of my desk, putting us on eye level. “Why?”
I return my focus to the document in front of me. “Why what?”
“Why are you letting me go?”
I meet her gaze again. “I told you I would once I’ve brought Tatiana and Noah home.”
Her upper lip curls. “You mean once you’d married her and taken her shares.”
“Yes,” I say, not missing a beat.
“Aren’t you scared I’ll go to the authorities? I may. I know you know that. How do I know you won’t order Reino to put a bullet in my brain the moment I turn my back to walk through the door?”
“Jesus, Jasper. You can turn down the dramatics a notch. If anyone has to shoot you, it’ll be me, and you know very well I won’t shoot you in the back. That’s not my style.”
“How comforting to know.” She straightens and crosses her arms. “At least you’ll look me in the eyes.”
Giving voice to the sigh I repressed earlier, I lean back in my chair. “I won’t have to shoot you because you’re not going to run to the police. You’re cleverer than that. Doing so will only create more problems for Tatiana, and you care too much about her to put her life in danger.”
She pales. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Did you find out something about her disappearance?”
I lie without blinking. “No.”
She drops her arms at her sides. “Is she going to be all right?”
“If it’s up to me, yes.”
Biting her lip, she considers me for a moment. “She asked me about the scars, you know.”
I tense. “What did you tell her?”
“The truth. She wanted to know if I were aware of how it happened, so I said yes. She didn’t want me to go into the details. She said she wasn’t ready.”
I steeple my fingers, recalling the moment she saw those marks in the mirror. “She told me the same thing.”
Jasper’s eyebrows knit together. “Sometimes, I think it’s better that she doesn’t remember.”
I study her. Maybe it wasn’t necessary to send her packing so soon. The main reason I want to get rid of Jasper is because I’m worried that she’d say something to Tatiana about the past that could upset the apple cart. Jasper is a good friend to Tatiana, but I’d rather not take the risk.
Understanding only too well, I nod. “Me and you both.”
And although I do want Tatiana to get better, I also prefer that she doesn’t remember the traumatic parts of her life, including the fact that I killed her parents. That’s the naked, ugly truth.
Yet she has to recover her memory. There’s no other choice. If she doesn’t, I may never know what she did with the necklace. I’ve turned this city upside down, and I haven’t dug up a single clue. Tatiana could’ve hidden it in a million-and-one places. She hadn’t stripped the diamonds and sold them on the black market. If she had, I wouldn’t have found her in such poverty in Denver.
Jasper lifts her chin. “I think I should stay. She still needs me.”
“She needs time alone with her family.”
She pulls her eyes into slits. “Are you saying I’m a third wheel?”
