CHAPTER 19
She stared at him, and something inside her twisted painfully.
He was here. Real. Alive. The nightmare she’d buried decades ago standing right in front of her.
“Let’s go inside,” he said calmly, but there was an edge of authority in his tone that sent a shiver straight through her.
Nina stepped back, her heart lodged somewhere in her throat.
“No.”
Jasper looked at her the way an adult might look at a child throwing a tantrum—as if she had no right to tell him no.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Nina.”
She let out a bitter, shaky laugh.
“That’s exactly the kind of thing a man like you would say.”
She pushed herself up from the ground, still refusing to turn her back on him. Standing this close to him felt like being locked inside a cage with a predator. He’d shown up in the middle of the night—there was no universe where that meant anything good.
He knew her name.
Which meant he’d been pretending when he acted like he didn’t recognize her.
“You’re safe.”
This time she laughed louder—a fractured, hysterical sound. The fury, the pain, the twenty-two years of hell she’d lived with all flared to life at once.
“Are you serious?” She met his dark gaze, not flinching. “Twenty-two years ago, I thought the same damn thing.”
He went still. For a second—just a second—something like confusion flickered across his face. And then… nothing.
His eyes were empty again.
God, how she hated him. His voice. His stare. His very existence. She wanted to hit him. To scream. To finally let the rage out.
“Get out. We have nothing to talk about.”
Nina turned and headed for the door, hoping to slam it shut before he could follow. But he moved faster. His foot wedged into the doorway right as she tried to close it. She gasped when the door flew open and he stepped inside as if he owned the place.
She stumbled back. Too late—he was already in her home.
Jasper shut the door behind him calmly, like this was the most normal thing in the world. Like he had the right. Like this house somehow belonged to him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, breathless with fear. “I’ll call the police.”
He let out a short, skeptical sound, surveying the entryway.
“Go ahead. But we’re going to talk. Tonight.”
He took a step toward her. Her back hit the wall. Nowhere to run.
The cold plaster pressed into her spine, and a tight knot formed in her chest. Jasper towered over her, filling the space with his presence. Too close. Too overwhelming. The air seemed to thin around her.
Her body reacted faster than her mind—palms sweating, breath stuttering. Panic surged, drowning everything.
She was back there.
The locked room.
The trap.
Fragments of memory flashed like blades—sharp, vivid, unhealed wounds. She flinched hard.
“Nina,” his voice sounded… different. Softer.
But she couldn’t hear him.
Her brain screamed one thing—run. She pushed off the wall, bolting sideways, but he was faster again. When he lifted his hand—just a gesture—she jerked so violently her heart slammed against her ribs.
He froze.
A deep crease formed between his eyebrows. He looked at her… differently. He took a step back.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Nina didn’t answer. She could barely breathe. She clung to the edge of the wall like it could save her.
Jasper’s eyes sharpened, scanning her face. His shoulders tightened, jaw flexed. He looked… irritated.
Then something shifted. The tension drained from his posture. His voice dropped, slow and careful.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, as if trying not to startle her. “I’m actually here to talk.”
She gritted her teeth.
He was lying.
“I don’t care what you’re here for,” Nina said, forcing herself to meet his eyes even as her voice trembled. “Get out of my house.”
He didn’t move. His gaze traced her expression again. Then he slid his hands into his pockets, almost casually.
“You’re alone?” he asked.
The question disoriented her.
“What?”
“Are you here alone? Anyone else in the house?”
Her thoughts scrambled. If she said yes—he’d have leverage. If she said no—he’d know she was lying. She stayed silent.
He glanced around the living room, his expression shifting into something analytical.
“So you’re alone,” he concluded.
And for some reason… there was relief in his voice.
Several agonizingly long seconds passed.
They simply stared at each other. Electricity shot through every inch of her skin from his gaze—the same eyes she still saw in nightmares.
The cut on his cheek was almost healed, his hair neatly styled.
He looked immaculate. Beautiful on the outside and rotten to the core.
Once, she had wanted his attention. And this was where that had led.
“Let’s calm down,” he said finally. His voice was steady, but something in it had changed. There was a strange note—regret? Or was she imagining it?
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Nina.”
Her name sounded wrong in his mouth. Foreign. She let out a short, brittle laugh.
“Sure. You just show up at my house in the middle of the night—nothing scary about that. Or you think time erased my memories?”
Jasper frowned, but didn’t answer. Instead, he nodded toward the couch.
“Sit.”
He acted like the house was his. Like she was the guest. Like she was the one meant to obey.
She didn’t know why she wasn’t running. Why she hadn’t slammed her hand on the security panel. Why she stood frozen.
His stare was steady. Expectant. The stare of a man used to being obeyed.
Nina’s knees weakened. Fear still wrapped every nerve like barbed wire. She should’ve resisted. Should’ve screamed. Should’ve done anything except—
She walked to the couch and sat down.
Like a wind-up doll.
Jasper followed, his steps soundless. He took the armchair across from her.
Silence stretched—tight and suffocating. Nina clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms just to feel something solid. Her pulse thundered in her ears.
“I told Lynn that her mother died during childbirth,” he said evenly.
Everything inside her froze.
She bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to taste blood, but he was already watching, dissecting every flicker of emotion on her face.
“And I prefer to keep it that way.”
Her fingers curled tighter. So that’s why he was here. But strangely—painfully—Nina felt a bitter flicker of relief. Because according to Leonard Hayes’s file, Jasper had never married. He’d raised Lynn on his own. No other woman had taken her place. No one had been Lynn’s mother but Nina.
“That’s why,” he continued, “you need to stay away from her.”
His tone was calm, but the warning beneath it was unmistakable.
Something inside her clenched. A hot, sharp ache pushed up under her ribs, but Nina didn’t let any of it reach her face. She forced her breathing to steady even as everything burned inside her.
Jasper watched her closely, waiting for a reaction. Anger. Defiance. Outrage.
But Nina only smiled—bitter, resigned.
“I wasn’t planning anything,” she said quietly but firmly.
His expression barely changed. He only lifted a brow slightly, as if he didn’t believe her.
“Good,” he said, leaning back in the chair. “Glad we understood each other right away.”
For a few seconds he said nothing, just studied her as if seeing her for the first time. Then:
“Lynn is the most important thing I have. And I won’t let anyone destroy that, Nina.”
She latched onto those words. He was afraid. Afraid she’d ruin his perfect little world. Afraid she’d tell Lynn the truth—and that his daughter would turn away from him. But he didn’t understand that Nina herself didn’t want Lynn to know.
Because she was ashamed.
Because she wouldn’t be able to look her daughter in the eyes.
Because she’d abandoned her—left her like something disposable—out of fear and some pathetic illusion that it was the right thing to do.
What place could she possibly claim in her daughter’s life now?
Nina lowered her gaze, unsure what to do with her hands.
“You have nothing to worry about, Jasper,” she managed, forcing out his name even as every nerve in her body rebelled. “Everything will stay the way it’s always been. This… was an accident. Nothing more.”
Not exactly a lie.
He studied her for a few more seconds before giving a small nod.
Once again she felt like a stranger in her own house.
Jasper rose slowly from the chair.
“Well, since we settled everything so quickly,” he said evenly, “I have no reason to stay.”
She didn’t answer. She sat there, unable to move.
The air felt too thick. Her ears rang. Something hollow and aching gaped in her chest, yet her heart was pounding so hard it hurt. Her whole body was tense, her fingers dug into the blanket—a lifeline anchoring her to reality.
That was it.
He was finally leaving. She should’ve felt relieved. Safe. She should’ve breathed again. But instead a crushing emptiness spread through her.
She feared him—down to the bone, down to the tremor in her fingertips. But there was something else too. Something that made her feel shattered. Broken. She didn’t look at him. She just pressed into the back of the couch and stared at a point on the floor.
One step.
Another.
She heard him moving toward the door, and then… he stopped.
His gaze landed on her again—heavy, searching.
“Nina…” His voice was low, rough. “I’m sorry.”
She lifted her head slowly.
“I made a mistake,” he said. “And I regret it. I never had the chance to tell you that before. But I want you to know.”
Each word scorched through her.
He was sorry?
Sorry?
She wanted to laugh in his face, but instead a cold wave of fury uncoiled in her stomach.
How dare he stand here, in her home, after everything he’d done, and claim he regretted it?
“I can’t change the past,” he added softly. “And I’m not the man you think I am.”
Not the man she thought?
Her head snapped up. Their eyes met. Nina’s fists tightened.
“But thank you for our daughter,” he said then, pushing her over the edge. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. And you should know—I took good care of Lynn. If you ever need help, you can come to me. I owe you, and I’m ready to repay that debt.”
He meant it. She felt it in every word.
She should’ve said she didn’t need anything from him. That she wanted him out of her life. Out of her house. Far, far away. But instead Nina rose slowly from the couch and stepped closer.
It would be foolish to refuse help now. All of this began because of Jasper—logically, it had to end with him as well. She stopped in front of him. And finally lifted her eyes. Ready to say something that might change everything that would come next.