CHAPTER 45
The car sped through the streets. Nina sat in the back, her jacket zipped up to her throat.
Before leaving, she hadn’t even properly looked at herself in the mirror—she’d simply washed her face, ran a brush through her hair, and pulled on the first things she could find: a gray turtleneck and a jacket she’d bought a few seasons back.
There was so much turmoil inside her that thinking about her appearance felt absurd.
Her phone rang the entire way.
At first it was unknown numbers. Then relatives, people her father had kept in touch with, though after his death they hadn't seen each other at all. Even Stella called once.
Nina stared at the screen without looking away. She didn’t answer, just as she’d promised Jasper. She only squeezed the phone tighter and tighter, her knuckles turning white.
When Frank’s name flashed across the screen for the third time, a cold shiver crawled down her spine. Then she simply turned the phone off. To hell with it. She didn’t want to hear a single word. Not now.
She was shaking.
Something had happened.
Something serious.
Jasper wouldn’t have said “Don’t answer anyone” for no reason. Wouldn’t have pulled her out of the house unless it mattered.
The car left the city limits and ten minutes later stopped in front of the gates of a large property.
Nina didn’t wait for the driver to open the door. She pushed it open herself and all but jumped onto the gravel path without even glancing around. Her heart pounded like that of a cornered animal. Her palms were slick, her throat dry.
A house she didn’t recognize was standing before her.
Large. Modern. With dark floor-to-ceiling windows, sharp clean lines, and a terrace stretching off to the side. Stonework, neatly trimmed shrubs, and behind the house was a small patch of woods. It was beautiful. Quiet.
On any other day she might’ve admired it. She might’ve paused to take in the fresh country air, notice the way sunlight reflected off the glass or how the branches swayed in the breeze. But not today.
Today she saw only the massive black front door.
It swung open the moment she reached the top of the steps. Jasper had clearly been watching for her.
“Come in,” he said quietly.
His voice sounded strange. So did his eyes. What had happened in the short time she’d been asleep?
Nina froze for a second, then quickly stepped inside. Fear clamped down on her throat.
Jasper shut the door behind her, turned—leaving the two of them alone in the silence of the wide foyer.
“What happened?” Nina breathed. “Jasper, just tell me. I can’t take this waiting.”
“Don’t worry,” he answered tiredly. “We cleaned everything up. Headlines, search results, everything’s gone. No one’s going to find anything now. But Lynn already saw it,” he added, his voice dull.
Nina didn’t understand any of it. What was he talking about? Why couldn’t he just explain?
“Saw… what?” she whispered. Her voice snapped like a tightened string.
“That you’re her mother,” Jasper said, letting out a heavy breath.
The world collapsed into a single point.
Nina instinctively stepped back, hitting the wall, gripping it with her fingers just to stay upright. Everything inside her caved in as if the floor had dropped away. Breathing became impossible.
“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 she had 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. Things were 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.”
“Too late,” Lynn snapped. Her voice was harsh, sharp. Nina felt goosebumps run down her arms. “You should’ve talked twenty years ago. I have nothing to hear from either of you now.”
Nina stepped forward. Her breath stumbled. Guilt twisted inside her like a blade.
“I’m sorry…”
“Really?” Lynn turned abruptly. Her eyes flashed like a trapped animal's. “Well, I’m sorry I ended up with a lying mother and father! You,” she jabbed her finger at Jasper “you told me she was dead. Looks like we’ve got a miracle today—my mother has risen from the grave!”
Jasper opened his mouth to speak, but Lynn cut him off:
“You watched me suffer. You knew how badly I wanted a mother. How I looked at other kids in daycare and school. How I hoped… And she was here. Alive. In the same city. Close enough to touch. And none of you thought I deserved to know!”
Nina couldn’t hold it in. Her voice broke.
“I… I was a different person back then. My father hated Jasper, and Jasper’s family hated me…
” She began improvising, relying on the same story Jasper had fed Vivian once.
Lynn couldn’t learn the truth—not this truth.
She could hate Nina if she had to, but not Jasper.
He’d raised her, loved her, protected her.
And Nina… let her bear the anger herself.
“I was engaged to someone else… and we… thought it would be better this way. Lynn, please, I—”
““Better?” Lynn’s voice cracked with disbelief.
“You decided what my life should look like. And you,” she turned her burning gaze on Nina, “did you ever want to see me? To even know how I was doing? Not once, Nina? You weren’t curious what your daughter looked like, if she was okay?
Or did you two secretly exchange pictures of me? ”
She let out a laugh—short, fractured, frightening.
Nina had no answer.
If she could turn back time, she wouldn’t have left Lynn. She would’ve been stronger. She would’ve embraced her child instead of letting her birth be overshadowed by trauma.
She stayed silent, gulping down air as if drowning in it. Tears burned in her throat.
“You could have! Once! Just once!” Lynn nearly shouted. “You could’ve come in secret. Told me you loved me. So I’d know I had a mother. But you didn’t even try.”
“I couldn’t…” Nina whispered hoarsely. “I was too weak back then. I lived by my father’s rules. And he…”
“He what?! Chained you to a radiator?” Lynn screamed. “What excuse is there for a mother who abandons her child?! You didn’t even try to see if I was alive or happy! Did you hate me that much?!”
Nina lowered her gaze.
Jasper stepped forward.
“That’s not true. Things were complicated.
Your mother was engaged at the time. Our families were at war with each other.
No one would’ve accepted a child from that situation.
You know why your grandfather and I barely spoke for years.
When Nina got pregnant, a decision was made to leave you with my family to give you stability. We were too young—”
“You were both cowards,” Lynn shot back coldly.
“We tried to protect you.”
“From what?” she shouted. “The truth? You’re both liars.
And your version is soaked in lies. I don’t believe a word.
All of this sounds like a cover-up. What am I supposed to believe?
That the best father I’ve ever had was a rapist?
Or that my mother is a heartless woman who gave her child away and never cared enough to look for her? ”
She stopped, breathing hard.
“In any case, I don’t want to see either of you.”
Lynn stormed out, slamming the door shut.
“Lynn!” Jasper called after her, but he didn’t follow.
Silence fell.
Nina slowly sank onto the edge of a chair. Her lips trembled. She barely breathed. Then the tears came—quiet, broken, impossible to stop.
Jasper came over. Sat beside her. Wrapped his arms around her. She didn’t pull away—instead, she leaned into him, sobbing even harder.
“What happens now?” she whispered through her tears, seeking comfort from the man she’d hated for half her life and believed to be a monster.
“I don’t know… But Lynn doesn’t stay angry for long,” he answered softly. “She’ll calm down. We’ll talk again. And the security team will keep an eye on her, so she’ll be safe.”