His course was clear, provided there was no miscarriage.If the baby was lost...His mind instinctively shied from even considering that outcome.Tomorrow, after the scan...he would think about it then...if he had to.---------'There is no heartbeat.' No heartbeat... Jasmine felt her own heart stop. She closed her eyes. The doctor's words kept on ringing in her mind—a death knell for her baby, 'Are you sure?' Collins demanded harshly. 'Can you check again?’'I have been trying to find it for some time. Mr. Freeman. There's nothing. I'm sorry, but there's no point in holding out any hope. Given the amount of bleeding, it was highly unlikely that...' 'All right!' Collins snapped.Silence. Jasmine floated in a sea of nothingness. No hope. No baby to love. Her heart had started beating again, sluggishly reluctant to bother with this life. She wanted to die, too.'Miss Trent,..' The sympathetic tone in the doctor's voice forced her to open her eyelids and acknowledge him. Not his faul
A frown creased her brow. She moaned and turned on her side away from him, drawing her legs up to scrunch herself into a protective ball. She hadn't opened her eyes, wasn't aware of his presence, and Collins suddenly felt like a voyeur to deeply private grief. Yet it might also be physical pain. 'Jasmine' he called urgently. 'Should I get a nurse or doctor?' Her head whipped around on the pillow. Startled eyes. Puzzlement. 'You're still here?' she asked, surprised. 'Are you okay?' he replied instead. She sighed and carefully shifted her body to face him. 'I'll cope with it. Collins, You don't have to stay and nursemaid me.' 'I brought you to L.A., Jasmine.' 'I made the choice. I don't hold you or blame you for anything. And you've been more than generous, fixing all this for me. I'm sorry...' 'Don't apologise. I'm the one who should be apologising.' She looked bewildered. 'What for?' 'Because I...' He gestured an appeal for some stay of judgment as he struggled for wor
She took a deep breath and released it in a shuddering sigh. 'You know what I mean. You can have my things sent here from the hotel. I'll get to the airport by myself. There's no need.,.' 'You want me to say goodbye now?' he asked. Her gaze wavered from his. 'You probably should be meeting with other people...' 'Don't make my decisions for me, Jasmine. I know what I want to do, and I understand if you want to get rid of me now. I don't blame you if that's what you want. If you'd prefer not to see me anymore, say so. Otherwise I'll be back to visit you tonight. And tomorrow. If you must go home, I intend to make sure you're fit enough to fly out before you do and I'll accompany you to the airport and see you into the care of the flight attendants.' She stared at him, not understanding his motivation. Which was fair enough, because he didn't understand it himself. All he knew—and knew with absolute certainly—was he needed time to sort this inner turmoil through before any final l
'Jasmine, we can have other children,' he pressed, as though that was the ultimate persuasion. She instantly recoiled from it—mentally, emotionally and physically— her stomach cramping over the empty space that had been left by the miscarriage. This wasn't right. His mind was somehow stuck on their lost child. This proposal could be nothing more than an aberrational moment that would be regretted within hours or days. 'No...' She had to choke the word out. Her throat had tightened up. Her chest, too. She shook her head vehemently to get the message across. 'You wanted a baby,' he argued. 'You wanted me to be the father. So let's do it properly. Get married. Set up a home...' 'Stop! Please... stop!' she said. Her mind was spinning. He was offering the biggest temptation of all. Her heart was thumping a wild yes to it, not caring why it was being offered, responding instinctively to the things she'd yearned to hear—married to Collins Templeton , having a family... He frowned at her
She didn't care that he could well afford to look after his wife and family. Not all the money in the world could buy her into that situation. So she told herself in a rage of pain and pride as she made herself march towards the designated departure gate. Yet every step of the way, her body was begging for Collins to follow her, stop her, convince her she was wrong, heal the hurts and make everything better so she could believe a marriage between them could and would work. But he didn't come after her. Didn't stop her. She joined the line of passengers boarding the aeroplane. She was so tense and tremulous she dropped her ticket when it was her turn to put it through the processing machine. Every second was an agony of waiting for a shout or a hand to clamp on her shoulder. But nothing stopped her from entering the boarding tunnel. No call came for her to disembark before the flight took off. Once the big jet started rolling down the tarmac. Jasmine sagged into a huge black h
So he was deeply affected by the loss of their child. It didn't mean he loved her. The empty seat was just an empty seat. It couldn't be concluded that he couldn’t bear to be with anyone else. There was no point in tormenting herself with such thoughts. If he'd loved her, everything would have been different. Jasmine kept telling herself this, day after day, week after week. She worked hard at her job, avoided meeting Favour in person, held endless one-sided conversations with her goldfish who listened sympathetically to her emotional outpourings and her best attempts at logical reasoning. In this regard, Rhett and Scarlet were her perfect companions. She told herself she was managing okay...until the parcel came. It was a box—a box sent from London—and the sender's name was Collins Templeton. -------- Collins felt uncharacteristically tense as he belted himself into his seat for take off on the long flight from London to Sydney. He'd failed with Jasmine last time—had deserved to
All he could do at this point was to pray that she would give him a chance. By 2pm. He knew something was up and he had to call her. He called twice before she finally picked up and he swallowed hard at the sound of her voice. 'Hello' she said. Her voice was soft and low, and Collins felt his heart tighten. Was she alright? 'Yeah, hello' he said, 'Jasmine... It's me. Collins' 'I know that' came her reply. 'I have your number' He almost smiled at her reply. For some reason, he thought she didn't have it anymore. And with the way he had behaved, she had every reason to want to cut him off. 'Did you get my message, Jasmine' he asked, forcing out the question. There was a pause. 'Hello' he said. 'Can you hear me, Jasmine?' 'Yes I can hear you... And I did get your message' Jasmine replied. There was another pause before she added. 'But I won't be coming' Collins shut his eyes and held his phone tighter, as if the gesture would somehow make her understand just how much
THREE WEEKS LATER Jasmine stared at her phone which was ringing for the fourth time that evening and sighed. It was Favour, and she knew that her sister wasn't going to stop calling her until she picked the call. Heaven knew that she loved her sister and was willing to do anything for her, but sometimes Favour was just too much to handle, and this period, all she wanted was some time to herself, but Favour just wasn't going to allow that to happen. Her sister always thought that all of her problems existed because she was lonely and needed a man, but that wasn't true. Okay... Maybe it was a little bit true, but honestly sometimes it was just about work and right now, she really didn't want any man. Not that she was even attracted to anyone, because she wasn't. Not since Collins. Who had tried many times to reach her since that day she'd turned down his offer to meet him at the garden. He hadn't reached out for a week now, and Jasmine didn't know if she should be happy or sad about i