Chapter 96. Jasmine was still staring at the paper when the weight of truth curled into her chest like smoke—thick and suffocating.Her fingers tightened ever so slightly around the thin edge of the document.Her father’s properties were on this file. Now owned by her aunt.The realization didn’t just sting—it split through her. Her heart whispered things her mind didn’t want to believe.Her father and her aunt were the only Morrotis. No long family tree. No distant relatives. Just her father—firstborn—and Beatrice, his younger sister.She had families from her motherside but they were certainly not MorrotiSo how? How had ownership changed hands? How were documents even still available? Was her aunt lying to her? Had she always been lying?The question tore through her—sharp, and unforgivingly cold.But before her thoughts could tighten further around her throat, Jasmine heard something—footsteps. Soft at first, then sharper and closer.She startled slightly and her breath caught i
. Chapter 95. The words echoed in Jerald’s mind like a siren in an empty cathedral—loud, misplaced, and utterly jarring.They didn’t feel like they belonged to Jasmine.They didn’t even feel like they belonged in this report.It felt like someone had taken the truth and slipped something foreign into it. Jerald blinked once.Then again and Then again.Selective amnesia.He read it over and over until the words no longer looked like English—until they just became shapes pressed into paper.Each repetition dropped heavier in his chest, like sand in water.But what memory was missing?What exactly had she forgotten?And why the hell did this report read differently from what Jasmine’s personal hospital had given?Jerald leaned back in his chair.Not relaxed.Just… pulled by gravity.The report was still in his hand, trembling ever so slightly between his fingers.His eyes were locked on that single line like he was waiting for it to erase itself.But it didn’t. It stayed.Mocking and
Chapter 94. It had been over two hours since Jasmine arrived at her aunt’s house, but the woman was yet to return.The house was quiet. Too quiet.Not the peaceful kind of silence—but something heavier. Like the air was holding its breath.Even the few maids and guards present moved quietly, their footsteps soft, their presence almost invisible.Jasmine sat at the long dining table, her plate now empty.The food was warm. Well-made.But it hadn’t done much to settle her.She wasn’t even sure if she was full or still hungry. Her body had eaten. But her mind—her mind was elsewhere. She had come over to her aunt’s place to ease her mind and decipher every thoughts of Jerald, but her aunt was still nowhere to be found. She leaned back into her chair slowly, arms folding over her chest. Her eyes weren’t focused on anything in particular. But inside… they were moving fast.Jerald.The thought of him came uninvited, the way it always did. Not loud. Just… present.He lived somewhere at the
Chapter 93. Jerald sat alone in his study, the weight of the last few days clinging to him like smoke.The room was dim, lit only by the amber glow of the desk lamp. Stacks of old books and untouched files sat around him, untouched. The fireplace at the far end crackled gently, its warmth doing little to thaw the cold in his chest.It was the only place in the entire mansion where he could still breathe.But even here, surrounded by stillness, his thoughts kept circling back to one person.Jasmine.Where was she sleeping? Was she eating properly? Was she still scared of him?The memory of her face at the hospital — bruised by pain, flushed by need, shadowed by fear — hadn’t left his mind for a second.And the fact that she’d seen that part of him… the one he couldn’t even look in the mirror for…It killed him a little more every day.Jerald was still lost in his thoughts when a soft knock suddenly broke through the silence.Jerald’s gaze lifted toward the door. He waited a beat, blin
Chapter 92.The cigarette burned low between her fingers, ash threatening to fall but never quite daring to.She sat on a slow-creaking swing chair, its rusted chains groaning with each lazy sway. The room around her was shrouded in darkness, walls thick with silence and smoke. The only light came from the glowing tip of the cigarette and the occasional flicker of neon from a broken sign outside the boarded-up window.Her eyes were distant. Sharp and Cold.Something was wrong. Everything was wrong.The plan — no, her plan — wasn’t moving the way it was meant to. There were no cracks in her logic, no missteps in her precision. So why, then, did it all feel like it was slipping through her fingers like smoke?She inhaled deeply, cigarette flaring between her fingers, lips pressing around the filter like a silent threat.This wasn’t supposed to happen.She was still lost in this thoughts when she suddenly heard the loud buzz of her phone. Brrrzzzz.Her phone vibrated against the small t
Chapter 91.Jasmine lay on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The soft afternoon light bled through the curtains, warming the room in streaks of gold. Her room. Her bed. Her home. Oh! It has been a whole fucking month without it. And only a day since she left the hospital and arrived here. She should’ve felt peace.She should’ve felt relief, gratitude, and maybe something deeper. But all she felt was the dull ache of illness… and him.Jerald. His name lived in her, like a wound that wouldn’t close.The pillow beneath her felt too soft. The room too quiet. Her body was weak, trembling with exhaustion, but her mind wouldn’t rest. Not when thoughts of him circled endlessly in her head, like shadows that refused to break with the light.She should hate him.She should be furious. Should be disgusted. Should want to erase him from her memory forever.But she didn’t. She couldn't. She just felt… sorry.Sorry for him—for everything he had endured.And even more sorry for herself.Bec