“So, you think it’ll work?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty standard in legal partnerships. The same thing happened when Mom and Dad dissolved the Morgan Carter Group. So what are you planning to do, leverage this information to get your job back?”
“I don’t want my job back.” I held the envelope containing Jasmine’s rings. “I want my life back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Jasmine
I had enough money in my savings to keep my apartment, but somehow moving back home with my parents, and of course, Claudia, was a soothing balm for the burns of the dumpster fire my life had become in the past two months.
Cassie narrowed the leak to her assistant, Michelle, who had decided to use the opportunity as a power grab. Michelle’s story didn’t have a happy ending because she ended up getting fired and blacklisted when a very true rumor about her made the rounds in the very small world of corporate assistants. Cassie also resigned from MasonCorp and had spent the last few weeks in the French Riviera, but not before deleting all of the research we’d collected on Miller’s Cove that wasn’t included in the proposal. It wasn’t enough to keep MasonCorp away forever, but it was enough to create a delay, and it made me feel better.
I considered accepting Cassie’s invitation to join her in Europe afew times, but I still wasn’t ready to paste on a smile and pretend to be human.
My mother has been surprisingly supportive after I showed up on her doorstep with my suitcase, still packed from Miller’s Cove. She didn’t utter one expertly deliveredI told you sowhen I gave her almost every detail of the most confusing month of my life. She had my old bedroom made up and arranged for my apartment to be packed up and my belongings moved into storage. These are not where her miracles ended, because my father never questioned why I had moved back home. He only told me that he was happy to have me there. That was a feat only my mother could accomplish, and I was grateful.
On a random morning—that might have been a Tuesday, I wasn’t sure because I hadn’t left my room or showered in a couple of days—my mother came in holding a tray laden with my favorite breakfast foods with her furry triplets nipping at her ankles. She placed the tray on my nightstand before sitting on the edge of the bed. The dogs leapt up after her and began licking my face.
“Good morning,” my mother said in a singsong voice.
“Good morning,” I replied against the onslaught of furry affection.
“How long are you planning to hibernate in this room?” Sheslid a piece of bacon off my plate and broke it into pieces to feed Wynkin, Blynken, and Nod.
“Until it stops hurting.”
“That might take a long time, honey.” She patted my leg through the blanket. “I hate to see you like this.”
“I thought you’d be happy.” I took another piece of bacon and began to nibble on it.
“Why would you think I’d be happy?”
“Because you hated my job, and you told me to stay away from Derek Carter. Everything you told me to do, I did the opposite, and look where it got me.” I gestured around the room.
“I only told you those things to spare you pain. This is the last thing I wanted for you.”
“Is that why you told me to stay away from Derek Carter? You wanted to protect me?”
My mother stared at me for a long moment before she sighed and took my hands.
“I told you to stay away from Derek Carter to protect myself.”
“What?” I stared at her in confusion. “Protect yourself from what?”
“The truth about me and Christopher Carter.”
“Uncle Chris? Derek’s father?”
“The reason the company dissolved and the reason Janet and Chris divorced was because of”—she paused and looked down at my duvet before looking back at me—“an affair.”
“An affair?” I gasped, almost inhaling a piece of bacon and had to cough a few times before I could speak. “You had an affair with Uncle Chris?!” I screeched. “When? Wait, is he my—”
“Jasmine! Lower your voice,” my mother hissed. “And no, Christopher Carter is not your father. Our affair happened years after you were born.”
“I can’t believe you cheated on Dad.”
“Sometimes I can’t believe it, either.” She shook her head.
