The Abandoned Wife's Second Chance (Scarlett and Jasper) novel Chapter 49

Chapter 49

(Jasper’s POV)

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I watch the taillights disappear around the corner, taking my wife and daughter with them.

My daughter.

The word sits heavy in my chest, sharp and cutting. Lily. My little girl who doesn’t even know my name. She calls me “the nice man” while another man drives her home, tucks her in, reads her bedtime stories.

Everything I should be doing.

I stand frozen on the sidewalk until the cold seeps through my jacket. My hands shake as I fish for my keys, but I can’t seem to make them work. Can’t make anything work.

When I finally stumble back into the house, James is waiting in the living room. He looks older somehow, deflated. Virginia’s nowhere to be seen.

“Jasper-”

“She doesn’t know me.” The words come out broken, barely a whisper. “My own daughter

doesn’t know who I am.”

James opens his mouth, but I cut him off with a sharp gesture. The dam holding back four years of pain finally bursts.

“Four years!” I slam my fist against the wall, not caring when plaster crumbles to the floor. “Four goddamn years I’ve been searching for them. Every lead, every dead end, every sleepless night wondering if they were safe.”

My voice cracks completely. “And she’s been here. Right here in the same city, and I’ve been buying bread from her bakery like some stranger.”

“Son-”

“Don’t.” I slide down the wall until I’m sitting on the floor like a broken man. “Just don’t.”

The tears come whether I want them or not. Hot, angry tears that taste like failure.

“Where did I go wrong, James?” I look up at him through blurred vision. “What kind of monster am I that my own wife would rather lie about our daughter’s father than let me near her?”

James moves closer, his face etched with something that looks like guilt.

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“Tell me what sin I committed to deserve this. Tell me why the most precious thing in my life doesn’t even recognize my voice.”

My chest heaves with each ragged breath. The silence stretches between us, broken only by my pathetic attempts to pull myself together.

“Maybe Scarlett’s right,” I whisper. “Maybe Lily’s better off without me. Maybe I don’t deserve-

“Stop.” James’s voice cuts through my self–pity like a blade. “Don’t you dare sit there and feel sorry for yourself.”

I look up at him, surprised by the sharp edge in his tone.

“You want to know where you went wrong? You treated your wife like an obligation instead of a gift. You let her believe she meant nothing more to you than a responsibility.”

“I…”

“No. Don’t try to make excuses. Admit that you made a mistake. Because that doesn’t mean you’re a monster, Jasper. It means you’re human. And like any human, you make mistakes.”

He sits down beside me on the floor, looking every one of his sixty–three years.

“The question isn’t what you did wrong four years ago. The question is what you’re going to

do now.”

(Blair’s POV)

I can’t watch anymore.

The sound of Jasper’s breakdown follows me up the stairs, each sob cutting through my heart like broken glass. By the time I reach the second floor, my own tears are falling.

What have we done?

I lock myself in the master bedroom and lean against the door, trying to block out the sound of a grown man falling apart in my living room.

Virginia’s words echo in my head: “You’ll lose Lily forever if you tell him the truth.”

But watching Jasper tonight, seeing the raw devastation on his face when he looked at that little girl…

How can hiding the truth be right?

I move to James’s desk and pull out the bottom drawer with shaking hands. Inside, buried

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Chapter 49

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beneath old bills and forgotten documents, is a manila envelope I’ve been carrying like a guilty secret.

Plane tickets. Dozens of them.

Nashville to Phoenix. Nashville to Seattle. Nashville to Denver. All with the same passenger name: Jasper Blake.

Four years‘ worth of desperate searches. Four years of a man trying to find his family.

The dates blur through my tears. Christmas Day two years ago. Scarlett’s birthday last year. The anniversary of when she left.

Every important date, he was out there looking for them.

My hands shake as I grab my phone. I don’t even think about the fact that she just left, don’t even consider that she might not answer.

I dial the number I got from James, and she picks up on the third ring.

“Blair?” Scarlett’s voice sounds exhausted.

“I need to talk to you.”

Silence on the other end. Then: “If this is about what happened today-”

“It’s not.” I take a shaky breath. “Not exactly. Scarlett, can you meet me somewhere? Please. It’s important.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea-‘

“I have something to show you. Something you need to see.”

Another pause. “What?”

I look down at the plane tickets scattered across the desk. Evidence of a love so desperate it defies logic.

“Proof,” I whisper. “Proof that maybe you are wrong about Jasper. Maybe we were all wrong about everything.”

The line goes quiet for so long I think she’s hung up.

“I’m not interested in returning to the past, if that’s what you’re expecting.”

“No, I don’t expect you to return. All I’m asking is for you to give me a chance to clear things up. After all, it’s better to die knowing the reason you died, rather than dying not knowing why,

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