The Abandoned Wife's Second Chance (Scarlett and Jasper) novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56

(Jasper’s POV)

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Three hours later, I sit in my office, staring at the manila folder on my desk. Sarah left it exactly where I asked her to, but now I can’t bring myself to open it.

I already know everything I need to know–Lily is my daughter, and Scarlett is the woman I love. The woman I’m going to win back.

But something about Sarah’s tone when she called me earlier keeps nagging at me. The careful neutrality in her voice, like she was trying not to react to whatever she’d found.

My hands shake slightly as I flip open the folder.

The first page is a timeline of Scarlett’s life in Nashville. Apartment lease dated six months after she left. Enrollment in culinary school 3 weeks before she left. Everything looks normal.

Then I see the financial records.

My blood chills as I scan the documents. Tuition payments made by D. Cross. Rent payments from the same account. Living expenses, all covered by Dorian Cross for the past four years.

Four years.

This means he was supporting her long before she left me? Months before she filed for

divorce?

The papers blur as I flip through them with shaking hands. Lease agreements showing them living together. Credit card statements with his name as an authorized user on her accounts. Even a joint savings account opened two years ago.

This isn’t some new relationship. This isn’t some rebound romance that started after she moved on.

This is a life they built together. A partnership that began long before she left.

The room spins around me. I grip the edge of my desk, trying to breathe through the crushing weight on my chest.

How long had she been planning this? How long had she been in contact with Dorian while we were still married?

The question forms before I can stop it, poisonous and insistent.

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Was she cheating on me?

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I flip back to the beginning of the timeline, looking for any mention of Dorian before she left. And there it is, buried in a credit report–a cash advance from D. Cross dated three weeks before she disappeared.

Three weeks before I left her on the highway.

She was already planning her escape. Already had another man lined up to take care of her.

The betrayal hits me like a physical blow. All those years I thought she loved me, thought she was fighting for our marriage–she was planning her exit strategy.

She didn’t leave because I hurt her. She left because she’d already found someone better.

Someone who could give her the life she wanted. Someone who wouldn’t make her fight for

attention or compete with another woman.

My hands shake as I pull out my phone. The urge to call her, to confront her, to demand answers burns in my throat.

But what would I say? What could she possibly tell me that would make this betrayal hurt

less?

Instead, I dial another number. One I haven’t called in months.

“Virginia?” My voice comes out rough, broken. “Are you awake?”

“Jasper? What’s wrong? You sound-”

“Can you come to my office? I need…” I can’t finish the sentence. Can’t admit that I need comfort from the woman Scarlett always saw as a threat.

“I’ll be right there.”

The line goes dead, and I lean back in my chair, staring at the ceiling.

Four years. Four years I’ve been torturing myself, believing I drove away the woman I loved. Four years I’ve been searching, hoping, working on how I’d fix our marriage.

Four

years, and she was with him the whole time.

Building a life with him. Letting him raise my daughter.

My daughter. Does Lily call Dorian daddy? I hope not. If so, I don’t know what I’ll do to

Scarlett.

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The documents scatter as I sweep them off my desk in a rage that burns through me like wildfire. Papers float to the floor like snow, carrying the evidence of Scarlett’s ultimate betrayal.

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