Tears welled in her eyes, disbelief and vulnerability written all over her face as she looked at him.
“Mr. Brook, you… you hit me.”
She cried like a fragile doll, but Jasper’s face remained cold and unmoved. His eyes were filled with icy disdain as he said, in a voice devoid of warmth, “Scram!”
Clutching her face with an expression full of grievance, she turned and left in a rush.
After she left, Jasper pulled out a tissue with a pained expression.
Kneeling on one knee, he gently wiped the coffee stains from my face.
“Darling, don’t listen to her. There’s nothing between me and her. She’s making it up.”
I lowered my eyes, staring straight into his. His dark eyes were unfathomable, showing no sign of guilt.
Warmth welled up in my eyes as I gently caressed his face.
“Jasper, tell me. Who is she?”
His lips trembled slightly, and there was a faint glimmer at the corners of his eyes.
When he refused to answer, I stubbornly pressed him, over and over, until my face turned red, and my breathing grew uneven.
Finally, he panicked and stammered, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, darling. It’s my fault. Hit me, yell at me, punish me however you want. Just don’t cry. You can’t cry.”
He still remembered that I couldn’t cry.
A bitter smile tugged at my lips, and a stabbing pain filled my chest.
Terrified, Jasper sped through every red light on the way to the hospital.
He yelled for a doctor, completely ignoring how he might look. As I caught the panic in his eyes, memories from the past suddenly surfaced.
I was kidnapped when I was five.
A knife was held to my throat as the kidnappers demanded ransom from my father. The terror was so overwhelming, I could barely breathe. Even after I was rescued, I lost my voice for a while.
During that time, Jasper visited me every day. He stayed by my side, gently telling me jokes. Even when I ignored him, he didn’t seem to care.
There was one time when Jasper got into a fight with a classmate. The larger boy had him pinned, and Jasper could barely breathe.
In a moment of panic, I called for the teacher.
After that incident, I slowly began to speak again.
Jasper was even happier than I was. He picked fights with that boy every day, just so I would talk more.
It wasn’t until later that I learned the reason for that fight—Jasper overheard the boy calling me mute. He wouldn’t allow anyone to bully me, not even with words.
From that day on, he was fiercely protective of me.
Eventually, I overcame my mutism, but I still couldn’t cry. Crying would leave me breathless, and in severe cases, I could even suffocate.
After that, Jasper became even more protective of me, vowing to always make me laugh and never let me cry.
But now, because of him, I was rushed into the emergency room.
