healing-hearts (32 page)

In his room, there was no Yasmine. Jason lay down on his bed fully dressed and stared up at his ceiling. His life seemed just as empty as the apartment.

Jason couldn’t believe how much he had changed in the months he had been with Yasmine and the kids. He still enjoyed his work, but they had become his world.

He turned his head and viewed the vacant pillow beside him. He knew it would remain that way all night, Yasmine wasn’t somewhere else in the house and wouldn’t come in and smile at him. He couldn’t roll over and feel her body snuggle against his.

Closing his eyes he could still feel the warmth of her skin as she lay next to him. He could still smell her scent that was uniquely hers, still hear her whisper his name softly as he made love to her and she reached her peak.

Jason knew that he loved the kids, but he couldn’t fool himself, he was in love with Yasmine and she had kicked him out. Out of her house and her life.

His anger began to rise again with just the thought that Yasmine hadn’t believed he had not violated their marriage vows. Jason could sense plainly that she didn’t have faith in their marriage.

“What marriage?” He questioned to himself out loud.

Yasmine had been right, this marriage had started on pretense, and the pretense had to end.

Over the months he had gotten to know Yasmine. The pain and anguish her first husband had caused her made her hide behind the mask she had put on for the world. He would have to figure out some way for Yasmine to realize that they could have something real. That he would never hurt her like Blake.
That he loved her.

That admission shook Jason to the core, but it settled in his heart like a lost treasure.

Getting up from the bed he got undressed and got into bed, removed his socks and T-shirt, telling himself it was time for some changes in his life.

~ML~

The next morning Yasmine got up, dressed and fed the kids alone and carted them off to daycare. When they asked for Jason, she told them that he was at work and that he had a big project he had to work on and would be working long hours, but that he missed them a lot. She hoped that in time they would learn to accept his absence from their lives. She had given him his freedom last night. There wasn’t any reason he needed to come back.

She knew she still had to up hold her part of the deal, and the final appearance in court he would have to be there. She was a big girl and she could handle seeing him, but she couldn’t risk the children getting excited that he was going to remain their father forever.

This way is best
, she told herself.

“This is Allison Henry, how may I help you?” Yasmine heard a slightly familiar voice say through the phone, when the lawyer’s secretary connected her through the line.

“My name is Yasmine Richardson and my husband and I are trying to adopt a set of twins.”

“Can I assume that you’ve already completed all of the necessary paperwork?”

“We’ve not only completed that, we’ve done everything, including the home-study with the social worker,” Yasmine informed her.

“So, the children are already in you and your husband’s care?”

Not exactly,
she said to herself, but not to complicate matters she replied
,
“Yes” to the lawyer.

“Has the social worker also concluded her evaluation report?”

“Yes, with her approval of the adoption.”

“Good, otherwise it would have been a very difficult road ahead of us if she had not consented. There is a lot of weight put on the state social workers opinion. So, I’m taking it you are in need of a hound dog?”

Yasmine didn’t know how to take the lawyer’s opinion of why she was calling. “That’s correct, Ms. Henry, at the recommendation of the social worker.”

“Seems you all had an excellent social worker on your case,” Allison responded jovially through the phone.

“We did.” Yasmine was relieved she hadn’t offended the other woman.

“Then what I will do is connect you back to my secretary and she can set up an appointment for us to meet and discuss the process I will take and also my fee.”

“Is it okay if I come alone?”

“I assumed that if you got rave reviews from the social worker, your husband was an active participant in the proceeding.”

“Oh, he was and is. It’s just that it’s hard for him to get away from work, so if I can handle a meeting or two by myself then it’s less time he has to spend after hours at work for time missed.”
Well, that was partly true anyway.

“I understand, fully. In my line of work I pull a lot of overtime.” Allison laughed compassionately.

She connected Yasmine to the secretary to make her appointment.

When she hung up the phone, Leigh came into her office. “Did I hear you correctly? You got the approval from the social worker?”

“Yes,” she shouted. “I was going to tell you, but things have been hectic with the new hospital contract and the training at the gym. Then I was going to say something this morning when I came in, but you were already with a client.”

“I squeezed one in before I have to go and do the course at the hospital.”

“That’s right…that is today.” She felt as if she were losing track of time. It was only Wednesday, barely a week since Jason had been gone. He had called the kids on Saturday and talked to them briefly on the phone. She had gotten a jolt when she had heard his voice.

“You seem a bit distracted, is that because of the good lovin’ your husband has been giving you since the wonderful news?” Leigh smiled cheekily at her.

Shuffling through her files on her desk, she tried not looking at her friend. “Jason moved out.”

“
What?”
Leigh’s voice was filled with concern as she entered the room and stood on the other side of Yasmine’s desk. “Are you okay?”

She pasted on a fake smile. “I’m fine, and it was my idea.”

“Why?” Leigh had a perplexed look on her face.

Yasmine got up and walked over to her filing cabinet, then put the files back in there. She would have to pull them back out later, but she felt anxious with the conversation and needed to move around.

“He only moved in for the home evaluation, so there was no need for him to stay any longer once it was over.”

Yasmine noted the suspicious look on Leigh’s face. “How does Jason feel about it?”

“It’s what was best.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Because it’s irrelevant.” A nervous laugh bubbled out of her.

“No, it’s not.” Placing one hand on her hip, Leigh stared at her. “You see, Yasmine, I think Jason didn’t want to leave as much as you wanted him to stay.”

“What do you think I was doing, playing reverse psychology with myself?” Yasmine eyed her friend.

“That’s exactly what you were doing.”

“Why? What sense would it have made for me to tell him to leave if I really wanted him to stay? Do you think I’m clueless, too?”

“Whoa, what did I miss here?”

Pulling the files back out, Yasmine retook her seat and replied in Portuguese, “
O nada
.”

“Yasmine, be straight with me.”

“Fine, one night last week I called Jason to tell him about Joshua being sick, it was late at night, and Raquel was in his office.”

“They’re co-workers.”

“And lovers.”

“You got all that from her being in his office?”

“She practically keeps telling me every time I talk to her and if you could’ve heard her when she answered the phone.”

“I’m assuming you talked to Jason about it.”

“Yeah, and he denied that anything was going on right now, Leigh.”

“So, what else do you need, Yasmine?”

“I don’t need anything else. I have the kids and that’s all I wanted from the beginning.”

Leigh leaned on the desk toward her. “Yasmine, I’m your friend and I’m going to tell you something that may shock you. You’re running scared.”

When Yasmine began to deny it, Leigh held her hand up to stop her.

“Yasmine, I’ve never seen you as happy as you’ve been since Jason and the kids have entered your life. Before you get all spun up, you know this is not about you being able to be a good
single
mother. But, you need to realize that you owe it to yourself to be happy and until then Blake will have won.”

Leigh rose from the desk and walked out of the office and Yasmine allowed herself a moment to cry. She knew on some level Leigh was right, but how could she allow herself to give another man that type of control over her and not end up hurt?

~ML~

“Hello, Mrs. Richardson?” The male voice called from the hallway.

“Have a seat. I’ll be right with you in one moment.” Yasmine called out as she quickly wiped off her face, blew her nose and drank liberally from her water bottle. She opened up her purse compact and looked at the red swollen eyes and added a little make-up to cover them up, and then she added lipstick to her mouth. Hoping if she smiled a lot the man would never notice she’d been crying for things in her life she couldn’t change.

Getting up she walked out of her door and seeing a man in his middle twenties she walked over and introduced herself. “Hello, sir, I’m Yasmine Richardson. Do you have an appointment with Healthy Fit?”

Yasmine noticed a look that appeared to be shock or amazement cross the man’s features when he saw her, but it instantly went away and was replaced by a smile.

“No, not really. I’m Carlos Branch, I work for your husband.”

“Oh, that’s right, he told me someone from his team would be coming by. It’s nice to meet you.” Yasmine shook the man’s hand. She was happy she had fixed her face before he had seen her. The last thing she needed was someone from her husband’s staff seeing her looking pitiful and it getting back to him.

“This isn’t a bad time, is it?”

When Yasmine gave him a peculiar look, he quickly added, “You’re not with a client are you?”

Smiling her understanding, she answered, “No, I was just putting some things together and I didn’t want to lose track when I stopped.”
It’s a lie, but it worked.

“I understand. Can I have a moment of your time to ask you some questions for our current project?”

“I’d be honored to help. Why don’t you come into my office and I’ll give you all the information I can.”

Yasmine lead the way and her husband’s employee followed.

~ML~

“Come in, Carlos.” Jason finished typing notes for the staff meeting tomorrow night. “What’s up? I wasn’t expecting to see you again today.”

“I know, sir, but there’s something I need to talk to you about.” Carlos appeared troubled.

Jason directed him to a chair across from his desk. “Shoot.” Smiling Jason asked, “What is it, women troubles?”

“Sort of, sir.” Carlos sat down in the chair and stared down at his hands.

Leaning forward on his desk balancing on his forearms and commented, “Wow, that serious, huh?”