Page 66 of Sheltering You

Besides, the answers he most needed wouldn’t be found on the internet.

“Your turn,” Rabie said.

Derrick saw the blue card on the pile. His only blue card was a reverse-direction, so he plopped that down, earning a scowl from the kid.

Jasmine said, “To me, yes? Yay!” She sounded overly chipper, faking it, just like he was. She played a card.

Rabie did next, and then Derrick had to draw from the pile. He’d lost count by the time he grabbed the right number, changing the color back to yellow.

He was replaying Jasmine’s reaction when he’d asked if she loved the baby’s father. Her lip had curled. Had that been…disgust?

Why would she be with a man who⁠—?

“Uno!” Rabie announced.

Jasmine groaned. “Oh, no.”

Derrick fanned out his cards and gave her a look. “We’re in trouble.”

“We must work together to defeat him.”

Work together? He liked the sound of that. Would that they could work together on more than just a stupid card game.

His mind circled back to the question. Why would she be with a man who disgusted her, unless…?

Oh.

Oh, man.

Had she been…?

That had to be it. There was no other explanation that made sense, not with a woman like Jasmine. Hadn’t she told him she was the obedient one? She would never have disobeyed her father by sneaking off with some guy. She would never have dishonored him that way. Which meant some man had forced himself on her.

Cold fury stole over Derrick. What kind of man would take advantage of a woman like Jasmine—tiny, defenseless, afraid.

What had Michael said back at the house a couple days before, that Derrick’s feelings for her might change once he knew the truth?

If Michael thought that, then he didn’t know Derrick at all.

“I win!”

Whoops. Derrick had played that all wrong. Not that he’d been paying a whit of attention. He smiled and high-fived him. “Nice going, kiddo. Good game.”

Rabie beamed.

Jasmine gathered the cards and started shuffling them. It was a huge deck, and Derrick held his hand out. “Let me help.”

But a phone rang. Had to be Michael.

Derrick sprang to his feet and hurried to the cordless handset he’d left in the kitchen. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Michael said.

If anything, Derrick’s fury only ramped up. “Hold on.” He hurried into his jacket and zipped it up. He didn’t need Jasmine or Rabie overhearing this conversation.

“Can you put Jasmine on?” Michael asked.

“First, you and I are going to talk.” He stepped outside and slammed the door behind him. The air was aggressively cold, dry and brittle. A stiff breeze carried away the vapor of his breath as he marched across the small yard to the line of trees and stepped beneath them. They blocked most of the wind, at least. “She’s pregnant.”