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This was the last thing I needed tonight. My stomach instantly started to twist up with guilt, and I felt like my insides were trying to rip me in two. This was the last thing I needed right now. I knew he was calling me about Jasmine. I hadn’t told him about offering her a job, but by now it had been five days since he last saw her, since any of them had seen her, and I had to imagine she wasn’t answering their calls or texts. They would be worried about her, and rightfully so.
I should have called earlier in the week and informed him of her coming here. I didn’t though, because one, not technically my place, but two, I wasn’t certain she would actually show up. There was a chance that she changed her mind, or she spoke with Adam and wanted to stay to work something out with him. I had no idea how the custody would work with them both being on opposite sides of the country. Adam was set to take over the whole company with both families believing a male should be CEO and not a woman. So it was highly doubtful that he was going to be moving out this way.
Now she was here though and based on our argument tonight, she wasn’t going to be running scared anytime soon. I needed to come clean and at least let Francis know she was safe and not dead in a ditch somewhere. They would also have been worried about Jeremy. I really have been a shitty friend lately.
Letting out a sigh, I answered the phone.
“Francis. It’s pretty late where you are,” I said as I made my way back towards my kitchen.
“It has been a long week. After the fiasco at the church, Adam returned home to discover that Jasmine had left with Jeremy. She packed up their clothes and any valuable items she possessed. We have been calling and messaging her, but she has yet to respond to us. Adam is considering filing a kidnapping report on Jeremy.”
The stress that was dripping from his voice only made me feel more like an asshole. I honestly didn’t think things would escalate so quickly. I hadn’t been thinking, which was the problem. Instead of calling him, I had taken the coward’s way out and allowed Jasmine to handle it. I should have thought more deeply on how this would have affected Francis and Adam. Regardless of what I thought of Adam, he was still Jeremy’s father, and any good father would be losing their shit by now.
“They're not missing. They are here with me,” I stated.
Hopefully, it wasn’t too late, and Adam hadn’t filed those charges. Although, I wasn’t too certain how that would all play out. Yes, kidnapping charges have been laid before between parents; that happened the majority of the time. However, it was typically the mother that was reporting the father, not the other way around. I wasn’t certain if the police would do anything given it was Jasmine that had Jeremy. Unless there was some weird custody agreement that I wasn’t aware of.
“What?” Total shock replaced the stress, and I knew his mind was trying to process that his daughter and grandson were safe. I was hoping he wasn’t getting the wrong idea though.
“After I left the church, I came across her. Her car had broken down on the side of the road. I gave them a ride back to their house, and I offered her a nanny position to help me with Christian until he goes to school. I’m so sorry Francis. I thought she would have told you and Amanda. Or at the very least send a text letting you know they were okay.”
It would appear I wasn’t the only coward in this situation. I couldn’t help but wonder why Jasmine hadn’t sent her parents even a text to let them know where she was and that she didn’t want Adam coming down. I understood that it would be complicated, but her parents would have told Adam that they knew where she was, and they were safe. They didn’t have to give her location. She was their daughter after all.
A deep breath flooded my ear, and I knew he was sagging into his favorite armchair at hearing the news.
“Okay … okay. Good. This is good. Though, a head’s up would have been nice.”
“I’m sorry Man. I really thought she would have let you both know. When I didn’t hear from you I assumed you were okay with it.”
Liar.
“It’s not your fault. She should have reached out and informed us of the situation. You said she arrived today?”
“She did. I had been expecting to ease her into everything here, but Ellis got one of my clients to lie about needing to see me. I got to the office, and there she was,” I answered as I finished getting the flour off the table.
“It was only a matter of time she showed back up. Let me guess, needed money?” he asked not impressed.
“That would have been better. She actually thought we would get back together. Like she could disappear for over a year and I would welcome back with open arms. She didn’t like it when I told her it was never going to happen. She left threatening me to sue for custody.”
“With what money?” he said with a scoff. “She can try all she likes. No judge is going to look the other way on her actions over the past eighteen months. I’ll help you with whatever you need.”
“I know you will,” I said with a small smile as the guilt ate away at my stomach.
Even though we weren’t as close as we had once been, that didn’t change that I could call him up or vice versa, and we would be there for each other. Regardless of what was needed, we had each other’s back. No questions asked. Right or wrong.
“How was her first day?” I could hear he was genuinely interested.
“It’s ah … it’s not going as well as I had hoped,” I admitted as I leaned back against the counter. “I got home and everything looked good, until I got to my kitchen. It looked like a tornado went through it. There were dirty dishes in the sink and flour all over the table. Apparently, they made cookies.”
I still couldn’t believe that Christian had put his hands in cookie dough. He was never a child that enjoyed getting dirty.
“How badly are you shaking?” he asked, already knowing how I would have reacted.
“It’s hard to get a deep breath. I’m still cleaning. I told her to leave me alone. Jeremy is even asleep in Christian’s bed.”
“The mess I can understand, but why would that bother you? They are both three. It’s not inappropriate,” he said, not fully understanding why that would be an issue.
“It’s not the age; it’s the fact that at some point they are going to leave. I don’t want Christian to get attached to Jeremy only to end up devastated when Jeremy leaves. He’s had enough people abandon him. I don’t want Jeremy to be another name on that list.”
