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10
They were up and out the door shortly after the sun had risen the following day. Maddie hummed happily in the back, holding one of her new dolls, watching Sesame Street on an iPad Jasper had set up on the back of his seat.
Freya couldn’t believe this was her life now. She kept having these pinch me moments because it was all too extraordinary to imagine. Especially not with Jasper looking sinfully handsome in a simple pair of jeans and a button-down ivory dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up by his elbows. She’d put on her only pair of jeans and a tank top and felt like a peasant next to him.
“What’s the schedule for today?”
“Your hair and nail appointment is up first. Then we’ll grab some lunch before going to Bloomingdale’s at one. After that, we’re meeting with the attorney at four. When that’s done, we’ll head back to the cabin.”
“Okay. But how is this going to work with Maddie? Have you ever shopped all day with a toddler?”
“What do you mean?” Jasper sounded confused.
“Who’s going to watch her while I’m busy getting my hair and nails done? Are you hiding a nanny I know nothing about somewhere?” Because she did not know how to manage it if she was stuck in a pedicure chair and Maddie had a tantrum or, god forbid, a diaper blowout.
Although she was thrilled about getting her hair and nails done. She hadn’t had her hair done professionally since before she’d left Ian. And it had been even longer since she’d gotten her nails done.
“I’m going to watch her. It will be fine. She and I will hang out while you are in the salon. Same thing this afternoon.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.
“And what do you know about toddlers? Have you ever changed a diaper? Or dealt with a temper tantrum?”
“You don’t think I can handle it, do you?”
The jury’s still out on this one. “I didn’t say that. It’s just that toddlers can be a lot of work. You can’t take your eyes off them in a public setting for a second or even at home, for that matter. They get into anything and everything. They’re stubborn and need to be coaxed into doing things they don’t want to do.”
“I can handle her. I may not be the pro you are, but I think Maddie and I will be fine. It will be novel for her to hang out with me.”
Oh boy. This guy did not know what he’d gotten himself into. She hoped a day with Maddie wouldn’t send him running for the hills. “And if she’s too much?”
“Are you worried about leaving her with me?”
Definitely. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I’ve rarely left her with anyone. It’s not like I’ve got any family that can take care of her.”
“And her father?”
Freya closed her eyes with a sigh before she responded, “Is a terrible man.”
“How bad are we talking? Freya, I need you to be honest with me.”
She worried he would back out of their deal if he knew the extent of Ian’s depravity. But he was willing to hand over a small fortune as part of that agreement. The least she could do was explain the danger Ian posed. Drawing up her courage, she reluctantly said, “If he finds us, he’ll kill me and take Maddie. And he will make my daughter’s life a living hell.”
Jasper snarled low. “Over my dead body, lass. I promise I’ll ensure you two are safe from here on out. I just need you to trust me.”
Easier said than done when she’d spent the better part of four years getting the tar beat out of her. And she didn’t even want to mention the gaslighting and emotional manipulation or the panic attacks she started having toward the end. “I’m working on the trust part. Jasper, it’s not that I don’t want to, because you’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty so far. It’s just—life with Ian was a brutal daily battle.”
“Why did you get together with him and then stay?”
“He wasn’t violent at first. He was sweet and charming and romantic. But looking back now that I’ve had time and space to mine through everything that happened, there was an insidious edge to every comment he made. The abuse started slowly. He would say and do things to undermine my confidence, chipping away at my sanity and sense of self. The first time he hit me, he apologized profusely afterward with tears in his eyes. Then it would be good for a time. And then something in him flipped, and he started smacking me around more. I lied to people about the bruises, saying I fell or was clumsy. Until one morning I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself. It was when I decided to leave him. I planned it out. I had to because by then, he constantly warned me that if I ever tried to leave, he would kill me, all while professing his love for me. And then I got pregnant.” She remembered staring at the pregnancy test, horrified and crying. Because he’d planned it. She knew it at her core. They’d gotten into a fight, and he’d tossed her birth control pills away. The beating she’d sustained during that fight had put her in bed for a week. He’d raped her every night that week.
“Did the violence go away while you were pregnant?”
She shook herself out of her dark memories. “No. I thought it would. And it did, for about three months.” She’d walked on eggshells the entire time, hoping and praying it had finally stopped. While knowing deep down he never would. “He never hit me in the stomach, thank god, because he figured I was carrying his son. But when I displeased him, for whatever reason, it could be I didn’t have dinner on the table when he arrived home from work or that my bare feet were too loud on the bedroom floor on my way into the bathroom to pee in the middle of the night because that’s what pregnant women do in their last trimester. It didn’t matter what it was in the end. He found an excuse to exert his wrath whenever the mood struck him.”
Jasper swore under his breath, shooting a glance at Maddie in the rearview mirror before he responded. “I’ve got family in the FBI. Give me his information, and we can put him behind bars.”
He what? The FBI? Oh, good gracious, that could be problematic in a massive, world-altering way. She swallowed her apprehension down. It would be fine. No one would find out. All she had to do was keep her eye on the prize. In the meantime, she’d avoid the topic altogether. “Maybe once I feel more comfortable with you and this situation. I’m sorry, but Ian eroded all my trust.”
Jasper shot her a sympathetic glance. “Understandable. How old was Maddie when you left him?”
