Page 80 of Tempted

She didn’t pull her hand away, almost grateful for its presence. “Thank you.”

“I already knew you were smart, but that’s quite an accomplishment.”

A faint smile touched her lips. “I’m a bit of a nerd. I enjoy learning. Anyway, my passion was science and to some extent it still is, but of course life kind of got in the way. So basically I started school majoring in chemistry with a minor biology. It was a lot of work, but I graduated college summa cum laude. Afterward I got a TA position which would help pay for grad school. About a year into my master’s program, a friend of mine invited me to a party.That’s where I met Phillip. He was a senior in college and he was so handsome and charming. Most of the girls there were throwing themselves at him or giving him the eye. But I was shy around guys. I’d never had a boyfriend before and didn’t know how to talk to guys so when he approached me, I was flattered to say the least. I don’t know how to describe it, but he swept me off my feet and I fell hard. We spent all my spare time together.” She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts.

“And then what?” Victor prodded gently.

“I never understood why my friends never liked him until much later in our relationship, but basically when Phillips graduated and went on to work in his family’s insurance company. He wanted me to live with him, but I had made a promise to my mom and to myself to get my degree. He didn’t like it but he backed off. We fell into a pattern after a while. I spent most of my time with him when I had no classes or wasn’t studying. I didn’t even realize how he was starting to isolate me from my friends until I no longer had any.Midway into my second year of grad school he convinced me to move in with him. I figured it could work. I was nearly finished with school and I believed Phillip and I had a future together. But that’s when it began.”

“What began?”

“The verbal abuse. I was too blinded by love to see, but there came a point when I could do no right. Phillip criticized my clothes, my hair, my looks, everything. To top it off, I got pregnant. I was on the pill, but somehow it happened. Phillip seemed happy about it actually. He convinced me to drop out of the grad program until after my pregnancy. And even though I only had a few credits and a thesis to go, I did because I wanted to please him.One night we got into an argument and he punched me in the stomach so hard I went into labor a month and a half early.”

“That bastard.”

“Tell me about. But by then I believed the lies he’d told me about how worthless, stupid and disgusting I was. I could barely stand to look in the mirror but I managed to give birth to this beautiful angel. He came to the hospital and looked at her and told me he’d wanted a boy. I was absolutely devastated.”

“But you went back to him?”

Jasmine laughed humorlessly. “I know it sounds crazy, but I thought maybe everything was my fault. If I was a better girlfriend or if I didn’t get on his nerves he wouldn’t act the way he did.”

“That’s utter bullshit Jasmine.”

“I know that now. At the time I didn’t. He was my first love. I didn’t know love wasn’t supposed to be this way. Anyway, things got worse between us. If I didn’t move quickly enough for him, I’d get slapped, punched or kicked. At first when he started hitting me, he’d apologize and say he’d never do it again, but he did. I felt so helpless.”

“Did you call the police?”

“I did. In the beginning anyway, but when your abuser’s uncle is the captain of the precinct you live in, it’s difficult to get those charges to stick.”

“That explains so much now,” Victor said more to himself that to her.

“What do you mean?”

“There was something about it in your file. The police reports seemed incomplete for some reason. Sorry for interrupting, go on.”

“By then I’d fallen out of love with him and I think he knew it. So he found other ways to make me miserable. I couldn’t even stand his touch. But every night he’d rape me over and over again. And I couldn’t cry out because I didn’t want to wake Star. I was just thankful he didn’t hurt her. It was a nightmare, he wouldn’t let me work so I was financially dependent on him. I was prisoner in my own home. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom without his permission.”

“What about his parents? Did they know this was going on?”

Jasmine snorted. “They didn’t care. They never liked me because they’d handpicked the perfect girl for Phillip and I wasn’t her. They completely ignored Star and my existence. Besides, Phillip was their golden child. He could do no wrong. In those nightmarish months, he broke my wrist, pushed me down some stairs, cracked a couple of my ribs and blacked my eyes. The final straw came when…” Jasmine didn’t realize she was crying until she felt the tears at the corners of her lips.

Victor was at her side in an instant, kneeling next to her chair. “Jasmine, I’m so sorry. You don’t have to go on.”

She nodded. “Yes I do. One night he was in a very foul mood and he started yelling at Star and when I defended her, he went berserk. He beat me right in front of her. She was crying and begging him to stop. And then he…dragged me to the room and he was particularly brutal. He shoved a brush handle inside of me and it was the most painful thing I’d ever experienced. I thought I was going to die. He wouldn’t let me go to the hospital. The next time he left the house I took Star with me, went to the bank and took out every red cent from our accounts. So in a way, Madison was right. I did take money from him, but it didn’t happen like she said. I needed it to leave him and I figured he owed it to me.”

“I got a restraining order and we stayed in a shelter for about a month and I re-enrolled in the Master’s program and secured a job as a TA to reduce the cost. I was doing pretty well. I unfortunately forgot to renew the restraining order and Phillip re-entered our lives, but this was a contrite Phillip who claimed he’d gone to counseling and said he changed. I no longer had any feelings for him, but I decided to let him back in our lives for Star’s sake. Not relationship wise. But every now and then I’d let him come visit her. That was also a huge mistake on my part. He came over one night and I had to run to grocery store. Star was sleeping so I thought it was okay if I left for a few minutes. When I got back from the store, Phillip was gone and Star was locked in the closet crying her eyes out. I was so pissed. I called him and left a message on his voicemail. I said I was going…I said. ‘I’m going to fucking kill you.’ Those were my words and I didn’t mean them literally.”

“And it was used against you later wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jasmine whispered. “Phillip showed up maybe an hour afterward and he was drunk and yelling obscenities at me and telling me I had a lot of nerve to leave a message like that on his voicemail. He punched me in the face, but I was going to fight back this time. I picked up the first thing I could grab, a book and hit him on the head. When I tried to get to the phone to call the police, Star came out of her bedroom and she was crying. Phillip yelled at her and she started crying even harder and he snatched her up and shook her. He smacked her face and was going to do it again. I snapped. I ran to the kitchen. I grabbed a knife and I stabbed him three times. The neighbors must have heard the commotion and called the cops. When they came, I was arrested. Phillip lied and said that we argued because he found that I’d left Star alone and then I got angry and stabbed him. It was a big lie but everyone believed him. That’s basically what happened. I really appreciate your trying to get my case overturned but I don’t see how you can get me off.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

With each word she relayed of her horrifying tale, Victor’s heart broke a little bit at a time. Everything in the file he’d collected on Jasmine had not prepared him to hear this tale. That mother fucker! It was lucky for Phillip he was already dead because if he weren’t, Victor would have killed him himself. What kind of man, no monster would beat on a woman or a child?

Even with all the problems he himself had faced with his wife, not once did he think to lay a hand on her. He paused. The scene when he’d learned of Jasmine’s conviction played in his mind. Even if he hadn’t meant to shove her away from him as hard as he had, he shouldn’t have let his anger rule him.

Just knowing what he’d done to her, how he treated her made him fell no better than that animal Phillip. His poor Jasmine. How she must have suffered. A part of him wanted to take her in his arms and erase her pain, but he didn’t have the right to. She was so brave in her attempts to put her life back in order, fighting the good fight, yet he’d kicked her while she was down. If it took the rest of his life, Victor fully intended to make it up to her. Getting her conviction overturned was only the first step.

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