Page 84 of Tempted

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jasmine shook her head. She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “What?”

“Lisa is—was my wife. She died five years ago.”

“And the baby?”

“My daughter died forty-two hours, thirty-three minutes and fifteen seconds after Lisa. I know because I refused to leave the nursery where they kept her incubator. I had her christened Julia Rose before she took her last breath. It was the name her mother wanted her to have. I buried them in same coffin, with Lisa holding the baby.” His voice wobbled with each word his spoke.

“Five years ago?” Jasmine was still trying to make sense of what she’d just heard. Jason had been married. Why had he never told her, especially since she and his deceased wife shared an uncanny resemblance?

“Yeah.” He took a seat on the stool closest to him with a heavy sigh.

Jasmine looked at the picture which had fallen to the ground. “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this? I told you everything about me, things I’ve only told a few other people. You supposedly want to marry me, but you haven’t told me you were married before to a woman who could be my twin.” Something else occurred to her and it worried her more than a little. “Is that why you want to marry me? Because I look like your dead wife?”

Jason lowered his head, his expression pain-filled.

Jasmine wanted to feel sorry for him, but her anger wouldn’t let her. She’d been lied to and now he offered no defense. Had she given her trust to him so easily only to find herself in more trouble? When he talked to her, did he pretend she was Lisa? It was eerie to think that was the case. “Jason?”

He lifted his head revealing red-rimmed eyes. “No. I mean, yes you do look a lot like her. When I initially saw you, I noticed the similarities, but that isn’t the reason I want to marry you.” Standing up, he walked over to his supply chest and opened it. He pulled out a little box and stood back up. “These are more pictures of her if you’d like to take a look.” Jason walked over to Jasmine and held out the box to her.

She debated on whether to take it. Jasmine looked at his offering pointedly.

“Please.” His plea sounded as if it had come from his soul and she would have been heartless had she ignored it.

Cautiously she took it from his hands and slowly opened it. Extracting a handful of the photos, she waded through. All the pictures were of Lisa and some of them had Jason in them. They’d looked so happy together. The more of them Jasmine went through however, she noticed Lisa and her didn’t resemble as closely as she’d originally thought. There was definitely some differences with each picture. It had been that one she’d originally come across where they looked the most alike. But this explained nothing. Jasmine glanced up at Jason who was staring at her with an expectant gleam in his eyes. “So we don’t look like twins. What does that prove?”

“That’s kind of what I wanted you to see. You two don’t look as much alike as you think. I chose this picture long before I met you. I’d planned on creating a painting to surprise Lisa when the baby arrived. Obviously I never finished the painting and I never thought I could until recently.”

“You’re not making sense, Jason. And you still have a lot of explaining to do about why you kept that information aboutVictor from me, not to mention why you didn’t follow up with getting a lawyer like you said you would.”

Jason moved closer and when he looked as if he’d reach out for her, Jasmine took a step back. “Please don’t touch me.”

He closed his eyes as if her words had hurt him, but she was past the point of caring about his feelings.

“Okay. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Can we go to the kitchen? I’ll make you some tea.”

Jasmine shook her head. “I’m not interested in tea, just the truth.”

“Well, you might not need something, but I do.”

She sighed. “Fine. Just know this, I’ve made it on my own before. And I’ll make it again.”

“At the detriment of your child?” he challenged. Jason turned and walked out of the studio leaving her no choice but to follow him.

When she finally made her way to the kitchen, Jason was brewing himself a cup of coffee. Jasmine took a seat at the table and waited for him to be done. Once he’d poured himself a cup and took the seat opposite her, he took a sip from his mug before beginning.

“I know you’ll probably think I’m being long winded but bear with me. It all ties in together.”

“Okay.”

“Before I begin though, I don’t want you to think I’m using you as some substitute. I met Lisa shortly after I graduated art school. At the time I was looking for places to display my art and I received one rejection after another. I had the talent, but not the name. No one was willing to take a chance on the newcomer. So months after I started my quest, I was about to give up hope. Something told me to try one more gallery. Lisa was the receptionist there. She was a college student working part time to supplement her scholarship. I don’t know if I’d call it love at first sight but there was definitely a spark from the beginning. She convinced her boss to give me a chance and that basically began my career.” He paused as sadness crept over his face.

“Go on,” Jasmine prodded gently.

Jason sighed. “We started dating and I fell in love. I basically just existed before Lisa came into my life. She taught me not to take myself so seriously, how to laugh at myself and for the first time in my life I found out who I was.”

“She sounds pretty special.”

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