Page 75 of Four Fiances & I

“What triggered you to remember?” I ask.

“We were talking about seeing Sophia and Amber and how it made me feel,” Jasmine looks up from her teddy for the first time and looks to Maximus.

“When did you see them?” Sean asks, frowning. I glance at Jason and see he has no idea, either.

“The day we went to stay at the hotel,” Maximus answers, unable to take his eyes off Jasmine. “With everything that happened since, I completely forgot about it,” he answers, running his hand up and down her leg.

“What happened?” Sean asks. Jasmine starts to explain how she bumped into them and realised quickly that they had never been real friends to her, not for a long time at least. When I hear it was the same time as Verity went missing, which was only a couple of days before Christmas, I understood why it would have slipped her mind.

“He was asking how our friendship used to be,” she sighs, burying her face into the teddy again. “I was talking about how I hid at Amber’s once when I was sixteen, and Carol tried to sell my virginity for the first time, and it was like a million memories came back at the same time, and I remembered so many other times she had brought men into my room. How she had stood there and let them touch me, made me touch them, all while she looked on.”

“She was in the room?” Maximus growls. Jasmine nods, and I give him a warning look at the same time as Sean and Jason. He nods, acknowledging that he needs to reel it in, and we all go back to giving Jasmine our undivided attention.

“She stayed to ensure they didn’t go too far.” She looks up at me with her tear-filled eyes, and it breaks my heart.

“She stayed to make sure they didn’t rape you,” I finish for her. She nods before wiping her cheeks. Maximus reaches for the small table beside him and holds out a box of tissues for her. She takes one with a small thank you and wipes at her face.

“For a short while, I thought maybe it was because she actually cared and that she was protecting me from the worst of it, but then I remembered an argument she had with one guy. She had stopped him at the last second, and when he argued with her, she told him he could place a bid at the auction.”

That fucking bitch. She really was going to auction off her daughter's virginity, like the sick fuck she was.

“Did anything happen after that one time you remembered? After you went to live with your grandparents?” Jason asks, tightening his grip on her hand. Jasmine nods, tears flowing freely now.

“The memories are all glitchy and like mini flashes. The therapist believes she started drugging me. Which would explain why there are periods of time I don’t remember very well.” She looks at me then and bursts into tears. “I’m sorry, I didn’t remember, I thought-” Sean doesn’t even try to protest when I grab her from his side and pull her onto my lap. She curls up so small and clings to me as she breaks down.

“Don’t you dare apologise. You have nothing to be sorry for,” I say as I rock her. Holding her so tight, I’m worried I might hurt her, but there is nothing that will make me release her now.

“But I honestly thought you were … She made me believe I was still a…” My body freezes as what she’s saying sinks in. Movement in my peripheral vision makes me look up in time to see Jason jumping up and pulling Maximus from the room with his arm around his shoulders.

“No matter what, you are still ours, Sweetheart. No one will ever take away how special that afternoon was for all five of us,” I whisper into her hair. I had hoped it would calm her, but she starts crying harder instead. I hear her apologise again, and it takes everything in me not to lose it. “Please stop,” I whisper as tears fill my own eyes. “You did nothing wrong, Sweetheart. Absolutely nothing.”

I look to Sean, only to find him paler than I’ve ever seen him. He looks like he is on the verge of breaking down. I also don’t miss how he looks from Jasmine to the door his twin just left through. The two people he loves more than anything in this world are falling apart, and he's stuck, not knowing what to do for either of them.

“I promise no one will ever touch you again,” I whisper as I hold our girl in my arms. “I will hunt down each of them that hurt you and make them pay. Tell me what you need, and it's yours,” I whisper as her sobs start to slow.

“Why would she do that? Now her favourite taunt makes sense, and I hate her even more.”

“What would she say, Princess?” Sean's voice is rough, and I know he is being held on by a thread.

“Whenever I was confused or couldn’t remember what I had done, she would laugh and say,‘What you don’t remember doesn’t matter.’She could keep selling my virginity because, as far as I was concerned, I was still one.” Jasmine rests her head on my chest and cries quietly.

I hear the slightest click and look over my shoulder to where my brothers are walking back in. One look at Maximus’s face, and I know he’s been crying and raging. His eyes are red and puffy, and his whole body is trembling. They watch Jasmine as they return to sitting in the same positions. I’m unsure if she knows they have returned or even left in the first place.

“Tell me what you need, Sweetheart,” I whisper into her hair. “Tell me who they were, and I will kill them for you.”

“You already have, I think.” Leaning back a little, I can’t help but frown at her.

“Who?”

“I heard about the blonde guy who was Hudson's mate. He was there that day when Hudson hurt me.”

“He was one of them?” Jason asks, his face expressing the level of shock we are all feeling. Jasmine nods and starts playing with the ears of her bear.

“I always knew I recognised him from somewhere, and when Daddy Max told me about what he said last night, it all clicked into place. I recognised a few faces in that house, and now I know why.”

“He’s dead; I killed him last night.” I had been worried about telling her I had committed murder, but now I wish I could do it again. I wish I could have kept going until there was nothing left of the fucking bastard.

“Did you know Tommy before we met you?”

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