Page 114 of A Journey For Jasmine

“Wesley,” his mother said, moving toward him when he opened the door. “Keith and Stephanie, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you here?”

Stephanie still hadn’t said a word. She didn’t talk much and normally just went along with her husband.

“They said they wanted to see if it was true. If I bought this place with Noelle’s money. I’m waiting for him to explain what he means by that,” Wesley said, his arms crossed.

“You know damn well you’re to blame for Noelle’s death.” He felt his face pale over that.

“Keith,” Stephanie said. “That is uncalled for. Wesley wasn’t in that building.”

“No,” Keith said. “He wasn’t. He was never home. Enough that my sister got sick of being by herself and started to work late. Maybe if he was home where he should have been Noelle would still be alive.”

“I don’t have to explain a damn thing to you,” he said. He didn’t need someone else piling guilt on his shoulders that he’d done a damn good job of putting there himself over the years. “I was working and so was she. Did it ever occur to you that I was at work because she was always working too? That she said it was her turn to advance her career? That maybe she was putting that first over other things in our marriage?”

Keith stopped for a minute and then shook his head. “No. She always complained you were never around. I was the shoulder she ran to at times. Not yours.”

He hadn’t known that. If he had, maybe he would have stepped back and been in the picture more. He didn’t like that Noelle’s family coddled her. That they gave in to her all the time. He’d thought she’d stopped going to them when they were married, but now he realized she just kept it from him.

“So you flew all this way to throw this in my face?” he asked.

“No. I wanted to see if it was true. That the blood money you got from her death was used to try to salvage your guilt for being a shitty husband.”

“That’s enough, Keith,” his mother said. “This is my restaurant and I own half of the marina. If you want to blame anyone for that lawsuit, then blame me. I’m the one that pushed for it and I’m the one that fought until the end. It was my way of making that company pay for sealing off those doors, for their mistake that took her life.”

“Because you were a greedy little bitch just like Noelle always said you were. You weren’t there for your son and that is why he wasn’t there for my sister.”

Oh no. No way in hell he was letting anyone talk to his mother that way. “You need to leave,” he said. “Get off my property. I won’t have you come here and speak to my mother that way.”

Keith turned to leave at the same time Wesley saw Jasmine standing there. “If you think buying this place to absolve your guilt because it was Noelle’s dream to own after you vacationed here, then you’re one sick bastard.”

Jasmine’s jaw hit the floor and her face paled on top of it, as Kevin and Stephanie marched by her and left. “Why are you here now?” he asked her.

“Obviously not to witness that,” she said.

“She’s here to meet with me,” his mother said. “Let’s go in the back and talk.”

“No,” Jasmine said. “I think I’ve heard enough.”

She turned and walked out and he wanted to run after her. “Let her go,” his mother said. “She needs to process things. Especially in her condition.”

He looked at his mother. “You know?”

“Yes,” his mother said, smiling. “I had my suspicions for over a week. That was a guess just now that you verified.” She moved closer to him to get a hug. “I’m going to be a grandmother, aren’t I?”

“Yeah,” he said. “But I’m not sure where my relationship is going to stand after she just witnessed that.”

“I told you you should have mentioned why you bought this place before,” his mother said.

“I didn’t think it was relevant,” he said.

“I guess you might be second-guessing that now.”

Jasmine gotout to her car and took a deep breath and then another.

How could she have been so stupid?

Here she thought everything Wesley said to her was true. Was it because she wanted it to be?

She started her car and drove back to work. She had to put this from her mind and deal another time.

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