Page 14 of Lost Times

“I don’t have one.” She stared intently at her shoes, eyes darker with something I couldn’t name. “I asked Mom a few times, but she always got this sad look. I didn’t want her to be sad..” She finally looked up at me. “You know?”

I nodded, watching as she curled tighter into herself and continued. “I don’t want her to be sad, so I stopped asking. I think…” She trailed off, the pain becoming more prominent. “I think he left because of me. A friend of mine at school said that’s what her dad did, and her mom gets the same look that mine does when someone mentions him.”

She ducked her head into her knees now. “I didn’t want to make him leave.” The words were a painful whisper, and I couldn’t even pretend to be paying attention to my paperwork now.

I didn’t know this girl, but seeing her like this was tearing at something in my chest. I could examine why that was later, but now I needed to help.

Pressing my chair back, I shifted to face her and spoke; putting every ounce of certainty I could into my tone while hoping the words came out right.

“You didn’t make him leave.”

She blinked, breaking from her sadness long enough to watch me with open confusion and the tiniest bit of hope. “How do you know?” She asked.

Choosing my words carefully, I answered. “People like that will always leave for one reason or another. Even if you hadn’t come along, he would have left further down the line when things got hard… Or maybe he didn’t know about you, or didn’t want to leave.”

I was running off the assumption that her father had purposefully left, but for all I knew he was a soldier who passed while overseas. I didn’t want to potentially slander a good man, but I needed to get that sadness out of her eyes…

She perked up a bit, her hope growing. “You think so?”

I nodded and a smile stretched across her face, the sight pulling away the unease that’d slid under my skin the second I’d seen her frown.

“Thank you. Mom told me once that he was never going to be here, but I think I’m okay with that. I have her, after all, and my Mommy is amazing.”

I nodded. “She is, indeed. Though I just realized I never introduced myself.” Holding out a hand, I continued. “My name is Ludwig, and you are?”

She straightened, taking on a serious mask as she took my hand and shook it, just as grim as any of the businessmen I met as she did.

“I’m Jasmine, and it’s nice to meet you.”

I didn’t have a chance to say anything else before Kelly walked in, her arms full of papers that immediately made the ache behind my eyes flare up.

She offered a sympathetic smile my way before setting them on a clear corner of my desk. “They all need your signature.” She said and I nodded tiredly, waving her away.

When she caught sight of Jasmine though, she froze. “Oh! I didn’t even realize you’d wandered off. I’m sorry, Mr. Evans!” She went as if to corral Jasmine away, and I grunted.

“She was just asking questions, and I’m sure the office isn’t the most entertaining place for a child. She isn’t causing a ruckus or distracting people from their work, so it’s fine. I need to stretch anyway. I’ll bring her back to Thalia in just a moment.”

Kelly blinked, taken aback by that for some reason, then she nodded with a smile. “Okay.” Then she looked down to Jasmine and paused, her eyes widening a hair before she shook herself.

“You know, it’s kind of eery, having two sets of your eyes staring at me.” She muttered, then before I could comment, she left.

Jasmine looked at me, the bright colors of her costume–a flower?–contrasting with her dark hair, but only now did I actuallylookat her eyes. They were the exact same color as mine. That was a rarity, since I’d yet to meet anyone with even a similar shade that was close to mine-.

Wait.

Doing some quick mental math, my heart stopped in my chest as a suspicion began to form.

My throat went painfully dry and I had to swallow around it several times before I could speak. “Jasmine, how old are you?”

Please, let her say anything other than-.

“Seven. How old are you?” She asked, and my heart went from frozen to racing in the span of a blink. Seven years old, adding nine months that almost perfectly lined up with the night Thalia and I…

The world tilted on its axis, and my stomach rolled.

She could have slept with someone else after or before me. We’d had a one night stand so it was entirely plausible she’d had others–she was a healthy and beautiful woman after all–but Jasmine’seyes.

Something settled in my chest, gripping tightly to my heart as instincts screamed that she was mine.

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