Page 22 of Holiday Grief

Now she stood, brushing a couple of leaves off her backside. She was chilled from sitting out on the cold ground, but she didn't care. It was kind of like her body just matched her heart.

With Fauna sticking close they made their way back to the house. As soon as she stepped inside Jasmine immediately felt like something was wrong.

Was someone here?

Quickly, she checked the door, but there was no sign that the lock had been picked or the door pried open. Not that that necessarily meant anything, someone could have broken in but not left any signs, or they could have come in the back door or any of the ground floor windows.

Panic flooded her system and short-circuited her brain.

Fight or flight, both seemed out of her reach right now, she was just frozen to the spot.

Had someone been in her home or was she imagining things? Was she letting her stressed-out mind get the best of her maybe?

“No one was in here,” she said confidently as though she could manifest that into truth by speaking it aloud.

It had to be the truth. Already she was overloaded with thinking about the past and the future she’d given up when she walked away from Adam. She couldn’t handle anything else.

Which was why she absolutely refused to acknowledge the possibility that her past might have finally caught up to her and she might be about to pay for the sins she had committed with her very life.

* * * * *

December 15th

10:03 A.M.

“Daddy!”

“Hey, pumpkin, watch your attitude,” Adam rebuked his daughter. Ever since Jasmine had walked away ten days ago Claire had been struggling.

Actually, he had been too.

He’d tried reaching out to her to get her to talk to him, but she wouldn’t answer his calls or respond to his texts, and he was starting to get desperate.

Even though he’d fight for her—had been fighting for her—he had to accept that it might not work out the way he wanted it to. It wouldn’t be anyone’s fault. Jasmine couldn’t help that she had issues and traumas to deal with, but he also couldn’t make her ready to confront them.

She had to want to do it.

Not for him, not for Claire, not for anyone but herself.

It was the only way to truly heal.

That was what he wanted for her.

As much as he understood that Claire was hurting and confused, same as him, he couldn’t allow her to act out because of it. Talking through her feelings was fine, but being disrespectful absolutely was not.

“Sorry, Daddy,” Claire said contritely.

“That’s okay. What’s up?”

“I drew a picture for Jassy. I want to take it to her,” Claire said firmly. They’d already had a talk about Jasmine not coming around as much. Since he wasn’t ready to put a full stop to their story, he’d phrased it more as a comma. Adam had told his daughter that Jasmine was upset and needed a little space, kind of like a grown-up time-out. That explanation seemed to have worked for the last couple of days, but now she was getting antsy.

“We can't right now.”

Claire stomped her foot. “But I want to. And I want Jassy’s chicken for dinner.”

“I can make you that.”

“You don’t make it as good as Jassy does. I want her to make it.”

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