Chapter 12

He was about to step into his car, but was looking at his phone, an unrecognizable expression on his face.

Jasmine knew that he was staring at her text. She had been waiting in the car for almost two hours and she knew that according to his schedule, it was supposed to be time for his lunch.

She was starting to feel ridiculous and was about to tell Cara to turn around and head back to the mansion when she decided to send a text instead.

She had told him that she misses and loves him and wanted to see him.

A few minutes later, the sports car was speeding out of the building.

“Tail it, Cara,” Jasmine said in a stony voice that she couldn’t believe was hers.

Without another second of delay, Cara revved the engine to life and pulled out into traffic. She knew that it was futile to try and convince the Queen, since her mind was already made up.

They followed at a discreet distance, alternating lines and a few blocks. Jasmine was amazed with how good Cara was. It was going to be difficult for Matt to know that he was being tailed.

After a few minutes of driving, Jasmine frowned. They were already approaching the border and she chuckled softly. From the letter, they were not in the town.

Before long, they had left the pack and were entering another pack’s territory. It was a vibrant area- it seemed to be filled with history. I recognized it as one of our allies.

Her stomach clenched like She had eaten something bad.

They approached a block of charming, tightly huddled townhouses and saw that Matt had pulled up in front of a small bungalow.

Cara parked discreetly at the end of the block on the other side of the street that the house was on. She was becoming more curious now, wondering if the King was seeing someone else.

“Your highness, maybe you should rethink about this. You might think you’re looking for reasons to trust him, but this is only going to give you reasons to not trust him.”

Jasmine glowered at Cara. “Thank you, but I don’t need your opinion.”

Her heart resumed its nervous, ragged beating as she watched Matt emerge from his car and pull something out, a huge plush panda.

He was just rounding his car when the front door of the house opened and a woman stepped out, holding her arms out to him.

This was her.

Becca!

Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them stubbornly away, refusing to miss any bit of truth that was being revealed before her eyes.

She was a short woman. Way shorter than Jasmine, but she had a daintiness about her, from the fine, shoulder length blonde hair, pulled back by a yellow headband to the pale red dress she was wearing. She was beautiful and her smile broadened as she came down the steps to greet Matt in a tight hug.

Matt had his back to her, so she couldn’t tell if he was just hugging her or giving her hickeys. They were embracing long enough that she thought it was possible.

He wrapped his free arm around her with genuine affection, his face lighting up with a smile as he stepped back to look at her.

It was very obvious that they were in love.

They both looked up from their excited conversation when a blur of motion came through the front door and materialized in the form of a little boy. He latched himself onto the woman’s leg as he looked up at Matt.

Jasmine didn’t know that she was crying until the tears fell on her thigh.

She placed her palm on her face and wiped off the tears, swallowing hard to calm her erratically beating heart.

He was saying something to the boy which made him grin widely and loosen his hold on the woman’s leg.

Jasmine thought about how he’s never done that with her children. Here, this child was living like a normal child, he didn’t have to stay in a room alone and neither was his mother forbidden from staying with him and singing him a lullaby to sleep. She never got to do any of that with her children.

She continued looking at them as Matt handed him the panda which was almost bigger than the child. The boy stared at it as his mouth rounded in delight. Matt laughed when he put his arms around the toy for a hug. It was a smile that he used to give her before, before all of this happened.

“Your highness, we should leave,” Cara said and She shook her head. She wasn’t intending on leaving, she was going to stay and watch everything.

Pain seared through her as Matt and the woman shared an amused glance before Matt scooped the child into his arms and walked to the steps with the woman by his side.

In a matter of seconds, they were gone from her sight, but the pain was still here, the slow, steady stabs through her heart.

“I want to leave now,” she said hoarsely as she sagged back onto her seat. “Now!”

She took deep, long breaths to calm herself and hold it together, but her hands began to tremble as she tried to rub the pain away from her now tightening chest.

“Your highness,” Cara said slowly as she turned the engine on.

What she had witnessed was something she was totally not expecting and she didn’t know how to best comfort the Queen.

Jasmine lifted her eyes to meet his and through the film of tears in her vision, she saw her wince.

“I don’t need your pity,” she choked out , just as the sobs started to rack her shoulders. She pounded her chest with clenched fist as she tried to stop them, but instead felt more suffocated.

“Your highness, just let it all out,” Jasmine heard Cara say, but I ignored her.

“While I agree that what you saw didn’t look good, I have a feeling that it isn’t the whole story,” she Said, earning a glare from Jasmine who wondered when her maid became a motivational speaker.

“Just take me back to the mansion, Cara,” she said as she began to breathe normally.

She was going to talk to him, but she had to think about it first.