Chapter 15

Jasmine had never felt so humiliated in her life. She had left, just as he told her, but she couldn't stop thinking about the woman.

"A cup of coffee, your highness?" Cara asked, upon seeing the look on the Queen's face. She had heard the rumors from the other maids, that the Queen had been summoned by the council.

"I don't need anything, Cara!" She snapped and sighed heavily. "I want you to help me find out about a woman, can you do that?"

Cara's brown knitted into a frown. The Queen was acting even stranger by the day.

"Who is it, Your Highness?"

"Becca Wilde."

Cara's frown even deepened. The name was familiar, yet she couldn't place a face to the name, and neither could she remember where she had heard the name from.

"Can you do it? Or do you know someone I can trust?"

Jasmine watched as Cara seemed to think about it for a while. She had known the girl for a long time to know that she wasn't thinking about it, she was debating internally on whether to help her out with such a quest or not.

She suddenly grabbed Cara's hands. "Look, Cara. I know this is sudden, but I'm desperate. I need your help. I just want to save my marriage."

A sigh expelled from Cara's lips as she nodded. It wasn't like she could refuse the Queen anyway.

"Thank you," Jasmine said, pulling her into her embrace.

To Jasmine's surprise, when she went to the dining area for dinner, she saw that Becca was there. She couldn't hide her fury.

"What is she doing here?" She barked, jabbing a finger at her.

Matt ignored her and once she noticed that even her children were looking at her as though she had gone mad, she sat down quietly, glaring daggers at Becca whose eyes were turned away from hers.

Immediately after the dinner, she ordered the boys' nanny to take them away and then she turned to Becca.

"Aren't you shameless? What are you doing here?"

Matt was already getting furious. "Why are you behaving like a mad woman, Jasmine? What is wrong with you?"

"Why I'm behaving like a mad woman? Why won't I? When you've resorted to bringing your mistresses home. How much more are you going to disrespect me?"

"You're creating a scene!" Matt said through gritted teeth, noticing that some of the maids that were walking began to walk slower than normal and hurried away when his eyes met theirs.

Jasmine scoffed. "Look, Matt, I don't care about anything, I just don't want to see her in here anymore!"

"Let's go," Matt said to Becca, ignoring the raving mad woman who, unfortunately, was his wife.

She watched their retreating figure, wishing so hard to beg him to stay, to not go. For them to go back to how they were before, when they'll cuddle each other or take long walks in the garden while talking about the future, how they'll fall asleep in each other's arms. That felt like such a long time ago.

Jasmine let out a deep exhale as she walked back to her room. Matt had sent her things back to her room and she wondered if he was going to sleep with Becca wrapped around him. She suddenly felt her heart breaking into pieces at the thought.

"This should help with your insomnia, your highness," Cara gave Jasmine a potion she had gotten earlier that day. She was aware of the Queen's worries and sleepless nights and it bothered her.

Jasmine was surprised. She didn't know that it was that noticeable. She was very careful to conceal the bags under her eyes with makeup.

"Thank you, Cara."

Cara nodded and after saying goodnight, walked out of the room.

She took the potion and in no time, was fast asleep. It was perhaps the first in a long time that she was sleeping peacefully.

Matt, meanwhile couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about his wife and what he was going to do about her. She didn't trust nor believe him, her action during dinner was proof. He couldn't understand the sudden push he felt about their relationship. The mere sight of her annoyed him.

Becca was someone he was planning to keep a secret from everyone, including his wife. She was someone they could use against him and he wasn't going to let that.

When his parents had suddenly died a year ago, everything had changed. He had found out about her.

He remembered the day vividly, it was after he had laid them down to rest. He had received a text from an unknown number to meet somewhere. He frowned and ignored the text, thinking that it was probably a prank or a spam message.

He got the text again when he was on his way back to the mansion after leaving the bayou. There was a call from the number and he had picked it up to hear a female voice come from the other end of the line.

Matt couldn't believe what she was saying and requested that they meet. He chose a discrete location as it was going to pose a problem if someone saw them.

When they met, he had been awed and had promised to take care of them in return for them to never show themselves in the kingdom. But then, he began to receive those messages from her.

He had gone there to talk to her about the messages as he feared that they could be intercepted. He had no idea that his worst fear was going to come to reality, he was going to be seen by his wife who did not trust him.

Becca had been even more stubborn than he thought, she had given him a condition that she would stay away if he let her visit the mansion once as she had never been there when it was her home.

He couldn't really refuse his sister, but then, Jasmine was becoming unreasonable.