Hidden Nature Pg. 6

"You never seemed interested in me. I spent all this time fantasizing about you…"

"You fantasized about me! And here I thought I was wrong for wanting to sleep with you, what with your condition and all. I think I always wanted you Jasmine. I just thought that you wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping with someone who is supposed to be protecting you. I was also going through a lot over my wife's death. It's hard for me to move on, I guess."

"You don't have to explain, Ralph."

She put her hand over her face in shock as the memory of Ryan and her arguing over a woman named Anne came flooding into her conscious mind.

"Oh Ralph…"

"What's wrong, Jasmine?"

"I found out a year after we were married that Ryan was having an affair with another woman….Maybe I shouldn't tell you this…"

"Tell me." Ralph looked intently into her eyes, expecting the worse but not prepared for what her lips were about to tell him.

"He was having an affair with a woman named Anne."

His face went white and he pulled away from her, stood up and looked out the window.

Jasmine turned her body away from him. She didn't want him to know that she was still nursing wounds from her relationship with his brother. She was sorry that Ralph was hurt by his brother and fiance's betrayal, but she was going through similar feelings. Only, unlike Ralph, she had no one. No uncles, aunts, not anyone. So when Ryan started cheating on her, her self esteem wouldn't allow her to leave him. Until…. Until something happened. What happened?

Ralph heard soft sobs coming from Jasmine. He walked over to her and caressed the palms of her hands.

"Jasmine.", his soothing voice quieted her crying.

"Jasmine, listen to me. Don't worry. I knew she was cheating on me. I just couldn't admit it to myself. The late night phone calls and sudden trips, the scent of expensive cologne on her clothes. I guess I was so in love with her, I didn't want to miss out on being with her. So I chose not to say anything about it. I guess, in a way we were both in love with people who love themselves more than they loved us. But everything's going to work out fine in the end. You'll see. We're halfway there. Most of your memory is back, but I want you to act like you don't remember anything. If Ryan were to find out otherwise, the other guy in your dreams will be after you."

"There's something else…. I think I can draw that other man. He was my last foster father. He introduced me…basically sold me to Ryan in exchange for a hundred kilos of cocaine. I didn't find out till a month after the wedding."

She looked down at her hands, staring down at what must've been a terrible humiliation for her.

Ralph was shocked at just how little affection she'd been shown for most of her life. He held her hand tighter and wiped a tear from her face. He swore right then and there, that he would never let anyone hurt her again.

"Now, please don't be angry with me when I say this," she continued, " but Anne was a co-worker of Ryan’s. That's how they met. How the affair began."

"I already knew about the cocaine. They found it on her at the place of death. But this, and my own brother at that."

"I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you…."

"Sweetheart, please don't get upset over me. You've been through enough because of my brother. Let me do the worrying for a change. You see, I always thought that Anne's death was connected to your disappearance. Even though I know she wasn't faithful to me, she didn't deserve to die the way she did. I still loved her, despite everything."

Oh, how I wish I could hear him say that to me.

"Jasmine, don't tell anybody what you told me. I'm leaving for Toronto tomorrow and Tom will take good care of you, I promise."

"How long will you be gone?" Panic crept into her chest. She didn't know how she could just sit at home worrying about Ralph. Her memory still wasn't complete. She was sure that it was something very important that he needed to know before going to Toronto. What am I forgetting?

"No more than two days. With your drawing and a little plea bargaining from Ryan, we might not have to rely on your testimony at all."

"Okay," said Jasmine with a disappointed voice. She strained to sit up, and Ralph reached over to help her.

"Don't look so upset, Jasmine. I'll be back. I promise. Don't worry. When I come back, I promise things are going to be very different."

He smiled then. "For the both of us."

"I love you, Jasmine."

He touched one side of her face with his fingers. Slowly tracing her profile until they stopped near her lips. Her eyes shone like a stormy sea mixed with passion and love. He stared into her eyes with a husky look in his eyes and slowly kissed her.

After their steamy embrace, he held her for awhile before he gave her his necklace to wear underneath her clothes. So she would feel near him while he's gone.

After he left, she played with the necklace still warm from his body heat. She sobbed herself to sleep, worried that the only person who ever loved her back would be taken away from her.