Chapter 12 - JASMINE CAME BACK WITH ONE LAST SECRET
Jasmine returned seven months after leaving Prescott Global.
Not to Aaron.
To me.
She requested a meeting through counsel.
I almost declined.
Then her attorney said she had information concerning Celia Grant.
We met.
Jasmine looked different.
No cream suit.
No diamond.
No performance.
“My father took a plea agreement.”
I already knew Robert Cole had admitted involvement in the attempted fraudulent transfer and vendor kickback arrangements.
Celia cooperated too.
“What do you need from me?”
“Nothing.”
She slid a flash drive toward my attorney.
“These are backups from my old laptop.”
Prescott emails.
Texts.
Messages with Aaron.
Then something else.
Melissa and Robert.
Years earlier.
Before Jasmine joined Prescott.
Robert had pitched a large communications contract.
Melissa rejected it.
He never forgot.
That resentment eventually fed everything that followed.
Then Jasmine said:
“There’s one message you should read.”
Aaron had sent it to her three months into the affair.
I didn’t want to.
Then I did.
I can’t keep doing this. Claire doesn’t deserve it. I’m going to tell her after the board retreat.
He never did.
Another message two days later:
Mom says revealing it now could destabilize governance. I’ll wait until the financing issue is resolved.
There it was.
Again.
Aaron turned morality into scheduling.
Truth became something he planned to do after the next important meeting.
Then the meetings never ended.
Jasmine whispered:
“I kept telling him you already knew.”
“Why?”
“Because it made me feel less horrible.”
Honest.
Ugly.
Useful.
She looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
I did not tell her I forgave her.
Not yet.
“I believe you’re sorry.”
That was enough.
Then she said:
“I don’t think Aaron ever wanted to leave you.”
“That doesn’t improve anything.”
“I know.”
She stood.
Before leaving, she stopped.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“The Slack message saved me.”
I stared.
She laughed sadly.
“It was the first time everyone saw what I had become.”
Public humiliation had forced reality into her private story too.
She moved to Seattle.
Started over at a much smaller company.
No executive title.
No Prescott money.
I wished her well.
Quietly.
Then my divorce hearing arrived.
Aaron and I agreed on almost everything.
No battle over separate assets.
No attack on Hawthorne.
No absurd settlement.
We sold our jointly owned vacation property.
Split marital investments under the prenup.
I kept the Boston-area home because I had contributed most of the purchase from separate funds and bought out his marital share.
Aaron signed the final agreement.
Then he looked at me.
“The first offer.”
“One hundred thousand dollars and a Lexus?”
He winced.
“Yes.”
“It was insulting.”
“I know.”
“Why so low?”
He looked embarrassed.
“Melissa told me you didn’t care about money.”
I laughed.
“That is very different from not understanding it.”
“Yes.”
Then Aaron said:
“I thought you’d want freedom more than fairness.”
I picked up the pen.
“I wanted both.”
Then I signed.
The divorce became final.
Outside the courthouse, Nathan waited across the street holding two coffees.
Aaron noticed him.
Then looked at me.
“Is that why you didn’t take me back?”
“No.”
That answer surprised him.
“I didn’t take you back because I stopped wanting our marriage.”
May you like
Then I smiled.
“Nathan is just why I’m not afraid of what comes next.”
