Chapter 14 - THE PROPOSAL WITHOUT A CAGE
Derek proposed badly.
Which delighted Jasmine.
No rooftop.
No mafia ballroom.
No helicopter.
He tried in their kitchen.
While pasta boiled over.
Jasmine turned off burner.
“What are you doing?”
Derek held ring.
“Apparently destroying dinner.”
“You rehearsed this?”
“Yes.”
“Couldn’t tell.”
He laughed.
Then became serious.
“Jasmine Cole.”
She waited.
“I spent most of my life believing that if I cared about someone, I had to know where they were.”
Her eyes softened.
“If I loved them, I had to eliminate risks.”
“If I feared losing them, I had to hold tighter.”
Pause.
“I was wrong.”
Good.
“Your father tried to tell my family truth.”
“My father chose silence.”
“My uncle chose control.”
“Your mother chose fear.”
Derek looked at her.
“And you kept choosing for yourself even when everyone around you was convinced they knew better.”
Her eyes filled.
“I don’t want to become the most important thing in your life.”
Interesting.
“I want to be one of the things you choose because your life is already full.”
That was it.
He opened ring box.
Simple.
Beautiful.
“Will you marry me?”
Jasmine smiled.
“One condition.”
His expression became wary.
“No private security detail assigned to me without discussion.”
“Yes.”
“No background checks on my friends.”
“Yes.”
“No buying my employer.”
He blinked.
“I had never considered—”
“Derek.”
“Yes.”
She laughed.
“And prenup.”
He smiled.
“My lawyers already drafted—”
“Separate counsel.”
“Of course.”
Then:
“Yes.”
For once, Derek Drake looked completely speechless.
Jasmine enjoyed twelve full seconds.
Then he kissed her.
Asked with his eyes first.
She answered by reaching for him.
Their wedding happened ten months later.
Small.
Not secret.
Evelyn attended.
Their relationship with Jasmine remained imperfect.
But real.
She had stopped taking money.
Started volunteering with financial-abuse support group.
Maybe guilt.
Maybe growth.
Jasmine did not manage her redemption.
Marcus attended ceremony alone.
Derek’s board chair.
Barrett partners.
Friends.
No criminal parade.
Before ceremony, Jasmine placed Thomas’s letter inside her bouquet.
Not because she needed dead father to walk her anywhere.
Because she wanted him present.
Evelyn approached.
“I’m sorry.”
Jasmine had heard it before.
This time:
“For calling you plain.”
“That wasn’t the worst thing.”
“I know.”
“For teaching you ambition was dangerous.”
Better.
Jasmine looked at her mother.
“I forgive some of it.”
Not all.
Evelyn nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Then wedding began.
Jasmine walked down aisle alone.
Derek waited.
No one gave her away.
May you like
No one took possession.
She arrived because she chose to.
