my chair. We sit with his mom and other people he introduces me to, but I struggle to pay attention.
He keeps his arm around me. I feel like I'm his and this could be real. That somehow, we could be together, and I could have a happily ever after. And I want him.
But after dinner, they show slides of children with cancer. Several families come on stage and speak to draw in donations. And while I love and appreciate what he and his mom are doing more than they'll ever know, it takes the broken pieces I've mended together too many times and throws bricks on them.
I struggle to breathe. I manage to hold it together so I don't have another breakdown in front of him and all these people, but it reminds me why I'm here.
I'm not here to find my happily ever after, or eat an expensive meal, or dance. I'm not here to fall in love.
I'm only here to save the person who deserves all of my love. My baby can't fight if I don't. And the only way to do that is by keeping my deal with Colton. I don't have the room to take risks. As much as I hate the fact I've become a desperate person for money, nothing has changed. I still have to pay twenty-five thousand dollars for ten to twelve treatments.
After the presentation, I excuse myself to go to the bathroom. Colton follows me. "Jasmine, are you okay?"
I manage to say, "Yes. I need a few minutes."
He hesitates, as if he knows something is wrong.
I force a smile. "I'll meet you at the table." I spin, go into the women's room, and lock myself in a stall.
I don't know why I don't tell him about Abby. But hearing all the stories about children who didn't make it because they couldn't afford treatment and how they might have lived if they had, tears at my heart. And it's already ripped into shreds. I'm not sure how much more it can take before there's nothing left of it.
I pull out my phone to check on Abby and see I missed a call and several text messages from Cee Cee. The last makes my heart almost stop.
Cee Cee: Meet me at the hospital. Abby's temperature came back, and it's over one hundred.
My body shakes. I've been drinking champagne all night while my baby was here, under my nose, ill again.
I run out of the bathroom and don't even see Colton. I barely hear him behind me.
He catches up to me and stops me. "Jasmine. Where are you going?"
I don't attempt to hide anything anymore. I blurt out while crying, "My daughter. She has cancer. Her fever spiked...and..."
His eyes widen, and he pulls me into him.
I push him away. "I have to go." I start to run again and don't even realize he's behind me.
Since I've been here so much, I know the hospital like the back of my hand. I race through the halls and don't wait for the elevator. I take the stairs. When I get to the waiting room, Maribel is sitting on a chair, hugging her knees. Cee Cee is pacing.
"What's going on?"
I've seen Cee Cee's worried expression too many times. "We don't know. They took her for tests."
9
Colton
Abby has cancer.
Why didn't she tell me?
Cee Cee embraces Jasmine, and my phone buzzes.
Mom: Why did you and Jasmine run out of here? What is wrong?
Me: We're on the eighth floor.
Mom: Why?
I glance at Jasmine. Cee Cee is talking to her in a hushed tone. My heart bleeds.
Me: I didn't know.
Mom: About?
Me: Her daughter. She has a fever. I'm not sure what is going on.
Mom: I'll be right up.
I put my phone away, feeling helpless, wishing Jasmine would have told me about Abby.
I preyed on a mother whose child has cancer and made her into my "beck-and-call stripper."
I hate the term she used and the fact I made her feel cheap. And she may not have done anything yet, but there is no hiding what I did or the shame I feel. It started last night when I went to bed and has only been escalating throughout the day. Now, I've officially hit bottom. My self-disgust can't get any higher.
Why would she tell me when I made her feel like my prostitute? There's no bouncing back from this. How could she ever see me as anything but a pig?
The doctor comes out. Jasmine and Cee Cee rush over to him. I step behind