Chapter 7: The Second Move
Jessica was standing in the study.
The closet door was open.
She was looking at the shelf where the box had been.
Jasmine stopped in the doorway.
"Looking for something?" Jasmine said.
Jessica turned around slowly.
Her face was composed.
That was the thing about Jessica — she was always composed.
But her eyes moved to Jasmine's hands, then to the phone in her right hand, then back up to her face.
"I came home early," Jessica said.
"I wanted to file some paperwork." She gestured at the open closet.
"One of my folders seems to be misplaced."
"Which folder?"
"The brown box.
Tax records."
"That's my father's box."
"We have shared files in there."
"Do you?" Jasmine said.
"I didn't realize that.
I'll mention it to him when he gets home."
Jessica looked at her for a moment.
"You've been going through our private papers," she said.
"I've been going through my father's papers," Jasmine said.
"In my father's study.
In my father's house." She paused one beat.
"Or did that change?"
Jessica walked toward her slowly.
Not aggressive.
Measured.
The way she moved when she wanted to make someone feel small without technically doing anything wrong.
"You're nineteen," Jessica said.
"You think you understand things you don't.
You think this is a situation you can fix with whatever you've read online this afternoon." She stopped three feet away.
"You can't.
Your father is in a complicated position.
A position I have helped protect for six years.
If you start pulling at things you don't understand, you will make everything worse — for him, not for me."
"Tell me about the holding company," Jasmine said.
Something moved through Jessica's expression.
Fast.
Then gone.
"I don't know what you're referring to."
"The company registered under your maiden name.
The one that received a portion of my father's business assets during the restructuring." Jasmine kept her voice flat.
"That one."
Silence.
"Your father agreed to that arrangement," Jessica said carefully.
"Did he have a lawyer present when he signed?"
"He had Hargrove."
"Hargrove was already disbarred."
"That's not proven—"
"It's public record," Jasmine said.
"I looked it up this morning.
The disbarment was finalized twenty-seven months ago.
The restructuring documents are dated after that." She held up her phone.
"I photographed every page in that box.
It's all backed up."
Jessica's composure didn't break.
But something behind it recalibrated.
"Jasmine," she said, softer now.
The warmth that appeared when the direct approach stopped working.
"I know things between us have been difficult.
I know you've never fully accepted me.
That's painful — for all of us.
But whatever you think you've found, you need to understand that your father and I made decisions together.
Legal decisions.
And destabilizing our marriage won't protect you.
It'll only hurt him."
"I'm not trying to destabilize your marriage," Jasmine said.
"I'm trying to protect my father."
"You're a child."
"I'm an adult whose name is not on any of those documents." Jasmine tilted her head slightly.
"Yours is."
Jessica stared at her.
Then her expression closed down completely.
"I'd like the box returned," she said.
"Talk to my father," Jasmine said.
"It's his box."
She turned and walked back upstairs.
Her hands weren't shaking anymore.
Behind her, she heard Jessica pull out her phone.
Heard her dial.
Heard the call connect.
May you like
Heard Jessica's voice drop low and tight in a way she'd never used inside this house before.
"We have a problem," Jessica said.
