Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 279: Paid For Her

For days after that she barely saw him. Jasmine was allowed to live her life freely, and the only indication of her being married was the fact that she had to live in the same house as Shawn.

Though she began to grow grateful over time that instead of a lustful old man, She had married the calm and understanding Shawn, she still didn’t feel happy about such a union.

It was never a marriage, it was a bondage.

Sometimes Jasmine would see him when he came back home at night, he would greet her with a smile and keep his distance. Eat on his own, quietly and all alone, stay in his room without trying to cross over to her side.

Jasmine became comfortable over time, they were the only two people living here in a small world of an arranged marriage, but it wasn’t really a marriage at all. They were like roommates living together, yet barely even speaking to each other.

At some point, Jasmine thought that maybe he hadn’t married her of his own accord, or his own free will.

It made her feel a sense of camaraderie with him and crazily one night, she came up with a new recipe and had the crazy idea to cook for both of them.

So she made dinner and waited till he returned. When he spotted her at the dining table, he greeted her with a smile like he usually would, something she was getting used to already but she stopped him this time.

"Wait, I...I made dinner." She called after him and she noticed how he suddenly stopped walking, freezing in what looked like shock before turning to look at her.

Several minutes later he came downstairs after changing and showering, whenever he came back he always smelled a bit like the hospital, a refined version of that antiseptic and sanitized smell until he washed off and she would perceive a sweet minty scent from him whenever he passed by her.

They had dinner quietly and he complimented her cooking, for some reason his eyes looked especially bright, he looked especially happy.

Was it just because of the food she made him?

Actually, Jasmine had always wanted to make people feel happy after eating her food. Since they got married she hadn’t seen such a vibrant look in his eyes before, it made her so satisfied that she found herself doing the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next.

Slowly, they began to talk over dinner. Slowly, she would laugh so loudly at his stories, slowly, his presence became a comfort.

He was no longer a husband she had been tied up to marry, he became like a friend. Whenever she was out going about her day, she would see something outside that reminded her of him, and she would wonder how he would react if he saw that too, so she would take a picture and show him whenever he returned home.

Seeing the pleasant amusement in his eyes looking at her whenever she talked to him about anything always did something strange to her heart.

He was always there. On rare days she was down and sick. She told herself that he only took care of her because it was his job as a doctor.

On days when her mood was off and she felt sad, he would always find a way to cheer her up in his calm and composed way.

He was so thoughtful, so mature Jasmine slowly began to genuinely admire him.

Times when she would find it hard to reach something at the very top of the shelf, he would come from behind to help her. If their hands touched, she would feel a spark, but he never touched her purposely without her permission, if it happened by accident there would be a deeply red shade to his face and ears, which she always found quite cute.

Two years passed by with this being her life.

She never once admitted to herself that she didn’t completely hate it anymore, because she didn’t want to give her mother the satisfaction of saying she had been right. Whenever they got too close, close enough that her heart began to stir, Jasmine would coldly pull away and put a strict distance between them, and the disappointment in his eyes whenever she acted distant with him always crushed her heart.

Until a day some members of the Reynolds family had come to visit.

Jasmine had always seen the Reynolds family as tyrants because of their position and how they could have their way in the whole country if they wanted to. However she met Melody, Shawn’s lively sister, and she met Arnold, Shawn’s very friendly father. Shawn and his little sister had lost their mother a long time ago. It made her look at him with sympathy in her eyes.

Shawn was a very kind man, full of warmth, he was vibrant yet calm. Like a man who was both fire and ice in one.

Jasmine immediately warmed up to the family without even realizing it because they were so warm and sweet to her.

Shawn’s aunts treated her like a precious jewel, and somehow when they were leaving, she had felt reluctant so watch them go because the big house was always so quiet with her and Shawn, and the large distance between them. The distance was of her own doing and yet it didn’t hurt any less.

However, Jasmine didn’t expect that one of the family members would still be left behind when she came back inside after seeing them all off. Shawn’s second uncle, Edgar Reynolds who had been staring at her with creepy eyes even while the whole family had been present.

Jasmine stiffened when she saw the man sitting comfortably in the sofa.

"I just wanted to see for myself what the girl who could have been my bride looks like. I can’t believe Shawn gets all of this when it could have been mine." He pointed a finger, over her body from head to toe.

"Please leave, my husband is still outside and he might come in at any moment."

This was the first time she had addressed him as her husband since they got married. It shocked her that calling Shawn her husband hadn’t made her feel appalled at all.

Edgar Reynolds scoffed.

"The whole family must be out of their damn minds, indulging you for two years. We can’t go see her because we’ll frighten her, we have to let her grow a bond with Shawn, they were all showering so many expensive gifts on you when you’re just a transaction. Your family was after nothing but money. Up to me you’d have been nothing but a useless whore, if Shawn hadn’t come to me pleading to let him have the woman he loves, you would have been mine right now."

Jasmine felt her whole body go cold as she heard everything he said.

"What?"

"Oh, you’re acting all clueless. Don’t tell me you had no idea Shawn paid me a huge sum just so he could be the groom to attend the wedding that day? I wasn’t planning to sell, I acquired you first but I was tempted, money or the beauty...I was going to choose the beauty but he admitted to me that he was madly in love with you, I had to make a concession. Took the damn money and left the beauty to him, but damn do I regret it."

Jasmine was too shocked to move, so many thoughts running through her mind and she couldn’t focus on one, She didn’t know when Edgar Reynolds had come close to her until he touched the side of her face, she roughly pushed him back.

"Don’t touch me!" The man’s breath smelled of wine, he must have drunk more than what was appropriate at a family dinner.

"Oh come on, just a taste." He pounced on her, holding her body where both her arms were captive under his hold.

"Let me go! I said let me go!" Jasmine struggled hard to escape his grip, he suddenly let her go and Jasmine looked to realize he had been grabbed from behind by someone.

She only came to her senses when she saw the ever so calm Shawn pummelling his fist into his uncle’s face so ferociously she was stumped.

There was blood that splattered out of Edgar’s mouth all over the clean floors, and even until the security guards outside came in to drag him away, Jasmine was still in a daze until she felt Shawn’s shadow and his hands reaching for her,

"Are you okay? Tell me if he hurt you."

Jasmine quickly stepped backwards moving away from him, escaping his touch.

Shawn stiffened, disappointment clouding his eyes but that disappointment quickly turned into shock when she asked.

"You paid for me?"