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“Um. Okay.”
“When you and Juliet were playing, did she tell you about anything that’s been upsetting her?”
“Oh. Um… I don’t know.” Her voice trembles a bit, and I know without even being able to see her face.
“Victoria. Tell Uncle Jasper the truth, right now.”
“I can’t,” she wails. “Juju will hate me forever!”
Despite the sudden racing of my heart, I force my tone to stay calm for her sake. “No she won’t, sweetheart. I promise.”
“She’s my only friend! I can’t tell her secrets!”
“If those secrets are hurting her, yes you can,” Maxwell says, steel infusing his words. “And you will, right now, unless you’d rather have this conversation over Daddy’s knee.”
“Daddy, no! I don’t want a spankin’!”
“Then tell Uncle Jasper what you know.”
“Sh-she wants to go home. Back to New York. She misses her friends and all the fun stuff they used to do together. I told her she should t-talk to you!”
My heart sinks into my stomach. I could have sworn Juliet was learning to be happy here on the island. With me. Was it all an act?
“Thank you for telling me, sweetheart. I’m going to go talk to her now, see if we can’t get to the bottom of this.”
“She’s gonna be so mad at me,” Victoria whispers, and my heart cracks at the sadness in her voice.
“No she won’t. I’ll make sure of it. Just trust your Uncle Jasper.”
“Okay. I trust you.”
Well, that makes one Little girl, at least.
And that’s what eats at me as we say our goodbyes and I head for the stairs. The fact that Juliet didn’t trust me enough to talk to me. Despite our rocky start, I thought I’d made it clear she could always come to me with her hurts and worries.
Apparently not.
I push open the door to my bedroom, and my heart stutters in my chest at the sight of her, curled up on her side, the moonlight casting a pale glow on her face.
She looks so peaceful, I don’t have the heart to wake her. The morning is early enough for the conversation we obviously need to have.
Stripping down to my bare skin, I slide into bed beside her, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Sleep tight, little princess. Daddy loves you.”
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll force her to tell me all her secrets, and then I will make sure she knows her place is here. At my side.
With her Daddy.
Juliet
Daddy loves you.
Those words echo in my mind as I slip from the bed we share and tiptoe toward the door. Jasper obviously bought my pretend sleeping bit, which is the only reason he said that. If he actually meant it, he’d say it to my face.
I cling to that thought as I ease open the bedroom door and head for my nursery. Because if I let myself believe, for even a second, that Jasper Blackwood might be in love with me, I know I’ll lose the war raging inside me. The war between the part of me that desperately wants to return to my old life, and the part of me that loves being Jasper’s Little girl.
None of the clothes I have are exactly “adult” in nature, but there are a few outfits like the overalls we wore to the farm that don’t necessarily scream “baby”. I set an outfit aside to change into, then stuff as many of those clothes as I can find into a small teal suitcase I found tucked away in the far corner of my closet.
Heart pounding, I strip down to my diaper and pause. I might as well get rid of it now, seeing as how there won’t be anyone around to change me later. There’s no point in keeping it on just to take it off when I’m on the ship.