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Ellie shook her head.
“She got sick.Youmade her sick.”
“Sick?” Ellie asked.
“She wasted away. Her heart broken,” Jasmine said, her voice now melancholy rather than angry. “The doctors told her to get a therapist. They told her to eat more, exercise, and all that bullshit. But I knew it wouldn’t help her. I knew that.”
Whatever Jasmine had done wrong, Ellie didn’t doubt that she loved Evelyn. Not in a healthy way, but in her own way. What she did wonder, though, was whether Evelyn reciprocated those feelings. From what the private investigator she’d hired all those years ago had told her, Evelyn didn’t love anyone but herself.
She’d been an actress, though. Not a very good one, but one who could spin a convincing story for a young girl who’d lost her father. A story that cast Jasmine as a daughter who adored her mother as a daughter should. A story that starred Ellie as the villain, the reason for everything bad that happened to them. A story fueled by all the supposed wrongs Ellie had committed, embedding and fostering a deep hatred in Jasmine’s psyche.
“What happened after she died?” Ellie asked.
“Why do you care?”
Ellie shrugged, aware that Asher was slowly shifting his chair closer to the wall. And farther from Jasmine. She didn’t know what he planned, but he gave her a tiny nod when she chanced a glance his way.
“Because she was your mother and I’m sorry you lost her.” Her response was a calculated risk. She wanted more information from Jasmine and hoped that by piquing her anger she might talk more. Only she didn’t want to rile her too much. Not while she and Asher were tied up.
Jasmine’s lip curled up. “Don’t pretend you give a shit. If you cared at all, you would have helped her.”
“I did,” Ellie replied. Jasmine drew back. “Didn’t she tell you? I connected her to my agent. I know they even talked a few times. I certainly never blackballed her in New York or Hollywood.”
“Liar!” Jasmine snapped. “Youkept her from finding work.Youkept her from getting auditions. She would have had her choice of jobs if only they’d had a chance to see her. If they hadn’t all been doing your bidding. Without you stopping her, she would have been a star. Andshe’dbe the one with the fancy house on the hill.She’dbe the one with the Oscars on her shelf.”
“Is that what she told you?” Ellie asked.
“It’s the truth! Because of you, she died. Because of you, her heart was broken, and I was left alone. Again!” Jasmine shouted. Ellie’s heart jumped, but Asher used the cacophony to move another six inches.
The outburst, though startling, brought clarity. Evelyn had twisted Jasmine’s mind with lies and an ugly version of love that wasn’t love at all. She could all but hear her biological mother telling Jasmine that if only Ellie had been a good daughter, everything would have been different. She would have been a star. They would have been rich. They would have had the world at their fingertips.
But the only reason wealth and stardom mattered to Jasmine was because those things would have made Evelyn happy. Something Jasmine wanted more than anything. Because when her mother was happy, she loved her daughter. She loved Jasmine. And Jasmine wasn’t alone.
Ellie’s heart ached for the woman because as true—though warped—as Jasmine’s devotion to Evelyn was, Ellie suspected Evelyn’s devotion was as real as oceanfront property in Oklahoma. In fact, Ellie would bet her “fancy house on the hill”that her biological mother had a reason for tying the girl to her that had nothing to do with motherly feelings.
But she’d leave that question to HICC to figure out once they were safely away. For now, all she needed to know was that Jasmine believed Evelyn had been the best of mothers. And with Ellie’s betrayal, it became the two of them against the world. A weight Jasmine believed Evelyn couldn’t carry. A weight that, two years ago, had cost Jasmine her mother.
“So now you think I’m responsible for Evelyn’s death and you plan to what, kill me in revenge?” she asked.
Jasmine paused her pacing. “I wanted to make you go insane. I read dozens of books and even took classes online about the stages of insanity so that I could get it right. I thought it fitting for you to take your own life in the way my mother did. In despair and at your wits’ end.”
“Evelyn stepped in front of that train?” She had wondered—they all had. But having it confirmed felt…well, like a little hole of despair opened in her chest. She didn’t mourn the loss of the woman, but she did ache for the pain it caused Jasmine.
“She left me a note,” Jasmine said, resuming her pacing. “I didn’t show the police. They didn’t need to know. No one should know that such a beautiful creature was driven to such despair. And by her own daughter, no less.” If looks could kill, Ellie would be dead ten times over. Although she suspected Jasmine had actual plans for her to die, so maybe it didn’t matter.
“And you wanted me to feel that same way? So hopeless that I’d take my own life?” As preposterous as it sounded when she said it aloud, Jasmine had come closer to her goal than she probably realized.
Jasmine nodded. “But I actually like how this turned out. I think it’s better.”
“Why is that?” she asked as Asher made it to the wall. Although what he planned to do now that he was there, she didn’t know.
“Because now you know. Now you know that her death is on your shoulders. Now you know that you could have prevented this. With just one ounce of compassion, you could have prevented this. And now you know death is coming. Not just for you, but for someone you love.” She paused and looked at Asher. His chair was situated about three feet from where he’d originally sat. Ellie held her breath, and Asher stilled as Jasmine watched him. Her brow dropped, and her head cocked to the side.
“I took someone from you, so now you’ll take someone from me,” Ellie said, attempting to shift Jasmine’s attention away from Asher before she figured out that he’d moved.
It worked, and the woman refocused on Ellie. “Exactly right. All this is because of you. You’re going to die. He’s going to die. And it’s all because you’re a selfish, vindictive, entitled bitch.”
“What exactly are you going to do?” Ellie asked, fighting the knee-jerk need to respond to Jasmine’s insults.
