Chapter 90: STRANGER
At a bustling restaurant in New York, Jasmine went to the counter to order her meal. After what happened the previous day and since her lie had been caught, she didn’t want to act sick anymore. She could have eaten at home but her father wouldn’t let her eat in peace so she decided to come out and also receive fresh air in order to clear her thoughts.
"Two cheese burgers and a coke please", she said to the woman at the counter. In no time, her order was handed over to her. She took a seat and munched on her food as she stared at the people in the restaurant. She noticed a small girl who was asking for her father to feed her and he gladly complied, making his daughter happy. She suddenly wished her father was that compassionate but unfortunately, he was the total opposite. She suddenly recalled an event that took place when she was still a kid.
22 Years Ago,
Little Jasmine and little Ethan were playing at the Davis mansion before she was suddenly called by her father.
"Jasmine, you failed your test again!" Mr Davis yelled with anger, making jasmine flinch in fear. He brought out his whip in order to punish her but Ethan quickly stood in the way, protecting her.
"Uncle, please don’t hit her. It’s not her fault that she doesn’t understand what the teacher was tutoring", he tried to defend her but Mr Davis was too angry to hear him out. He pushed Ethan away and grabbed Jasmine’s tiny hand before dragging her to a room. Ethan tried to catch up to them with his tiny legs but unfortunately, by the time he got to the room, Mr Davis had already closed it shut.
Then the sound of a whip hitting a skin was heard with the cries of jasmine who begged for her father to stop and promised to do better but that only angered him to whip her a few more times until he was satisfied by the bloody wounds on her skin. He opened the door and left. Ethan got his chance and quickly entered the room only the find Jasmine on the ground, unconscious.
Back To The Present,
Sighing, she tore her eyes away from them and focused on her food. It was Ethan who stood by her side whenever she was beaten up by her father. He never abandoned her but now, he was threatening her because of a woman.
Jasmine went to the counter to go pay her bills but as she was about to turn and leave, she suddenly bumped into something hard and the force was enough for her to fall as her hand bag flew, spilling everything that was inside on the ground. Thankfully, the person she bumped into was fast enough to catch her by her waist.
Jasmine stared at the handsome man who held her by the waist to prevent her from falling down with wide eyes. She suddenly felt her heart skipping a beat which made her wonder of its because she was about to land hard on the ground or because this stranger’s hand were wrapped around her waist in a secured manner.
"Please, don’t look at the ground when you are walking. You could accidentally hit your head on a pole", Said the stranger but Jasmine continued to stare at him like as if she didn’t hear a word he said. When she realized that she was staring too much, she cleared her throat.
"I won’t", she gave him a signal by pushing his hand away to let him know that it was time to let her go.
She bent down and started picking up her cosmetics to put them back in her bag. The stranger dropped his phone and also followed suit in order to lend a hand.
"Hi, I’m Andrew Rivera", he introduced and jasmine only gave a brief nod and continued with what she was doing. "And you are?" He asked.
Jasmine glared at him before speaking, "I don’t give my name to strangers".
"You won’t? Even to a stranger who saved your butt from hitting the hard floor?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jasmine felt her blood rush to her neck due to the stranger’s shamelessness for saying such a word.
"Thanks for that but I don’t think we need to know each other", she clarified with the intention to get up but the stranger pulled her down making her yelp in surprise.
The stranger leaned his face closer to jasmine, which made her heart skip several more beats. "I think I know you", he said as he continued to study her face, trying to recall her name. "You are Jasmine Davis right?" He asked but jasmine didn’t bother to reply to him. She took her phone that laid on the ground and walked away from there.
The stranger smirked at her departing back before he stood up also. He felt the gaze of the customers on him, "please go back to your meal now," he said and they shifted their gazes to their food.
"What an interesting woman, she called me a stranger yet she blushed so hard when I leaned towards her face", mumbled the stranger before he took his phone and left to carry on with his business.
Jasmine, who was in her car couldn’t believe what had just happened in the restaurant. "Who was that guy anyway?" she asked herself. Sighing, she ignited the engine of the car and drove off.
Inside the restaurant, a call came in through the phone of the stranger. Without looking at the caller, he picked it up but he didn’t get a chance to say a word and the caller barked loudly,
"Jasmine! Why did you leave the house?! Didn’t I tell you that we are going to orchestrate a plan to get rid of Erika?! You had better return home now else I will disown you!"
Andrew frowned deeply at the sudden yell of the voice, he checked the caller’s name and saw "Dad" and the person called him jasmine. He quickly checked the phone only for him to find out that they had mistakenly taken each other’s phone.
