[Jasmine’s POV]
I've found my zen in the weirdest possible place: brushing a white mare named Luna who probably has better hair than I ever did. The rhythmic motion of the brush against her coat is like meditation for people who are too fucked up for actual meditation.
Martha and Frank — the couple who own this slice of pastoral paradise — offered me work without asking why I looked like I'd been hit by a truck driven by my own bad decisions. They seem to understand that sometimes people need to disappear into hay bales and horse shit until they remember how to be human again.
Luna nudged my shoulder with her nose, and I found myself smiling despite everything. This horse didn't care about scandals or press conferences. She just wanted brushing and apples.
Simple. Honest. Everything my life hadn't been.
Turns out I don't miss the stage lights or camera flashes or the constant buzz of industry networking that used to make me feel important. What I miss is being seen. Really seen. Not the way those photographers caught me through their stalker lenses, but the way Liam's eyes used to find mine across crowded rooms like I was the only person worth looking at. The way Asher looked at me like I was something precious. The way Finn saw through my professional bullshit to the woman underneath.
But I also remember what it felt like to warn them, over and over, and watch them do nothing. To trust them with my fear and have them send Adelyn on a business trip like that would fix anything.
They'd made me feel precious. And then they'd failed to protect me when it mattered.
That was before. Before the photos, before the public humiliation, before I finally understood that loving someone doesn't mean they'll fight for you.
I'm working the brush along Luna's neck, lost in the simple satisfaction of making something beautiful clean, when my fragile peace gets shattered.
Three figures approach from across the field, and even at a distance, my traitorous heart recognizes them with the inevitability of gravity.
My breath catches. Part of me wanted to run. Hide. Pretend I hadn't seen them.
But I was done running. I'd left on my own terms. If they wanted to talk, they could do it on mine too.
"Jasmine." Leo's voice cuts through my thoughts, sharp with warning. He must've seen them too.
Before I can even process what their presence means — how they found me, why they came — Leo explodes out of the barn like a protective missile.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here?!" he yells, storming across the yard with fists clenched. "You have the goddamn audacity to show your faces after what you did to my sister?"
"Leo—" I try to cut in.
But Leo's beyond listening. He positions himself between me and them like a human shield.
"You want to know what I've been watching for the past two weeks?" he continues, voice cracking. "My sister finally starting to breathe again. After you made her cry in front of the entire world, turned her into tabloid fodder, destroyed everything she'd built."
Liam steps forward, hands raised. "We didn't come here to fight, Leo. We just want to talk to Jasmine."
"Talk?" Leo scoffs. "That's fucking rich."
"It wasn't us," Asher says quietly. "It was never us."
"You want to know the worst part?" Leo's voice went raw. "She told you about that Adelyn woman. She warned you for months. And what did you do? Sent her on a fucking vacation while my sister had a target on her back!"
"Leo—" Liam started.
"Don't." Leo cut him off. "She trusted you. She believed you when you said you'd handle it. And you didn't. So don't stand there looking sad like you're the victims here."
The words hung in the air. I watched the brothers absorb them — Liam flinching, Asher's jaw going tight, Finn looking at the ground.
Good. Let them hear it from someone else.
I can see this situation spiraling toward violence. Luna shifts nervously beside me, picking up on the human drama.
"Leo," I say gently, stepping away from the stall. "Let me handle this."
He turns to me, face flushed with anger and something deeper — hurt on my behalf.
"You don't owe them shit, Jas. Not after what they put you through."
"I know." I touch his arm. "But I need to hear what they came here to say. For me, not for them."
Leo's jaw works silently. After a long moment, he steps back reluctantly.
"Ten minutes," he says flatly, directing his words at the brothers. "Then you get the hell off this property."
I turn to face them, seeing them clearly for the first time since that press conference.
Liam looked like he hadn't slept in days. My chest ached looking at him — the same ache that had always been there, the one that told me he could break me if I let him.
Asher's clothes were wrinkled, his usual sharp precision gone. He'd fired Adelyn — too late. But he'd done it.
Finn's smile was missing. That was almost worse than everything else.
I loved them. All three of them. I'd admitted that to myself weeks ago. But loving someone didn't mean they deserved your trust.
"Come on," I say quietly. "We can talk in the loft."
I lead them toward the barn, hyperaware of their presence as we climb the ladder. The space is warm and dusty, filled with golden light filtering through wooden slats.
We arrange ourselves on scattered hay bales, the informal seating making everything feel both intimate and fragile.
I fold my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking. Not from nerves — from the effort of staying strong when every part of me wanted to either scream at them or fall into their arms.
Neither option was acceptable. Not yet.
The silence stretches between us, heavy with everything that needs to be said. I don't know what they came here to tell me, or whether any words exist that could bridge the chasm that opened on that stage.
But as my heart pounds in the dusty stillness, I realize something has shifted. I'm not the woman who fled that bathroom, sobbing and broken. I'm not the girl who waited for other people to save her.
I'd saved myself. I'd chosen to leave. And now they were here, on my territory, waiting for me to decide if they were worth hearing.
The power had shifted. And they knew it.
"So," I said. My voice came out steadier than I expected. Stronger. "You found me. Congratulations."
I looked between them — Liam's desperate eyes, Asher's tight jaw, Finn's absent smile. Three men who'd promised to protect me and hadn't.
"Now tell me why I should listen to anything you have to say."