Hello my friends! Time for a new chapter.
SM owns.
Lou and Nancy rule!
Jasper says his wife is trying to kill him, uh?
Chapter 6
I'm familiar with the results of his computer tomography. There have been no injuries to his head. Apparently, he's not hallucinating, so what the hell is he talking about?
"Are you mocking me, Jasper?"
He huffs. "Believe me, I wish I was."
"So what the hell are you talking about?"
"Do you want the long version, or the short one?"
"Try the long one. I think I can follow; I'm intelligent."
He raises his head from the pillow and stares.
" Good. You know I come from Seattle, right? Those business cards you found on me, they say it all. It's all about Hale Enterprises. She wants the company. I'm an obstacle."
He rests his head back on the pillow and licks his lips. I don't want to be distracted.
"That's the long one?"
"Just wait. I haven't even started.
"The story begins with my parents' death eighteen years ago, when I was eleven…" I quickly calculate he must be twenty-nine now, only a year older than me. "...and Rosalie was eight. They died in the same year. Cancer took my father's life, and grief devastated my ailing, delicate mother a few months later. As awful as their loss was, it was even more awful to live with my grandparents, who took custody of us. We moved to Texas, but I never got used to it. I missed Seattle. I wanted my life back, I wanted my friends, my school, my football team. I wanted my parents back. But I had lost it all. I turned into the most obnoxious kid you could imagine. I was the sulky, pouting brat to my grandparents. I was the pestering, bullying big brother to my sister. I acted unpleasantly toward my classmates and teachers, and was summoned to the Principal's office frequently. I had no friends, not a single soul to sympathise with me. My sister hated me back then. The worst part is she still hates me now, when I'm a completely different person.
"When I turned twenty-one, my trust fund was released. I moved back to Seattle and started a small business, selling second-hand car parts, then used cars. My small fortune doubled in a couple of years. After a too short period of success, times got hard and my car business faded. I risked all my savings on agricultural chemistry... No need to smirk, Edward, it was my golden egg. To cut a long story short, now I own a chemical plant and several stores. Oh, and I have some shares in the auto industry. I'm not a millionaire, Edward, but I'm not poor, either.
"When Rosalie turned twenty-one, she asked to join my business venture. I couldn't refuse, hoping our partnership would bring us closer and she'd forget how bad I was to her when we were kids. That's when we founded a new company and named it Hale Enterprises, considering we were co-owners with the same family name. That's what we are today; business partners, but not real siblings. We share nothing but a majority stake.
"Now, back to my lovely wife. She was Rosalie's first secretary. She also became my first. Don't give me that look, Edward, I was not exactly the socialite by that time. She invited me to her place and showed me how much she liked me. She told me she'd been waiting for me all her life. She told me I was the one. We got married in a month, both at the age of twenty-four, and I loved her with all my heart. Until the first accident happened, that is.
"I was taking a bath, and she was drying her hair a couple of feet away. I said something funny to her, referring to her spiky hair and how it never went the way she wanted. By the way, yours beats the messiest I've seen, Edward. Anyway, she approached the bath, laughing, hair dryer in her hand, and dropped it. It hit the rim of the bath, and bounced back. I saw it with my own eyes. It happens, you'd say, but then I definitely saw her pushing it back in an attempt to make it slip into the water. Into the bath, Edward, where I was bathing. Thank god, the power cord was too short and the thing got unplugged before killing me.
"She played it cool. She screamed, acting like she was terrified, hugged and kissed me, and tried to stop me from escaping the house, but with no success. I ran. I ran because I saw the glint of disappointment in her eyes when the dryer missed its target.
"I spent the night in a motel. In the morning, I'd already convinced myself I was imagining things, and I went back to her. That was in the second year of our marriage. Over the last three years, I've been subjected to hazardous defective appliances more than once. I've stepped on a stool with a broken leg while fixing a light bulb, and had a chandelier fall on my head. The odd smell of gas in the kitchen was the top of it, considering I was a smoker and I was just about to light a cigarette when I realized the stove was about to explode. I gave up smoking, Edward. And last week, I ran again. I needed time away from her and time to file for divorce. I randomly took I-5 , and there I was, in Forks, WA. Only to be hit by a truck in this hell hole.
"Ow. You're hurting me."
I look where he looks. My hand has been squeezing his forearm. I remove it and watch the white circles, indicating where the pads of my fingers have pressed, disappear.
"I'm sorry, Jasper, I'm sorry. For squeezing and… everything." I really don't know what else to say. I carefully take his fingers in mine and gently rub my thumb against the skin just above his nails. He pulls his hand free in a couple of seconds. Not before I felt the slight shudder .
"Don't do that... Do you believe me?" he asks.
Do I?
I realize Fate must be sniggering somewhere above my head, feasting on my bewilderment.
You bitch, you've been really inspired with that man, huh? And here I thought I'd suffered.
Of course, I believe him. You have to believe the one you love.
"Yes, I believe you. How can I help?"
"I don't know. Take me out of the hospital. Hide me."
I can't just put him in a wheelchair and walk out with him, steering through the main entrance. I need a plan. How do you make a patient disappear?
Suddenly, I'm enlightened by the greatest idea in my life.
"Can you fake a convulsion, Jasper?"
He stares at me with those huge eyes once again.
"Um, no? What do we need a convulsion for?"
"We need several of them in a row. I guess I have to show you."
Saving the details of my plan for later, I lay on the floor.
"Look at me." I prepare to demonstrate the perfect, authentic convulsion.
This is the moment my Dad chooses to enter the room. Shit, it's his shift today.
"What are you doing on the floor, Edward?" His voice comes from high above my head, and he's looking down like I'm the dirt under his fingernails.
"Um, I'm showing a work-out to my patient." It's the first I come up with.
"Your patient who can barely move?" Both Dad's eyebrows are raised. I huff. "Step out of the room, Edward. I have to examine him."
I get back to my feet reluctantly. Yes, it's his duty. At least I know Jasper won't object if I come back later.
A/N: You know I need your comments, right?