(Jasper’s POV)
If I'd known James forced you to marry me, I would've never insisted on marrying you.
The pain is so sharp, so sudden, I actually stumble backward. My hand finds the wall behind me, needing something solid to keep me upright.
She would've never married me.
All this time, I thought the forced marriage was my mark of shame. The thing that made me less of a man in her eyes.
Only now do I realize…
Without James Stone's proposition, an orphan like me would have never been able to marry someone like Scarlett Stone. She would've married some rich boy from her social circle and I would've been nothing more than another number in the crowd. Poor and way below her reach...
With no chance in a million to approach her.
The realization hits me so hard I can't breathe.
"Scarlett.
