He Gave Me Hearing, Then Taught Me What Silence Really Means novel Chapter 419

"But I got unlucky. Finn caught me in the act again. He was paralyzed with shock, terrified into silence. But when the police interrogated him, he pointed the finger straight at me. I saw the absolute terror in his eyes. Makes sense, he was only thirteen. Watching me butcher our parents would traumatize anyone. The police obviously came after me, but I swore I didn't do it. I blamed an imaginary friend, insisting I didn't know where this friend went. They hooked me up to a polygraph."

"Juniper, a polygraph is just a machine. Beating it was effortless. As long as I fundamentally believed I was innocent, felt absolutely zero remorse, and remained completely unbothered during the interrogation, my heart rate never spiked once. The police concluded I must be mentally ill and ordered a psychological evaluation. Turns out, I was."

She closed her eyes and let out a lazy yawn. "Finn knows there isn't a line I won't cross, which is exactly why he never dares provoke me. He's been perfectly obedient ever since. Whatever I say goes. Submitting to me is etched into his very bones; he couldn't rebel if he tried. We were only brought back to the Lawrence family five years ago, but he lived in mortal terror of me long before that."

Juniper listened in stunned silence. She had never imagined Jasmine's childhood was this horrifying.

Jasmine sat up, picked an apple off the table, and took a massive bite. "I'm a pathological liar and I know exactly how to read a room. You asked me what you should do? The biggest shortcut you have is sitting right in front of you. Look at Nelson. Even with zero proof, even with the entire world convinced you murdered the matriarch of his family, demanding your head on a pike—he still wants you alive. If you walked out right now and murdered someone he actually cared about, he would still choose your life over their death. Between your life and your death, Nelson is fundamentally incapable of choosing the latter. But you're too damn soft. You were raised to be the perfect victim. Obeying your parents, obeying your teachers, following every law to the letter. Asking you to kill someone is probably harder than asking you to fly."

She was hungry, tearing through the apple in seconds. "Even when you try to manipulate Nelson, you barely scratch the surface because your pathetic moral compass won't let you cross the line. Your lingering feelings for him are your biggest weakness. He says he's sending you abroad, and your immediate reaction is to hold a knife to your own throat. Your death is the only thing that actually terrifies him. I'm telling you, Nelson isn't like Finn. Nelson is incredibly easy to put a leash on."

Juniper half-understood, nodding slowly.

Jasmine stood up and tossed the apple core into the trash. "Someone who can't sacrifice anything will never achieve anything."

"I understand, Jasmine."

Earlier, her agreement had been a whisper. Now, Juniper's voice was resolute and heavy with purpose, like a star pupil cementing a brutal lesson.

Jasmine chuckled, heading for the stairs. "I'm going to get some sleep."

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