Contents
Chapter 16
Overview
After reuniting and making love, Jasper opens up about his guarded past. He explains his emotionally distant, affluent parents, the guidance and loss of his mentor Dan, and his history with Samantha, including their impulsive Vegas wedding at the same chapel and her push for an open marriage.
These revelations explain Jasper’s walls and deepen intimacy with Eloise, reframing their marriage and the stakes ahead of Samantha’s wedding.
Summary
Jasper and Eloise, fresh from a rain-soaked reconciliation, go upstairs and have sex that feels intimate and grounding after days apart. Lying together, Jasper decides to honor Eloise’s request to talk and begins revealing his past.
He describes growing up in Potomac with wealthy, image-obsessed parents who provided every luxury but little attention or affection. He shares how longtime family friends brought Samantha into his life; they became each other’s refuge as neglected teens and dated through high school and college.
Jasper found purpose through a dojo and his sensei, Dan, whose mentorship taught him discipline and humility. Dan’s terminal cancer and death after Jasper’s Georgetown graduation devastated him.
In his grief, Samantha proposed a spontaneous Vegas wedding—at the Clover Chapel—the same place Jasper later married Eloise. Jasper admits he should have told Eloise sooner, and she, hurt, eventually softens as he apologizes.
He recounts their early marriage’s drift as he trained and she worked, then the night Samantha introduced a couple and declared they would have an open marriage. The confession clarifies why Jasper is guarded and why he sought a “new picture” with Eloise, deepening their emotional connection.
Who Appears
- Jasper ValeNarrator; reunites with Eloise and reveals his past—distant parents, mentor Dan, Vegas marriage to Samantha, and her push for an open marriage.
- EloiseListens to Jasper’s history, reacts to the Clover Chapel reveal, forgives, and grows closer through intimate honesty.
- SamanthaJasper’s ex-wife; married him in Vegas at the Clover Chapel and later proposed an open marriage.
- DanJasper’s late sensei and mentor; gave him discipline and purpose before dying of cancer.
- Jasper’s motherPolitically connected, emotionally distant; part of the affluent, image-focused upbringing Jasper describes.
- Jasper’s fatherPolitical fundraiser; wealthy and detached, reinforcing Jasper’s childhood neglect.
- John and AshleySamantha’s parents; career-absorbed, their family’s closeness to Jasper’s shaped the relationship.