Chương 3
Clara looked at him.
“You think everyone wants something from you.”
“Don’t they?”
She thought about it.
“My father did.”
The honesty surprised him.
She looked down.
“That doesn’t mean everyone will.”
Sebastian nodded slowly.
But he did not look convinced.
Meanwhile, outside the mansion, the world continued judging Clara.
The rumors did not disappear.
They became louder.
A photograph of her entering a luxury store appeared online.
The comments came quickly.
“She married him and started spending.”
“She knew exactly what she was doing.”
“She played the victim.”
Clara saw the comments while sitting alone in the kitchen.
She told herself they did not matter.
Then she spent twenty minutes reading every cruel sentence.
Sebastian found her there.
“You should stop looking at those.”
She quickly locked her phone.
“I wasn’t.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You are terrible at lying.”
She almost smiled.
“You’re terrible at pretending you don’t care.”
That made him pause.
“I don’t care what strangers say.”
“Then why do you know what they said?”
The question stayed between them.
Sebastian looked toward the window.
Because the truth was uncomfortable.
He knew every insult.
Every joke.
Every article.
He had spent years pretending public opinion did not affect him.
But it did.
It always did.
“You don’t have to defend me,” he said.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
He looked confused.
Clara shrugged.
“I’m not fighting strangers online.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Trying to understand why you let them decide who you are.”
Sebastian gave a quiet laugh.
It was not happy.
“You make everything sound simple.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I make it sound possible.”
The difference stayed with him.
A few days later, Sebastian surprised everyone by asking Clara to attend a company dinner.
She thought he was joking.
“You want me there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my wife.”
The answer sounded obvious.
But coming from him, it felt unusual.
The dinner was held at one of his hotels.
Executives, investors, and old friends filled the room.
Clara immediately felt out of place.
She knew how people looked at her.
A poor woman wearing expensive clothes.
A stranger who had married into wealth.
Sebastian noticed her discomfort before she admitted it.
“You can leave if you want.”
She looked at him.
“Would you?”
“No.”
“Then I’m staying.”
A small expression crossed his face.
Not a smile exactly.
Something close.
During the dinner, Clara watched Sebastian transform.
In business meetings, he was sharp.
People listened when he spoke.
He asked difficult questions.
He remembered numbers nobody expected him to remember.
The man everyone mocked was the same man powerful people waited to hear from.
Then one executive made a careless joke.
“So, Sebastian, congratulations.”
The man lifted his glass.
“You finally found someone willing to tolerate you.”
Several people laughed.
Not loudly.
Just enough.
Clara looked at Sebastian.
She expected anger.
Instead, she saw something worse.
A familiar acceptance.
Like he had heard that kind of sentence his entire life.
Before she could stop herself, she spoke.
“I don’t think you understand what makes someone difficult to tolerate.”
The table became quiet.
The executive looked at her.
“I’m sorry?”
Clara kept her voice calm.
“You assume his weight is the hardest thing about him.”
Nobody moved.
She continued.
“It isn’t.”
Sebastian looked at her.
Clara glanced at him briefly.
“The hardest thing about Sebastian is that he believes everyone is waiting to leave.”
The room went silent.
The executive looked uncomfortable.
Sebastian looked almost shocked.
Because nobody had ever said that out loud.
Not even him.
On the drive home, neither of them spoke for several minutes.
The city lights moved across the windows.
Finally, Sebastian said,
“You embarrassed a senior executive in front of his colleagues.”
Clara looked over.
“Yes.”
“Most people would be afraid.”
“I was.”
That answer caught him.
“You were?”
“Of course.”
She looked down at her hands.
“My heart was beating so fast I thought everyone could hear it.”
Sebastian stared ahead.
“Then why did you do it?”
Clara was quiet.
“Because I knew what it felt like to sit there while people decided you weren’t worth respecting.”
The car became silent again.
But this time, it was different.
Something had shifted.
Not love.
Not yet.
Something smaller.
Something more fragile.
Trust.
When they arrived home, Sebastian did something Clara did not expect.
He opened the car door for her.
It was a small gesture.
Almost meaningless.
But for a man who had spent years keeping everyone at a distance, it was a step.
“Good night, Clara.”
She looked at him.
“Good night, Sebastian.”
He walked away before she could see the expression on his face.
But she saw enough.
For the first time since their marriage began, he did not look like a man trapped inside a life he hated.
He looked like someone wondering if a different life might still be possible.
The change was small enough that Clara almost missed it.
Sebastian still spent long hours working.
He still avoided talking about himself.
He still became uncomfortable whenever someone showed him too much kindness.
But there were moments when the walls around him lowered without permission.
He started asking her opinion about things that had nothing to do with their marriage.
The first time it happened, Clara thought she misunderstood him.
“Which one?” Sebastian asked.
She looked up from the book she was reading.
“Which one what?”
“The paintings.”
She glanced toward the dining room walls.
“You’re asking me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired of looking at them and wondering if I actually like them.”
Clara stared at him.
“You own them.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
She smiled slightly.
“You’re strange.”
“I have been told.”
“No, I mean it in a good way.”
Sebastian looked away quickly.
He was still learning how to accept compliments without searching for the hidden insult.
Clara noticed.
She noticed everything.
May you like
That was becoming a problem for him.
Because the more she noticed, the harder it became to maintain the person he had built for the world.
