Chương 6
It was a picture of a woman.
Clara looked at him.
“Who is she?”
“My sister.”
The answer was unexpected.
“You have a sister?”
“I did.”
The past tense changed everything.
Clara looked back at the photograph.
“What happened?”
Sebastian sat down.
“She died three years before the accident.”
Clara lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded.
“She was the person who believed in me before anyone else did.”
His voice became quieter.
“She was also the only person who knew the truth about my company.”
“What truth?”
Sebastian looked at the closed office door.
Like he was checking whether the past could walk in.
“My company almost collapsed before anyone knew my name.”
Clara listened.
“My father left behind debt.”
She froze.
“Debt?”
“Yes.”
The irony was impossible to ignore.
“He built an image of success, but behind it was a mess.”
Sebastian looked at his hands.
“I spent years repairing everything.”
“Why didn’t you tell people?”
“Because nobody respects a billionaire who inherited a disaster.”
Clara shook her head slightly.
“That’s not true.”
“It was true for me.”
The room became quiet.
Then he said the sentence she would remember for years.
“The man everyone calls the Pig Billionaire is not the man who built the empire.”
Clara looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Sebastian swallowed.
“It means the person everyone thinks they know is a mask.”
He touched the scar on his face.
“And I’ve been wearing it for a long time.”
Before Clara could respond, someone knocked on the door.
It was Victor.
His expression was serious.
“Sir, we found where the documents came from.”
Sebastian stood.
“Who?”
Victor looked at Clara before answering.
“Someone inside the company.”
The room went still.
Sebastian’s face hardened.
“Who?”
Victor hesitated.
Then he said the name.
“Your uncle, Ricardo Montemayor.”
For the first time since Clara met him, she saw Sebastian lose his composure.
Not anger.
Not coldness.
Pain.
Because betrayal from an enemy was expected.
But betrayal from family was something else.
The name remained in the room after Victor said it.
Ricardo Montemayor.
Sebastian’s uncle.
The man who had attended family events, signed company documents, and stood beside Sebastian during some of the hardest years of his life.
Clara watched Sebastian’s expression change.
It was not the face of a billionaire protecting his company.
It was the face of someone realizing a wound he thought had healed was open again.
“How sure are you?” Sebastian asked.
Victor placed a tablet on the desk.
“We traced the leaked documents through several transfers.”
He tapped the screen.
“They were copied from an internal account connected to one of Ricardo’s assistants.”
“Connected is not proof.”
“No.”
Victor nodded.
“But it explains why the documents appeared when they did.”
Sebastian stared at the screen.
Clara noticed his hand tighten against the edge of the desk.
A small movement.
Almost invisible.
But she saw it.
“Why would he do this?” she asked.
Neither man answered immediately.
That silence told her the answer was complicated.
Sebastian finally spoke.
“Because he thinks everything I have belongs to him.”
Victor looked down.
“He has believed that for years.”
Clara looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Sebastian sat back down.
For the first time since she entered the room, he looked tired.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
“My uncle helped my father build the company.”
“That sounds important.”
“It was.”
He looked at the old photograph on the desk.
“But helping build something does not mean you own everything afterward.”
Clara listened as he explained.
After Sebastian’s father died, Ricardo had expected to control the company.
He had been older.
More experienced.
He believed Sebastian was too young and too emotional to lead.
But Sebastian refused to sell.
He spent years rebuilding the business.
He made decisions Ricardo disagreed with.
He removed old executives who had protected themselves instead of the company.
The changes saved the company.
They also created enemies.
“Your uncle wanted control,” Clara said.
Sebastian nodded.
“He wanted to be the person everyone thanked.”
“And you were the person who got the credit.”
“Yes.”
There was no pride in his voice.
Only exhaustion.
Clara looked at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sebastian gave a small, bitter smile.
“Because you already had enough reasons to think this marriage was a mistake.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“You keep deciding what people will think of you before they have a chance to decide.”
The words struck harder than she expected.
Sebastian looked away.
Because he knew she was right.
That was the part he hated most.
The next morning, Sebastian called an emergency meeting with his senior executives.
Clara did not attend.
She knew the company was his world.
She did not want to become another distraction.
But she waited downstairs.
Not because she was afraid he would fail.
Because she was afraid he would carry everything alone.
The meeting lasted nearly four hours.
When Sebastian finally walked out, he looked older.
Not defeated.
But drained.
“How bad is it?” Clara asked.
He loosened his tie.
“Bad enough.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He looked at her.
“People inside the company are divided.”
“Because of your uncle?”
“Because people believe whoever wins will decide their future.”
Clara understood.
Fear changed people.
Some people supported the person they believed was right.
Others supported the person they believed would survive.
“What happens now?”
Sebastian walked toward the kitchen.
“I investigate.”
“And if your uncle did it?”
He stopped.
That question was harder.
Because Ricardo was not a stranger.
He was family.
“I don’t know.”
Clara followed him.
“You don’t know what you’ll do?”
“No.”
He poured water into a glass.
“Everyone expects me to destroy him.”
“And you don’t want to?”
Sebastian looked at the water.
“I want to.”
The honesty surprised her.
Then he continued.
May you like
“But wanting something and choosing it are not always the same.”
That was the first time Clara saw the difference between the man people feared and the man he actually was.
