Chapter 73: Chapter 73

The hurt in Carol's chest was too much for her to process as she watched Sebastian, her very own Sebastian caressing another woman's face with such tenderness that it was quite obvious that there was something between them. From where she was standing, the woman was backing her, but even if she wasn't, there wasn't enough light to make out her face. Carol had been standing here with Jessica beside her, just watching the scene unfold before her eyes for the last three minutes. Had it been that Sebastian had only been talking to the woman, it would not have been a big deal. However, she had watched him touch the woman's face tenderly and even try to give her a hug, although it seemed the woman did not want the hug.

"Wow! Men are scum. Is that not your husband? What on earth is he doing touching another woman like that?" Charlotte asked from where she stood beside Carol, squinting her eyes to see better. Of course, she could hear the conversation between Sebastian and Jessica, but Carol did not know that.

"I don't know... I really don't know." Carol replied, desperately holding back her tears as she knew that did not have any right to get angry per se. However, considering that she was having sex with him, Sebastian could have at least waited until the marriage was over before he began to frolic around as far as she was concerned.

"Do you want to go confront him?" Charlotte asked, but something in her tone told Carol that she seemed to be enjoying this way more than she let on. Carol glanced at her quickly, but her expression looked as though she was angry on Carol's behalf.

"Could you please just leave us for a bit? I'll talk to you later. I'm not in the right frame of mind to party right now, although I'm sure that it's not what it looks like."

"Sure, sure. I was about to go away anyway." Charlotte said, hastening away as the woman that had been talking to Sebastian walked towards them to go back to the party. Carol stood where she was, trying to get a glimpse of the woman's face as she walked past, but the woman kept her head down and so Carol could not see her face, not that it mattered anyway. She turned back to where Sebastian was sitting to see that he had already stood up and was walking slowly towards the water. Deciding that standing here and seething was not going to do anything, Carol headed towards him where he was standing and staring into the now dark water, as though it contained all the answers in the world. It was amazing how the ocean could look enchanting and beautiful during the day, and absolutely scary at night. Sebastian turned at her approach and when he saw that she was the one, he turned back to face the water, not saying anything to her. Something was wrong, she was sure of it, so she decided to keep her own hurt away for now at least.

"Sebastian? Are you alright?" She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder and gasping in surprise when he moved away from her a little so that the hand fell off his shoulder.

"I'm alright," Sebastian replied gruffly, already regretting his decision to let Jessica go. He should have held her down and questioned her until she revealed what was going on exactly, but somehow in his guts, he knew that he had done the right thing.

"You seem off. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I don't know what you mean."

"I don't believe that for one minute. Did anyone come here to harass you?"

At this, Sebastian looked at her and laughed a little, but it was short humorless laughter. "Harass me? You're funny, Carol. Common, it's getting late. Let's go back to the resort so that we can get some shut-eye." He told her, taking her hand and leading her away. Carol glanced at him surreptitiously as they walked, noting that his eyes kept darting this way and that, and she knew without a doubt that he was searching for the woman from earlier.

***

Sebastian lay in bed beside Carol who was fast asleep, tossing and turning, as he waited for midnight. Ever since he saw Jessica at the party and let her go, he had not known a moment's peace. He had so many questions, but not a single answer. How had Jessica known that he would be at the party? Where was she staying? Had her captors brought her here and she had been staying here all this while? The questions were numerous.

It almost felt as if he had dreamt it all up, but he knew without a doubt that he had seen Jessica. He had finally seen her again after all this time, and she was alive, just as he had been saying and hoping for all this time. Wondering if he should inform his uncle of this development, he decided against it. There would be more than enough time to let everyone know that she was back. Jessica had been so scared, and until he knew what was making her afraid, it was better that he did not tell anybody that he had seen her, even his uncle.

He glanced at the sleeping Carol, resisting the urge to smoothen her furrowed brows. Tomorrow would make it exactly one year since they got married, and he had planned so many things for them to do, but that was before this evening. He wondered if Carol even remembered that their wedding anniversary was the next day, but none of that mattered right now. Somehow, he had the awful feeling that things were about to go down.... unfavorable things, and there was nothing that he could do to stop it.

Glancing at the clock for the umpteenth time that night, Sebastian saw that it was already 11:30 in the night and sprang up as though something had bitten him on his buttocks. The place that Jessica had asked him to meet her was not too far away, but it was high time he got going. He was tired of sitting in one place, just wondering and thinking, so he decided that he would trek the short distance there. It would just be his rotten luck if Jessica got there before him, thought that he was not coming, and went away. He shuddered to think of such a thing happening, so he quickly wore his clothes, before heading out of the room as stealthily as possible, so as not to wake Carol, who would no doubt ask him where he was going. He was not ready to tell her anything yet, seeing as he himself did not know everything yet. He walked down the corridor, got on the elevator, and stepped out of the hotel, the night breeze making him feel lots better. It was high time he knew what the hell was going on. He refused to think about what Jessica's sudden return meant for his marriage. Someone was surely going to get hurt, and he had a sinking feeling that he already knew who it was.