Chapter 96: Chapter 96

She glared at him and without saying anything, moved past him and was about to enter the house, except that she did not get far. He held her hand and dragged her back to face him. Carol stared him down angrily, still not saying anything. Her heart skipped a bit just looking into his handsome face. It was the first time she was seeing him since she came back from the burial, making it the first time she was seeing him in almost four days. It felt like it was four months instead of four days and without anyone telling her, Carol knew that she was in serious trouble. When Sebastian saw that she was not going to say anything, he had no choice other than to speak first.

"Are you not going to apologize?" he asked.

"Apologize? Apologize for what? Apologize to whom? You're really impossible." She said incredulously, dragging her hand away from his and shaking her head in disbelief.

"I called you several times, but you didn't answer the phone." He said, a look of confusion creasing his handsome face. Carol brought out her phone from her bag to see that he had called her eight times.

"And so?"

"What do you mean by that? I was worried sick. You got into a strange car with a strange man and did not take any bodyguard or driver along with you. Why would you do that with all that has been happening lately? Do you have such blatant disregard for your safety?"

"What strange man?"

"Oh, please. Don't even try to deny it. The driver told me about it. So you're now going around with different men while we're still married, is that it? Is that why you're putting on that gown and makeup? To go around town with another man? Do you know how that makes me look?" He asked angrily. Carol stared at him in surprise. Sebastian was jealous? Who would have thought?

"Unlike you, I don't have such blatant disregard for other people's feelings that I'll be spending all my time with someone else instead of the person I'm married to, who incidentally, I've also been having sex with!" She yelled right back, not backing down in the least.

"What are you talking about?"

"What I'm talking about is that I went out with a female friend, not a male as your gossip of a driver told you. He did not see who was in the car because the glasses were tinted and she did not get down from the vehicle. Next time, he should not go about making dumb assumptions."

"He's not a gossip. I asked him and I'm his boss, so he has to tell me everything I need to know. If he had lied, there are CCTV cameras everywhere to show me what I need to know. I had them installed on virtually every part of the property after Jessica got kidnapped. I did not know that you had friends here." Sebastian finished, the relief showing on his tired face.

"It's Melissa, the girl that I met when we were on vacation. Anyway, it's none of your goddamn business who I go out with or who I spend time with, after all, you were the one who told me that I'm free to do as I wish and that you're free to do as you wish."

"It is going to be my business if you get kidnapped or something equally bad. You're my wife and so it will affect me in one way or the other if something bad were to happen to you. Anyway, when did I say that we're both free to do as we wished?"

"When we newly got married. Besides, you don't ever spend any time with me and I'm just supposed to sit here and twiddle my fingers while I wait for whatever scraps of attention you manage to give to me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you seriously asking me that question? Since we came back from vacation, have we had time for each other? No, all you know how to do is visit Jessica and spend time with her, and she can't even look at or hear you. What do you do there all day anyway?" Carol asked, unable to hold it in any longer. At this, Sebastian moved past her into the house and sat heavily on one of the sofas. Carol followed him and sat down opposite him, waiting for him to answer her question.

"You could have said something instead of just bottling it all up," he said, at last, running a hand across his head wearily. "If you see her, Carol, you will understand why I go there every day. She's all alone and has literally no one. Her only brother is halfway across the continent and cannot leave his job to come to sit with someone who is unconscious. I sit with her and tell her stories about when we were younger, or just talk about different things, both meaningful and meaningless things. I heard it's good to do things like that for people who are in a coma, that some people might actually be hearing you, although I don't know how true that is. I tell her all about my life, and I tell her about you. I tell her how goofy you are and how she's going to like you once she comes out of her coma." He said, pausing for breath at last. Carol smiled at him in surprise. He talked about her to Jessica?

"So what do you tell her about me?"

"I tell her different things ... things like how beautiful your eyes are and how I love it that you find even the silliest things funny because I love the sound of your laughter. I tell her about your beautiful smile and expressive eyes and a lot more, Carol. You don't have to be jealous of her, Carol. It's just that I've known her since we were teenagers and she does not have anyone else to do the things I'm doing for her. I feel guilty leaving her there all by herself without any familiar person. I'm sure that that sounds stupid to you."

Carol swallowed hard to get rid of the sudden lump in her throat. She did not know that Sebastian could be so expressive. "No, no, it doesn't sound stupid. I'm glad she has someone who's there for her. You should have called me back yesterday, though. Why didn't you?"

"I wasn't in the best frame of mind, Carol. I was in a meeting for most of the day, and when I did get out of the meeting and got to the hospital, something happened that spoilt my mood for the rest of the day. In fact, I spent the whole evening getting drunk at a bar, something that I had not done since my university days."

"What happened, Sebastian?" Carol asked, panic gripping her at his somber tone.

"The doctor had a talk with me about Jessica. A talk I had been trying very hard not to think about."

"What is it?"

"We talked about taking her off life support."