Chapter 131: Chapter 131: You Love Him That Much?

"Oh." Cecilia Croft nodded blankly. She had been the one to bring up the topic, yet she didn’t know how to carry on.

"Anything else you want to ask?" Sebastian Hawthorne asked, his gaze fixed on her, the very picture of patience.

Cecilia Croft shook her head. "No, that’s all."

Her awkward laugh sounded particularly jarring inside the car.

The atmosphere only seemed to grow more awkward.

Sebastian Hawthorne looked away from her, a hint of resignation in his deep, dark eyes.

Suddenly, the car took a sharp turn, and Cecilia Croft was thrown without warning toward Sebastian Hawthorne.

Her face pressed against his suit trousers in a mortifyingly awkward position.

Cecilia Croft’s breath caught, and she could clearly feel his body go rigid.

"S-Sorry..."

She scrambled to sit up, but the car turned again, and its momentum sent her right back down.

Thankfully, at the crucial moment, Sebastian Hawthorne lifted his leg slightly, absorbing some of the impact, but it couldn’t prevent another intimate encounter with her face.

Cecilia Croft’s face flushed crimson, as if she had been dazed by the collision.

Sebastian Hawthorne said nothing, his body still slightly tense as he looked down at her with a complicated expression.

In that instant, Cecilia Croft could even feel a distinct bulge...

Her face immediately went beet red. She scrambled to get up, but the car took another sharp turn.

Cecilia Croft wanted to cry but had no tears. ’Uncle Lloyd’s driving is awful today,’ she thought.

At the critical moment, Sebastian Hawthorne reached out and steadied her by the chin, probably having had enough of her tumbling around.

"Uncle Lloyd."

His voice was low, tinged with a sexy rasp.

Uncle Lloyd, who was driving, quickly steadied the wheel and replied with a chuckle.

"My apologies, Sir. I had to swerve to avoid an electric scooter, so the turn was a bit wide. Are you and Miss Croft all right?"

Cecilia Croft: "..."

’All right? She was anything but all right. This was a full-blown catastrophe.’

She awkwardly got up and scooted to the other end of the seat, putting some distance between herself and Sebastian Hawthorne. She offered a pained smile.

"N-No, nothing serious."

Sebastian Hawthorne spared her a sidelong glance before looking away. Then, in a somewhat stiff movement, he crossed one leg over the other.

Cecilia Croft felt like the temperature inside the car had suddenly started to skyrocket.

The car pulled up to the airport’s VIP drop-off.

Cecilia Croft didn’t wait for Uncle Lloyd to get out and open the door. The second the car stopped, she opened it herself and scrambled out.

She greedily inhaled the fresh air, feeling herself relax slightly. After composing herself, she stood quietly to one side, waiting for Sebastian Hawthorne to get out.

Just like last time, Cecilia Croft was traveling light, carrying nothing but herself and a handbag.

Uncle Lloyd wasn’t returning to Karthus with them, so when he pulled the suitcase out, Cecilia Croft took the initiative and claimed the task of wheeling Sebastian Hawthorne’s luggage.

Seeing this, Uncle Lloyd quietly cautioned her.

"That suitcase is pretty heavy. A young lady like you might not have the strength for it. Why don’t you let..."

Before he could finish, Cecilia Croft lifted the suitcase with a single hand. "It’s fine. It’s not too heavy."

Uncle Lloyd: "..."

Cecilia Croft added, "Besides, it has wheels. It won’t be difficult."

’Following beside Sebastian Hawthorne empty-handed, doing nothing, would be the truly awkward part.’

She needed to do something to distract herself.

Uncle Lloyd shook his head in resignation as he watched the two of them walk into the airport together.

’At this rate, when is his master ever going to get married?’

’He’s already thirty-two. In a few more years, he’ll be past his prime.’

Cecilia Croft wheeled the suitcase ahead of Sebastian Hawthorne. Though neither of them spoke, the atmosphere was, at least, not as unbearably awkward as it had been in the car.

Just as they reached the entrance to the VIP channel, Cecilia Croft felt a warm touch on the back of her hand.

Sebastian Hawthorne had gently tapped the back of her hand with his.

Cecilia Croft glanced over, a flicker of confusion in her eyes, but she let go of the handle.

The moment she released it, Sebastian Hawthorne took hold of the handle and fell into step beside her.

Cecilia realized his intention and pressed her lips together. Her heart seemed to flutter erratically. She lowered her gaze, tamping down the feeling, and by the time she looked up again, she had regained her composure.

「On the plane」

Sebastian Hawthorne immediately put on an eye mask and leaned back in his seat to rest.

Cecilia Croft sat beside him, quietly watching his sleeping face, and before she knew it, she had also drifted into a dream.

The dream was a chaotic jumble.

There were the arguments from her parents’ unhappy marriage when she was seventeen, and her mother’s soft sobs as she tried to take her away from Karthus.

Her mother had said, "Cecilia, if you don’t come with me, you’ll just be buried in this family. Your sister is the heir, the one Grandpa values. You’re nothing but a tool to be married off."

She had said, "So what if you like him? Does he like you back? Can you possibly compete with your sister? She’s so exceptional. No one will ever notice you in her shadow."

Her mother cried, and she cried along with her.

The diary that held all her secret girlish thoughts was tossed into the brazier by her mother.

The fire in the brazier burned fiercely, illuminating her tear-streaked face in its brilliant glow.

A spark flew out of the brazier and landed on the back of her hand. The searing pain jolted her, and she snapped her eyes open to the sight of Sebastian Hawthorne’s handsome face. Her heart gave a sudden, inexplicable twinge of pain.

She looked down at her own hand, held tightly in Sebastian’s, and suddenly the pain from that long-ago spark felt sharper and clearer than ever.

She hastily snatched her hand back from his, clutching the back of it as if it had been burned.

Seeing her react as if he had taken advantage of her, Sebastian Hawthorne frowned slightly and said in a low voice,

"You were digging your claws into their leather seat like you were trying to tear a hole in it. I was merely performing an emergency maneuver to prevent a financial dispute."

At his words, Cecilia Croft’s gaze fell to the armrest. Sure enough, she saw several nail marks indented in the surface. A flash of embarrassment crossed her face, and she tried to rub the marks away, a futile gesture.

Sebastian Hawthorne looked away from her and spoke nonchalantly. "Plagued by nightmares? Must be from breaking too many hearts."

Cecilia Croft shook her head.

"I haven’t."

Sebastian Hawthorne glanced down at the back of her hand. Only now, because of her reaction, did he notice the very faint burn scar there.

"How did you get that?"

Cecilia Croft froze for a moment. The scar on the back of her hand had become extremely faint over time.

’I can’t believe he still managed to spot it.’

"It was too long ago. I forgot."

Seeing that she was unwilling to tell the truth, Sebastian’s expression darkened, a flicker of displeasure in his eyes.

While she was dreaming, she had been gripping the armrest so tightly it was as if she was trying to dig her nails into the material.

Her troubled, furrowed brow and her faint sobs would have made anyone who heard them feel an inexplicable sadness.

As far as he knew, her maternal grandmother doted on her. After she and her mother returned to Silvercrest, they had lived a good life, free from any major psychological trauma.

If there was any, it was probably her failed romance with Jude Sheridan.

Sebastian Hawthorne’s brow darkened. He watched her turn her head to look out the window, her slender back unable to conceal her dejection. He drew in a sharp breath, a frustrating pressure building in his chest.

"You loved him that much? Liked him that much?"