I raised my head and looked at him. I felt that I had not stared closely at him for the longest time. His gaze was profound as if exhausted by life, and it caught me off guard. I looked at him and said smilingly, "Do you think that I'm someone who has no sense of self-protection? Am I such a complete idiot?"
He furrowed his brows in disappointment. "You know that's not what I meant," he said.
I sneered, "But that's what you've been trying to convey."
"Forget it... You don't have to explain yourself. Carry on with your work. Don't let this bother you at work," I continued.
As I exited the office, the elevator door opened, and I walked in.
All I could do was smile and leave when Hendrix was frowning that way. I knew that I was partly responsible for Sebastian's matter, and I did not bother to explain myself as well. Humans could be complicated at times. We could resolve any issue just by explaining ourselves. Alas, we often shy away from doing so and subsequently get on each other's nerves.
When I walked out of the elevator, I bumped into Estella again. It seemed like she was deliberately waiting for me. When she saw me, she smiled and said, "Mrs. Roberts, are you leaving?"
Also maintaining a smile, I replied, "Yes."
She continued looking at me from when I walked out of the elevator. Then, she seemed to want to say something but held back. So, I stopped and said, "You've been working hard lately. Are you in a relationship? I reckon your parents must have been urging you to settle down since you' re of marriageable age."
I nodded. "Ours was a pre- arranged marriage, chosen by our parents back then. His grandfather and my grandmother were good friends, and hence, that was how we were betrothed."
A little startled, she said, "Oh, so you had no choice over your own love-life?"
I nodded, and she seemed quite taken aback. "I always thought that you both chose to marry each other... But it turns out that it was an arranged marriage because of your families' friendship. I heard from some colleagues that the Roberts family is quite conscious about family backgrounds as well."
As I heard this, I could not help but laugh. Not many people in the company knew my family background. Over the years, Rowane had assumed that I married for money. Hence, she felt that she wasn't inferior to me in any way, and had a similar chance in courting Hendrix.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: My Pretty Sweetheart (Arianna)
How do you save these stories so you can pick up where you stopped...