Chapter 54 Trust Issues
Harper wanted to believe Sebastian. She wanted the letter and his words and his promises to be enough.
But three days later, doubt still gnawed at her.
They'd moved carefully around each other since the conversation in the ballroom. Polite. Considerate. Both trying too hard to prove everything was fine.
But Harper couldn't stop analyzing his every action through Vanessa's lens. When Sebastian worked late, was he avoiding her? When he brought her coffee in bed, was it genuine affection or strategic gesture? When he said he wanted the baby, did he mean it or was he just saying what she needed to hear?
"You're doing it again," Jessie said over lunch at their favorite cafe. "Spiraling."
"I'm not spiraling. I'm being cautious."
"You're waiting for him to betray you. There's a difference." Jessie took a bite of her sandwich. "Harper, Vanessa got in your head. That was her goal. Don't let her win."
"What if she's right though? What if I'm just repeating her mistakes?"
"Then you'll deal with it. But you can't sabotage your relationship because of what might happen." Jessie's voice softened. "You love him. He loves you. Start from there."
Harper picked at her salad, the nausea making everything taste wrong. "I don't know how to trust him completely. Every time I start to relax, I remember David leaving. My parents dying. My aunt dying. Everyone I trust eventually goes away."
"Sebastian's not everyone. He's specifically him. A person who's shown up repeatedly, who's fought for you, who literally broke a window to save you from a storm." Jessie reached across the table. "Give him a real chance. Not a chance while you're waiting for him to fail."
Harper knew her friend was right. But knowing something intellectually and feeling it emotionally were different things.
That evening, Harper came home to find Sebastian cooking dinner. Actually cooking, not ordering takeout and pretending he'd made it.
"What's this?" Harper asked, surveying the kitchen disaster. Flour everywhere, vegetables unevenly chopped, something burning in the oven.
"An attempt at domesticity." Sebastian pulled out smoking bread. "I'm failing spectacularly, but I'm trying."
Harper felt something crack in her chest. "Why are you trying to cook? You hate cooking."
"Because I want to be the kind of partner who contributes. Who doesn't just throw money at problems." Sebastian set down the ruined bread. "Harper, I know you're still doubting us. I can see it in the way you look at me. Like you're waiting for me to disappear."
"I'm not…"
"You are. And I understand why. But I need to know what I can do to prove I'm staying. Tell me what you need and I'll do it."
Harper sat at the kitchen counter, exhausted suddenly. "I don't know what I need. That's the problem. I want to trust you completely but I can't turn off the part of my brain that's calculating when you'll leave."
Sebastian moved around the counter to stand in front of her. "Then let's talk about it. Really talk. What specifically makes you doubt me?"
Harper thought about it. "When you work late, I wonder if you're avoiding coming home. When you're quiet, I wonder if you're regretting everything. When you touch your wedding ring, I remember Vanessa saying it's your tell for stress and I think maybe you're stressed about being trapped with me."
"Okay. Those are specific concerns. Let me address them." Sebastian took her hands. "I work late because the audit is ongoing and I'm trying to clear my name. Not because I'm avoiding you. I'm quiet sometimes because I'm thinking about how not to mess this up, not because I regret it. And yes, I touch my ring when I'm stressed, but it's not about being trapped. It's a reminder that I have something worth protecting."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Because I'm going to keep telling you until you believe me. Every day. Every time you doubt." Sebastian's voice was firm. "Harper, I can't erase your past. I can't bring back the people who left you. But I can show up every single day and prove I'm different."
Harper felt tears threaten. "What if showing up isn't enough? What if I'm too broken to trust anyone fully?"
"Then we work on it. Together. With actual therapy instead of just talking about it." Sebastian pulled her close. "Harper, I'm not asking you to magically trust me. I'm asking you to let me earn it over time. Can you do that?"
Harper buried her face in his chest. "I'm trying. I'm really trying. But Vanessa's words keep replaying in my head."
"What exactly did she say that stuck with you most?"
Harper pulled back to look at him. "She said you used her to secure a business deal and discarded her when she became inconvenient. That a baby is the ultimate inconvenience and you'll do the same to me."
Sebastian's jaw tightened. "She's not entirely wrong about the past. I did use our engagement strategically. But Harper, I was honest with her about it. She knew what our arrangement was. She agreed to it."
"And when she wanted more? When she pushed for real connection?"
"I ended things because I couldn't give her what she wanted. I didn't love her and I wasn't going to pretend." Sebastian cupped Harper's face. "But you're different. I love you. That's not strategic. That's not convenient. That's just the truth."
"How do I know the difference? Between you loving me and you needing me for the arrangement?"
"Because if this was just about the arrangement, I would have walked away the second the board suspended me. I would have cut my losses and found an easier path." Sebastian's voice was intense. "But I'm still here. Fighting for my reputation, yes, but also fighting for us. For you. For our baby. Even though none of it is easy or convenient."
Harper wanted to believe him. God, she wanted to believe him.
"I'm scared," she whispered. "I'm so scared of being wrong about you."
"I'm scared too. Of being the father who fails. Of repeating my parents' mistakes. Of losing you because I can't figure out how to be the person you need." Sebastian's forehead touched hers. "But Harper, being scared together is better than being safe alone."
They stood like that for several minutes, holding each other in the disaster of the kitchen, both trembling with fear and hope.
"I want to trust you," Harper said finally. "I want to believe this is real."
"Then start small. Trust me with today. Just today. We'll worry about tomorrow when it comes."
Harper nodded against his chest. One day at a time. One choice at a time. One moment of faith at a time.
It was all she could manage.
And maybe that was enough.
Her phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number.
"Ask Sebastian about the clause. The real one. The one his lawyer told him to keep hidden. He's still lying to you, Harper. He's always been lying."
Harper's blood went cold. She showed Sebastian the text.
His face paled. "That's not true. I showed you the contracts. The clause was removed."
"Then who's sending this? And why now?"
Before Sebastian could answer, another text arrived. This time with an attachment.
A document. Dated the day before their wedding. A version of the contract Harper had never seen.
With a clause that made her stomach turn.
"In the event of pregnancy during the contract period, all parental rights default to Respondent with Petitioner waiving future custody claims."
Harper looked at Sebastian, her vision blurring. "Tell me this isn't real. Tell me you didn't have a clause that would let you take our baby."
Sebastian grabbed her phone, reading the document. His face went from pale to ashen. "This is fabricated. I never saw this clause. It's not real, Harper."
"Then where did it come from? Who would forge something this specific?"
"I don't know. But we're calling my lawyer right now." Sebastian was already dialing. "This is another attack. Someone trying to destroy your trust in me."
But Harper's hands were shaking. The document looked authentic. The language matched the other contracts. The dates aligned.
What if Sebastian was lying? What if Vanessa had been right all along?
What if Harper was about to lose everything she'd fought for to a man who'd planned this from the beginning?
Sebastian's lawyer answered. Harper watched Sebastian explain the document, watched his expression shift from defensive to confused to horrified.
When he hung up, his face was gray.
"What?" Harper demanded. "What did he say?"
"That clause existed. In a very early draft I never approved. He removed it before I ever saw the final contract." Sebastian's voice shook. "But someone has that draft. Someone who wants you to think I knew about it."
"Did you?" Harper heard herself ask. "Did you know about this clause and lie to me?"
"No. I swear on everything I love. I never saw that version." Sebastian reached for her but she stepped back. "Harper, please. You have to believe me."
"I don't know what to believe anymore." Harper grabbed her purse. "I need space. Real space this time. To figure out if I can trust you or if Vanessa was right and I'm just another transaction you've convinced yourself means something."
"Harper, don't leave. Not like this. Not when someone's actively trying to destroy us."
"Maybe they're not destroying us. Maybe they're just revealing the truth I've been too blind to see."
Harper left before Sebastian could stop her.
She drove to Jessie's house, her vision blurred with tears, her hands shaking on the wheel.
By the time she arrived, she'd made a decision.
She was going to find out the truth about Sebastian.
All of it.
Even if it destroyed her to know.