淑女的欲望

\'Carter proposed to Zara?\' 

After a few moments had passed, Scarlett regained her senses. She grabs Zara\'s hands.

"Zara, you said Carter proposed to you?" she asked, her voice still a bit shaky. Upon seeing Zara\'s nod, she silently swallowed before continuing, "When did he propose to you?" she asked again, trying to hide her surprise.

"A week ago," Zara replied, her tone carrying a mix of sadness and worry as she looked at Scarlett. "...I wanted to meet him, but he seems to be avoiding me," she said with a tinge of anxiety. "Maybe he\'s angry with me because I didn\'t accept his proposal."

Scarlett pondered for a moment, trying to put together the timeline and recent events. She could speculate that Carter must have proposed to Zara before he was kidnapped, which might explain why they didn\'t communicate after that.

"Why do you want to meet him if you already rejected him?" Scarlett asked. 

Zara fell silent for a moment, her expression revealing her inner turmoil. Meeting Scarlett\'s gaze, she began to speak again, "Scarlett, I have this feeling that Carter is acting strangely. Actually, this isn\'t the first time he\'s acted like this. I mean, he\'s asked me out before. But I\'ve always turned him down, and you know why, right? He\'s too young for me..." She paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

"However, whenever I decline, he acts like it\'s no big deal. He still contacts me, and we talk as if nothing happened. But, a week ago, after he proposed and asked me to be his wife," Zara\'s voice wavered. "Even then, my heart didn\'t waver, so I turned him down again like I always do..." Despite the smile on her face, it was clear her heart was heavy with unspoken emotions.

Scarlett remained silent, recognizing that Zara was in the dark about Carter\'s recent accident. She found herself in a dilemma, unsure whether to disclose the troubling news to her friend.

"Scarlett, call Carter for me, please..." Zara is begging. There is a mixture of worry and urgency in her tone.

"Why do you want to talk to him? He\'s probably heartbroken right now, right?" Scarlett responded nonchalantly, her words landing like a bombshell in Zara\'s ears.

\'Heartbroken? Is Carter distraught with me?\' Zara\'s heart raced with fear. Somehow, these past few days of silence from Carter had left her feeling incomplete, like something crucial was missing. She couldn\'t put her finger on it but knew she needed to see him and have a real, heart-to-heart conversation.

Zara began to speak, but her words faded when Cruz returned with two cups of coffee in his hands.

"Why do you all look so serious? What\'s the heavy discussion about?" Cruz questioned as he set the cups on the table and settled beside Zara. When his gaze met Zara\'s face, he was taken aback.

"Oh my, Zara! Why are tears in your eyes?" Cruz asks. Seeing any hint of sadness in Zara\'s eyes was a rarity, and he was genuinely concerned.

Zara didn\'t respond directly, attempting to smile warmly at him, though the smile didn\'t quite reach her eyes. She cleared her throat, urging, "Cruz, don\'t be nosy."

His gaze narrowed at Zara, then shifted to Scarlett. It was as if he was evaluating their expressions, detecting an air of solemnity as though they were discussing something distressing. However, finding nothing alarming, he seemed to dismiss his suspicions.

\'Perhaps I\'m overthinking it,\' he thought, then rose to his feet.

"Boss, I will work... I have a ton of things on my plate now. You can have your chat with Zara. Oh, by the way, remember to review the document on your desk. And, if you need anything, just call me..." Cruz explained to Scarlett, then stepped into his office and motioned for Logan to follow him.

Once Cruz had disappeared behind his office door, Zara turned her gaze back to Scarlett, the same mixture of sadness and worry frame on her face. "Scarlett, can you do it? I truly need to speak to him this time," she pleads.

Witnessing Zara\'s seriousness, a suspicion appears in Scarlett\'s mind regarding Zara\'s feelings for Carter. However, when the idea of Zara and Carter getting married started to form in Scarlett\'s mind, it gave her chills as she thought about the possibility of Zara being her sister-in-law.

Actually, this idea lingered in Scarlett\'s mind for a long time. On many occasions, she had the idea of pairing them up, but their age difference posed a challenge. While it would be acceptable if Carter were the older one, the reality was the opposite.

"For heaven\'s sake, Scarlett Piers! Can you say something?" Zara\'s frustration increases when she observes that Scarlett has stared at her silently since earlier. "Stop overthinking and just help me this time. Give him a call for me, okay?"

Scarlett offered Zara a reassuring smile while gently patting her hand. 

"Sista, if you don\'t have feelings for him, maybe it\'s best to let him go. Maintaining distance might be the better choice for both of you," Scarlett responded, gauging Zara\'s reaction. The depth of Zara\'s feelings for Carter seemed to be unveiling itself.

Zara let out a gasp of shock upon hearing Scarlett\'s words. The idea of distancing herself from Carter hit her like a jolt, freezing her thoughts momentarily. 

She could only stare at Scarlett. Her mind seemed to waver and stop. Her once clear stream of thought felt like it had suddenly run dry, leaving her in the confusion that Scarlett\'s words had stirred.

"Oh my goodness! Zara... fine, I will call him. But..." Scarlett\'s voice trailed off with an undertone that urged Zara to take her words seriously. "I need to speak with him first to check if he\'s willing to receive your call or not!"

At once, a wave of fear washed over Zara\'s heart, the thought that Carter might genuinely want to cut ties with her, even as friends, settling deep within her.

She could only nod in response to Scarlett\'s words.