"Claire, come with me quickly!"
 
The call felt like a thunderbolt that struck deep into her pores.
 
Claire could not hide her surprise at hearing the call. The atmosphere suddenly became quiet. Claire glanced to the right, where two of her friends were making surprised faces. Then she glanced to the left, where Hans was. Just like her two friends, Hans' face also looked a little surprised.
 
Claire grimaced inwardly. There was no way everything would be revealed this quickly, right?
 
Jonas was still standing there, waiting for a response from Claire, not caring about the reactions of the three people who were also there.
 
Ten seconds...
 
Twenty seconds...
 
Nearly two minutes passed, and there was no movement from Claire. Jonas impatiently chuckled and then immediately pulled Claire's hand to get her out of the way.
 
Once again, Jonas didn't want to waste his energy thinking about the reactions of the people there.
 
The surprised shrieks of her two friends could be heard very clearly as she was pulled a few steps away from where she was.
 
Claire could only remain silent, following Jonas' pull. She didn't want to create a scene by rejecting Jonas and drawing everyone's attention to her. She briefly looked back to see her lover's reaction before his body disappeared behind the restaurant door.
 
Claire blinked a few times when she realized she was in Jonas' car. She looked to the side, where Jonas was driving. The man looked as calm as ever.
 
"Sir!" Claire called out to him in a tone of restrained annoyance.
 
Jonas turned his head. Only his head moved, not his mouth, which he kept faithfully shut.
 
"Why did you do that earlier?!"
 
"What?"
 
Oh, God. If it wasn't for the fact that Jonas was her superior, she would have cursed him out right now.
 
"You know, your behavior could lead to rumors about our relationship! Plus, Hans was there. Oh my God, what should I tell Hans later? This is all your fault!"
 
Jonas frowned, looking confused by Claire's words, but there was only one thing he focused on in Claire's sentence.
 
"Hans?" Jonas asked Claire. She turned her head but remained silent.
 
"Ah, yes. That man over there? Is he your lover?" Jonas asked again.
 
"You know?" Claire squinted.
 
Jonas simply shrugged in response.
 
The answer was too ambiguous and vague.
 
"If you already knew, why did you do that?! Did you intentionally want to ruin my relationship with Hans?"
 
Just two seconds after Claire's last sentence, Jonas slammed on the brakes, causing the car to come to an abrupt stop. Fortunately, they were not on a major highway, and the deserted road conditions saved them from the risk of accidents and cursing from other drivers.
 
Afterward, Jonas quickly turned to Claire, who was busy adjusting her heart rate due to the sudden brake.
 
"I don't care about your relationship with that guy right now, but one thing is clear. After the wedding, I don't want my wife to have another relationship with any man."
 
Claire was stunned. Right now, the look on Jonas' face was ominous as that sentence slipped out of his mouth.

"Isn't this marriage just a compromise?" Claire waited a moment for Jonas' reaction before continuing. "I think there's no love in this relationship."
 
Jonas laughed lightly. "Love? Of course not. I don't know you, and there is no love between us," Jonas asserted with clarity and certainty. That conviction was also what was really in his heart.
 
"Then why should we force something that can't make us happy? I think we can consider this marriage only on paper. Then we can live our own lives without outsiders knowing about it. We have the right to live happily by our own choice, don't we?"
 
Jonas was now silent. He clamped his mouth shut, not wanting to open it. It wasn't that he didn't want to refute the woman beside him, but Jonas didn't know what else to say. Everything Claire said made sense. It was just...
 
Feeling like he wasn't going to answer Claire's question, Jonas drove back to his car. That sentence from Claire was the last one heard inside the car because they were silent until they reached their destination.
 
"Claire," the call, with a happy twinkle in her eye, made Claire smile too.
 
She walked over, and the middle-aged woman hugged her warmly. "Have you had lunch?" Regina asked her future daughter-in-law.
 
"I already had lunch."
 
Regina smiled and led Claire deeper into the boutique. Claire's eyes scanned the entire contents of the boutique. This wasn't her first time entering a boutique like this, so Claire wasn't too surprised by the price tag on one of the dresses she saw on a mannequin clad in an evening gown with open sleeves.
 
In the past, when her mother was still alive, Claire was often invited to buy clothes at one of the famous boutiques like this. However, after her mother's passing, visiting boutiques was an activity that Claire wanted to avoid because it brought back memories of her mother. Claire didn't like it. She didn't want to dwell in sadness, but today, whether she wanted to or not, she still had to visit this boutique.
 
After all, it was only until the wedding, wasn't it? Claire made sure she would never set foot in a boutique again after that.
 
"Do you like it?"
 
Regina's voice startled Claire, who was standing in front of the mannequin in the evening gown.
 
"Try it on; we'll see if it suits you," Regina said again as she called the boutique staff to take the dress off the mannequin.
 
Claire quickly rejected it. "No, no. I'm just looking at it. This kind of dress doesn't suit me anyway."
 
"Why not? You can wear it to dinner. After marrying Jonas, you'll definitely be going to a lot of dinners with his business colleagues. Right, Jonas?" Regina turned to her son, who was standing nearby. She asked for the opinion of the man who wore an expressionless face.
 
Claire snorted slightly. Seeing Jonas only reminded her of the conversation in the car. Claire was annoyed at the thought again.
 
They spent almost two hours inside the boutique, trying on several dresses that seemed troublesome to Claire. How could she not? Instead of getting a simple dress, Regina bought several glamorous dresses for Claire. The middle-aged woman's socialite spirit was very apparent. Claire had tried to refuse, but Regina didn't seem to heed her refusal. So, Claire could only resign herself to accepting it.

In her compulsion and boredom, Claire glanced at the man sitting in the corner with his cell phone in his hand. Although it wasn't too obvious, Claire could see that the man was as miserable as she was. She couldn't help but smile and inwardly make fun of him.
 
A bigwig of the Doubson Group was helpless in front of his mother. She felt like spreading the news, but she was powerless. Spreading it would be the same as revealing the secret she had been trying to cover up.
 
Speaking of marriage, she suddenly remembered that she didn't know when the wedding would take place. How could she forget such an important thing?
 
"I'm sorry, Regina. May I ask when the wedding will take place?"
 
Regina, who was looking at some designs in the book handed over by the boutique owner, turned her head in surprise. "You don't know yet?"
 
Claire shook her head innocently.
 
"My God, I forgot to tell you. As your father said, I'll be taking care of all the wedding events. So, I've decided that the wedding will be next month. After this, we'll choose the invitation design." Regina developed a happy smile. She was enthusiastically preparing for her son's wedding.
 
This was in stark contrast to the expression on Claire's face at that moment.
 
Next month?
 
Claire gaped in surprise.