Oops! My Secret Baby Is Caught By His Top-Lawyer Daddy! Novel

---- Chapter 98: Love That Cannot Be Clara and Sebastian sat together in the study, sipping tea and chatting, while the butler thoughtfully brought in a tray of pastries. The study was enormous. One wall was made entirely of tall windows that looked out over the garden and front gates. The other two walls were covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, packed so tightly with books that it felt more like stepping into a library than a private home. The air carried a heavy, scholarly atmosphere.

Clara wandered along the shelves, trailing her fingers across the spines, and casually pulled out a classic. Inside, the pages were full of creases and handwritten notes. She couldn't help but ask, "You've read all of these?" Sebastian smiled. "Most of them. I had plenty of time and little social life. Other than playing ---- piano, I just read." Clara felt a wave of admiration. In this day and age, how many people could actually sit down and lose themselves in a paper book anymore? Sebastian reached for a small, elegant wooden box on the shelf. He opened it gently. "These might interest you.

Your mother used to love photography." He pulled out stack after stack of photographs and laid them before Clara. Photography? Her mom? That was new. She had never seen a professional camera in their home. When she was little, her photos were always taken with a simple point-and-shoot camera, and later, just on cell phones. Clara picked up the photographs as if they were treasures, studying each one with reverence. They were all well-preserved, laminated to protect them. The colors were still vivid.

There were countless pictures-flowers, trees, home interiors, pets, street scenes, even random ---- passersby. The subjects seemed casual, almost impulsive, yet the compositions were deliberate. The frames were harmonious, carrying an unintentional but undeniable beauty. Clara didn't know much about photography, but even she could see that these pictures were stunning. The last stack nearly knocked the wind out of her-it was filled with photos of her mother and Sebastian. Some were individual shots of each of them at the piano, others were cozy duets together.

The backgrounds rarely changed; it was Clearly the same practice room. It dawned on Clara then why Sebastian had always treated her with such warmth and. affection. Her mother and Sebastian had been lovers. "These were from when your mother and I studied piano under Caspian Everett," Sebastian said, his voice low and tinged with sorrow. "That was more than twenty years ago. Back then, the ---- teacher always took his nap after lunch, so he left us to practice on our own. Those afternoons were the happiest moments of my life. We talked about everything-the piano, life, our dreams.

I used to think God must have made two identical souls and simply gave them different bodies, one male, one female." His voice faltered, growing thick. "I thought life would always stay that way. Even now, I sometimes catch myself believing she's still beside me, watching me play..." Clara's eyes fell on the photos. Their faces were so young, full of unrestrained joy, their smiles wild and unguarded. The mother she remembered had always been gentle, graceful, and restrained. She had never imagined her mother laughing so boldly, so freely.

That kind of happiness seemed to spill out of the photographs, almost contagious. Clara found herself smiling along-until her vision blurred and tears slid down her cheeks. Her mother hadn't just been unhappy after