The two of them had arrived at a boutique.
Thea looked visibly uneasy, hesitant to pick out anything from the racks, the price tags alone were enough to make her nervous.
The cost of a single dress she glanced at left her stunned, and she didn’t dare touch a thing after that.
Dashiell, waiting off to the side, was growing impatient.
They needed to hurry, his grandfather was already expecting them, yet Thea was taking forever just to choose one dress.
He rose from his seat and walked over to where she stood, staring at a dress she clearly didn’t dare touch.
He noticed she was only looking at it, with no real intention of buying it at all.
“What are you doing? If you like it, just take it.” His sudden presence startled her.
“N-no. I don’t like it!” A dress worth hundreds of millions, how could something like that possibly suit her?
A dress that expensive belonged on someone like Saphira.
“Then find something else. Don’t waste my time staring at the same dress forever!”
“C-can we go somewhere else instead?”
“Why, is there nothing in this entire store that appeals to you? Nothing here catches your interest at all?”
“It’s not that, Dashiell,” Thea glanced around before leaning in close to him, rising slightly on her toes to whisper in his ear.
“Everything here is far too expensive, I can’t afford any of it. Let’s just go somewhere else. I know a place with much cheaper clothes that still look just as good as these!” She was terrified someone might overhear; the whole thing mortified her.
Dashiell’s brow furrowed.
Since when had Saphira become so budget conscious?
Wasn’t she the kind of woman who always cared about her appearance and never touched anything cheap?
So what exactly was this about?
Was Saphira deliberately acting this way to win his sympathy, to cover up everything ugly about her that he’d heard?
Interesting.
He decided he wanted to see just how far she’d take this act.
He was certain she wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long; living like someone poor simply wasn’t her style.
“So you’d rather have cheap clothes than anything from a place like this?” He was the one paying, after all.
Did she really not realize that, or was she just playing dumb?
“Yeah, I really can’t afford it, and I don’t want to push myself to buy something I can’t.” Thea stepped back from him, avoiding his eyes, embarrassed by what she’d just admitted.
“I’ll pay for it. Just take it.”
It wasn’t right for him to spend his money on her.
“Fine, if that’s really what you want. Let’s go now and get you these cheap clothes you’re talking about.” Quite the performance, he thought.
He decided he’d play along with whatever game she was running and give her exactly what she asked for.
“Good, let’s go then!” Thea grabbed his hand and pulled him along.
Dashiell had no idea where she was taking him.
He simply instructed his driver to follow wherever Thea led.
He assumed she’d take him to some other clothing store in a different shopping center, but instead, she led him straight to an open air market.
The place was full of vendors selling cheap clothing, exactly what Thea had described, and the moment they arrived, her whole demeanor changed completely.
She moved through the stalls without a trace of hesitation, chatting easily with the shopkeepers, asking questions without a hint of shyness.
Her whole attitude had shifted dramatically.
She went off to try on a dress she’d picked out herself.
What exactly was going on here?
Dashiell couldn’t make sense of his wife’s behavior at all; none of it matched what he’d expected.
He found himself questioning things yet again.
Could it be that everything he’d heard about Saphira had been wrong from the start?
“So, what do you think?” Thea returned wearing a blue dress that fit her perfectly.
However one looked at it, the dress was clearly inexpensive, yet somehow it looked surprisingly good on her.
“Does this suit me or not?” She turned in a slow circle, letting him see the full effect.
“Are you sure you actually want this dress, Saphira? I know exactly what you’re doing here, so stop this cheap little performance of yours. There’s no need to force yourself into something that clearly isn’t you. Just be yourself, you don’t need to pretend to be someone else just to win my sympathy. Honestly, whatever you’re trying to accomplish here, it’s pointless!”
Thea lowered her head, clearly embarrassed.
She’d forgotten, for a moment, that she was supposed to be playing Saphira, though none of what she’d just done had been an attempt to win his sympathy at all.
She simply hadn’t wanted to be a burden to him, especially given that their whole marriage was nothing but a lie to begin with.
“I’m sorry,” Thea murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
She shouldn’t have let herself get carried away like that; it could easily damage Saphira’s reputation.
She turned and started to walk away, head still down.
Dashiell felt a flicker of irritation watching her.
“Wait, stop looking so pitiful, it doesn’t suit you at all. What exactly are you planning here, and why the sudden hundred and eighty degree change?”
“I’m not trying to get your attention, Dashiell. I promise,” and it was true, since winning his attention was a role that only belonged to Saphira.
“Then are you doing this to win over my grandfather instead? Did you deliberately buy this cheap dress hoping he’d feel sorry for you? You’d better not be trying to pull some clever little trick, because I don’t appreciate it!”
“I’m not doing that either, I swear. Whatever you think of me, please, don’t hate me for it. I’m buying this dress, isn’t this what you wanted, for us to hurry?” Thea steered the conversation elsewhere, hoping to keep his suspicion from growing any further.
“Suit yourself.” Dashiell turned and walked off, leaving her behind.
He paid for the dress first and waited for her outside.
Thea felt deeply uncomfortable about it; she had no right to accept even a single cent from him.
She approached Dashiell, who stood smoking while he waited for her.
He only glanced at her briefly, uninterested in another argument.
“Wait, Dashiell!” Thea hurried after him and slipped something into the pocket of his jacket.
“What are you…” Dashiell stopped mid step when he pulled out the money she’d tucked into his pocket.
“That’s to pay you back!” Thea walked off quickly, leaving him standing there.
Dashiell genuinely couldn’t understand it.
Who exactly was this woman standing before him?
She was Saphira, and yet she wasn’t.
She felt like an entirely different person, nothing like what he’d heard, nothing like what everyone had told him about her.
Even though he didn’t know Saphira particularly well, he was certain now that this woman wasn’t really her, not in any way that mattered.
Was something wrong here, or was Saphira deliberately trying to confuse him?
He decided he needed to be careful.
This woman was surely scheming something, plotting some clever way to deceive him.
He wasn’t about to fall for whatever game she was playing, and he refused to be taken in by her little tricks.
He wasn’t foolish enough to be fooled just because she suddenly chose to live modestly in front of him.
Whatever she was after, he would make sure she got exactly what was coming to her.
He was confident she wouldn’t be able to keep up with the game he was about to start.
Dashiell started walking again, following after Thea, who’d already gotten some distance ahead.
Interesting, he thought.
A new game was about to begin, and his hypocritical little wife was in for a surprise she never saw coming.