Eventually, something started to change in the mansion.
Don Baste stopped giving him cruel orders.
He started asking for things… with “please.”
“Sure, could you bring me water, please?”
“Clara, if you’re not in a hurry, would you sit with me for a while?
And Clara, surprised, sat down.
They were talking.
He told her about his childhood.
How his father had abandoned him.
How his first girlfriend had left him for “being too ugly.”
How he had built his empire so that no one could ever humiliate him again.
Clara listened to him.
Without judgment.
No pity.
Only with understanding.
One afternoon, while reading for him on the terrace, Don Baste said something that made her cry:
“Clara… you’re the first person to treat me like I’m human.
She looked at him.
With eyes full of tears.
“Don Baste, you are eshuman. And it deserves to be treated as such.
He looked away.
Because I didn’t want her to see her eyes fill with tears, too.
