My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Lara (2)
That day, his mother, who had mostly forgotten about his existence, visited him and his father, and they had a full-blown fight. There was screaming and panicking, and his mother ended up slapping his father— he had to interfere, or it would have escalated into something more drastic.

That was when he heard the shocking story.

“Your evil bastard of a father colluded with his partners to not only defraud an innocent man but instigated an accident that had him in the hospital till today. Now, I don’t know how his daughter has evidence, and we’re getting sued by tomorrow!”

His mother declared fiercely, her eyes never leaving his father— she seemed to be explaining to him what he did wrong instead of narrating the issue to him.

He stood there, aghast, but his mother wasn’t done.

“I poured a lot of money trying to suppress the news, only for it to spill out. God, this is so infuriating. Why did I marry an idiot like you?!”

He felt his mind waver, what was the issue here? The evil his father did or… That he was caught??

“It’s not like you’re innocent. You’d do the same too—!”

“Except I wouldn’t get caught, you pea-brained imbecile!”

And that was the answer to his question. He stared at them incredulously, unable to muster the tiniest bit of rage. Perhaps, deep down in his mind, he still couldn’t believe that these… These monsters were his parents.

The argument started again, but this time, he said nothing and merely slipped away.

He knew his parents were trash— just not to this extent.

His siblings had long cut them off, he had thought it was because of their deadbeat attitude as parents and ‘dubious’ business practices.

No one explained to him the height of their atrociousness, and thus, his resolve to leave them was significantly weaker— especially with how much they pleaded.

His father would act like the victim, and his mother would put on a pity show so touching that the idea of her killing off competition at will would seem like the most fallacious accusation.

He was still astounded by it all, but even more baffling was how casual they were with everything… it was almost as if they had already counted him as a passive accomplice to their cruelty.

That would explain why it was so easy for them to spout such things with a nonchalant attitude. Talking about killing people like it was no big deal and other equally terrible things… How dense was he to have never noticed his parents were this evil?!

If there was one thing the whole incident taught him, it was that, innocent or not, once associated with trash, when they got in trouble, you’d be pulled right in with them.

His ‘friends’ blasted him with breakup texts, and the only one he thought he could rely on cut him off decisively.

He should have seen that coming, but somewhere at the back of his mind, he had been stupid enough to believe she would reconsider, but she didn’t— even till an entire week passed.

As if the universe hadn’t mocked him enough, he met her again, but this time, her name wasn’t Lara. This time, she wasn’t strictly on braids. This time, she wasn’t an orphan, as she had claimed. She had a family, wore her hair out, and was called Elara Sinclair. His psyche crumbled to pieces.

***

“Lara, wait! Please wait!”

He dashed after the brilliantly dressed lady in desperation, but as soon as he approached, a bodyguard blocked him. Her family glared at him from behind in obvious dislike. They had to compromise by accepting payment in exchange for not throwing his criminal father in jail.

Only, they deserved the money, but the court favored his father and, in exchange, made the option of throwing him in jail much more unfavorable. They had no choice but to take the money option instead.

“Do I know you?” she asked, a disdainful look on her face.

Had he not seen that look—the one time she had tasted his pancakes that turned out to be a spectacular mess—he would have believed they had never met.

“Lara…”

“It’s Elara!”

A cute boy, looking about 15, with red hair and blue eyes, glared at him ferociously.

“And get away from my sister, you criminal!”

“Jeremy, come on, go to Mum,” she cooed with a soft smile, lightly pushing the cute boy to be with his mother.

It was the same smile she gave him during sleepovers while patting him to calm down after nightmares. But then he was faced with an icy gaze.

“John, right? John Lebron? Hmm, I see.”

She paused, then faced him with an unfriendly smile.

“If you don’t leave right now, I’ll get the police to escort you out.”

His face broke, and he reached out in a daze, only for the bodyguard to grasp his hand and roughly lead him away. He was too shocked to speak until Elara and her family were a step away from their car. And then he ran.

Unfortunately, because he had been too hurried, he tripped over and fell headfirst. And before he could pick himself up, the bodyguard did, and he was dragged off, screaming and reaching out to Elara, who blatantly ignored him. His last memory was her facing him one last time with a pitiful look before turning about and leaving.

So he was sane. It’s just that… Lara had betrayed him.

***

The rest of the year passed by in a flash. He cut off his parents and went to his sister, who had been begging him to leave them since the very day she left. He was sure his siblings had used him as a scapegoat, not telling him the intricacies of their parent’s doings to keep him with them in a bid to maintain a semi-okay relationship with those criminals, but he couldn’t be bothered by it all.

He was too broken to function and had to take therapy to at least get his sense of self. It worked, albeit a little, but it helped him accept his fate.

The more he thought about it, the more incredulous it was. And then he learned of Dora’s scandal, which was about the leak of various videos and audio of her bragging about the atrocities she had committed against others.

She blamed Lara. She was the only one capable of ratting her out because she had something against all the others, and they wouldn’t dare rat her out. But the only thing she had against Lara turned out to be fake— which explained why she ratted her out without hesitation.

He never once told her who Lara was, though, because, for some reason, he still held a stupid loyalty to her. But even if he did tell her, it wasn’t like there was evidence to prove it, now was there?

Elara was smart enough to erase EVERYTHING. He went down the rabbit hole and finally understood it all.

He had been used thoroughly. Elara used him to get evidence from his father, used him to approach Dora, and then cut him off like a bad tail.

Now, she was as clean as can be and living just fine. Oh, what an irony.

He lived with it, but he never once stopped getting new info on her, and he found out she was living her best life. He was sure he was fine with this. He was very okay despite his mental state being at rock bottom until Dora visited him.

She had been doing this often. Perhaps it was an affinity to him— the twisted comfort of seeing someone as miserable as her.

She talked about Elara, introducing her as some girl in uni she had played about with and tossed aside after getting bored of.

She obviously held a grudge; after all, the leak of what she had done to her was the final nail that sealed her social suicide.

Never once did she suspect her being related to Lara.

That sneaky woman had hidden it that well, especially considering they had been very close during their university days.

She talked to him about how unfair life was; he could understand this from his perspective but from her perspective, he thought it to be utter bullshit.

“I almost did ruin her life,” she would say, “But hey, she was trash as well!”

It was painful to listen to. Elara, whose crime was merely emotionally devastating others, was somehow being compared to a maggot who had a trail of ruined lives behind her.

But then she actually told him something interesting. Elara was in a relationship with the most popular heartthrob of all time— this wasn’t known to anyone but her because her ‘boss’ had slipped it out.

Her boss was the sister of the heartthrob.

Who was this heartthrob? He was the world’s fifth richest and was theorized to be the richest if his hidden assets were to be revealed.

Something, although he couldn’t tell what snapped in him, and he decided—, he needed to meet Elara.

How come when it came to him, she was ace, but when it came to others, she wasn’t? How come when it came to him, he was but a pawn, but when it came to others, she made them friends, real ones at that? How come when it came to him, she didn’t mind his misery, but when it came to others, she would rather be bad than have them be miserable?

Why couldn’t he be the one?

He wanted to know, and so he came back to her. He shouldn’t have, because now he couldn’t even bring himself to hate her anymore. He loved her, he loved her a bit too much.

She was the real friend he never had. The only ‘family’ he had a bond with— despite their twisted dynamics.

The only one who ever understood him and the only true company he had in this world. He needed her— deathly so.

And so, in less than a month, he threw away all caution once more and embraced her friendship with open arms.

If he died, then he died. One last time, just one last time, he needed that company she gave him. He needed her in his life, and so he suppressed it all and gave her his heart once more.

And she… was free to destroy him.