My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Isolation
“Chisom?” A rich voice spilled from the phone, leaving her momentarily speechless. Her lips parted rigidly.

The woman’s voice was soothing but had a boldness to it that spoke directly to its listener, calming yet never failing to drive the nail in the head.

“Mom?”

“Oh, gosh! My baby! How are you? You are back from the hospital, right? Are you still on check-ups? Any permanent marks?”

“Mom, stop!” Elara exclaimed in a bid to calm down the panicked woman.

Silence descended, and then a large sigh tore through the phone.

“Elara,” she spoke softly. “Please tell me you are okay. Talk to me. I heard your memory stopped at 16. You must be very… reluctant right now.”

There was a pain in her voice that could no longer be concealed as she probed further.

“Chisom. Are you okay?”

She pressed her lips together, and she replied, in a voice barely audible even for the next person to catch.

“I think I’m a bit scared.”

She sniffed. “So many strangers surrounding me. I can’t. I really can’t.”

Her mother listened in for a while before consoling.

“Baby—”

“Wait.” Elara suddenly cut her off. “Don’t tell me you still call me baby as an adult?!”

“Does it matter?”

“Mom!”

“Alright, fine. I’ll stop. But your adult self was okay with it. What a party pooper.”

Elara:…..

“Anyway, what do you think about living with your relatives instead? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten them too,” her mom probed.

Elara groaned. “Yeah, I’ll stick to the strangers instead.”

“You sure? We can try another way if you want.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“You were just—”

“Mom!” She cut her off. “You know how I am. I like playing a bit too much. Did I scare you?”

The voice from the other end culled, and then it responded with a sharpness akin to a dagger.

“Elara, I hope you also didn’t re-adopt your bad habits as well.”

Her eyes snapped wide open, and she almost couldn’t believe her ears.

‘No way…. Holy shit. I do need to fix all this madness. How come my family knows?’

“What? What bad habits?” she spoke as if ignorant.

Her mother was quiet for a bit before responding. “Never mind. Tell me how things are going over there for you. Everything, okay?”

“Of course.”

She obediently complied, calmly tabling to her everything that had happened since her awakening— although she did twist a few things. Like Terrence, her parents didn’t know about him and she’d rather them never know.

Her mom suddenly choked. “My baby. I was so worried. Why the heck did such a thing happen to you—?”

“Mom… How are the twins? And Dad? And mama?”

“They’re all fine except dreadfully worried about you. Oh, my baby~.”

Elara: I just said not to call me that (눈_눈).

“Can I talk to them…?”

“Not now, they’re off to buy ice cream. Talk to me more.” her mother refused.

“Mum you know I can hear Dad’s snoring right beside you and grandma’s favorite channel going on there—wait, she’s not dead yet??”

“Come kill her then,” her mom retorted sarcastically, “I wanna speak to you more before they come over!”

“And the twins?”

“Sleeping. Noway they’re going anywhere with how dangerous everywhere is. Ugh,” she grunted, “I should have taken you too!”

“I’m a grown-ass woman mama; you did your best….”

“It clearly wasn’t enough and then you had that dreadful accident,” she wept loudly.

Elara suppressed a sigh, this would go on for a long while.

—

Meanwhile, in the living room with a TV playing a session about animals, the others were seated.

John randomly swiped through the channels before crawling back to the animal channel yet again reluctantly. He grunted; everything on this TV was shit.

Terra curled up her legs to her arms in a hug while biting her nails nervously.

Star was pacing about the room randomly.

Terrence was crouched down beside the entrance patiently as if waiting for Elara.

“You know the room’s soundproof, right?” Terra said, leaving her flat-out ignored by the male.

She rolled her eyes. “Suit yourself.”

“Can’t I just go in there? And why couldn’t she take the call before us?” Star whined.

“That is a 16-year-old waking up as an adult with strangers surrounding her and finally having a chance to speak to the people she actually knew. Do you think she’d be comfortable enough to do it before us? Especially since her weariness still hasn’t fully been retraced.”

John finally tossed the remote aside in final compliance with his fate, watching a lion tear apart a zebra.

Star blushed a light pink, her voice as weak as a mosquito’s. “I was just so worried.”

Silence returned as they waited for the lady, except she didn’t come out until it was time for dinner.

***

“Thank you,” Elara greeted Terra, who had handed her a new laptop and phone to use after she conveyed her desire to avoid her properties at the current time.

Star crunched on the spicy chicken wings, leaving her lips blaring a vibrant red. “Why don’t you wanna look into it? Aren’t you curious?”

Elara shook her head. Her eyes glanced towards the blonde and she instantly retraced them, startled by the fact his eyes had never left hers, not even once.

“No, I feel that it would be too much, like looking through a stranger’s memory, and it will leave me more troubled instead of helping.”

She cleaned her lips with a napkin before reaching out for a cold glass of water.

“But you’ll have to face it after a while if nothing happens. Being like this for far too long is bad. You may get used to it,” Terra cautioned.

“Any scientific evidence to back that up?”

“Just trust the adults, you little brat.”

Elara pouted. “I’m an adult too.”

“Nope, you’re now 16. It’s not about the body, but the mind, you know,” Terra retorted.

Elara pouted once again and then quieted down.

The dinner went on without a single word spoken after that, except the two—Elara and Terrence’s occasional clash of glances, which left her feeling awkward.

“I’m done.” She announced while picking up her plate and moving to the kitchen.

Terrence followed right after, and Terra did as well.

She stepped into the kitchen.

“Mr. Terrence, I do not like you.”

Her furrowed eyes turned to face the man who came right after her, staring at her with an almost betrayed look.

“Why?” he acted softly.

“I don’t know.” She crossed her arms. “Regardless, I want you away from me completely. I’m sorry to say, but you are an eyesore.”

Terrence’s heart trembled. He had been so sad she didn’t recognize him but was grateful enough to have her safe, but now she…

His head hung low, and tears ran down his face.

Elara was startled, and just as she was about to get defensive, the male looked up to her and all words dried up.

His eyes were a puddle of tears that ran down quietly, and his brows hung low with silent grief. He stared at her boldly through all the tears, trying but failing continuously to reply coherently, only to be reduced to pitiful gasps.

He looked like a weeping angel, except of a less ghastly nature and more ethereal.

“I am sorry,” she mumbled while approaching hesitantly. She stammered. “I was a bit rude, I promise I didn’t mean it like that…”

Their eyes met, and the sadness within his eyes seemed to have been directly transmitted to her.

She reached out instinctively and pulled him into a hug.

She was buried in his embrace as he sniffed silently, and they remained so for a while.

Her heart was bleeding. Just how deep did her feelings for him go?

This would be more difficult than she thought.

***

They ended up leaving the kitchen, with Elara swiftly shuffling to her room, and Terrence following after her steps and entering his.

Terra was surrounded to spill the tea, and after much teasing, finally did.

“What do you think will happen?”

Star sighed, “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“What she said.”

Elara sat blankly while staring at the wall, then picked up her phone. Her hand shivered, but she persisted.

“I can’t stand you, Mr. Terrence, but it would be a stupid lie to say that I can stand seeing you hurt— oddly enough it hurts so much.”

“Can you play along and avoid me like I want? We can keep in touch digitally. Just stay away from me in reality.”

She clenched her phone nervously, and then a message came. It was a picture. She opened it and was blinded.

Actually, it was nothing much, except him being in his PJs, ready for bed. He was just so good-looking that even something as stupid as that seemed like a thirst trap.

Her heart raced like a maniac, but she managed to calm herself down.

She typed with gritted teeth.

“I’m sixteen. Do that again and the police will be coming for your ass. Pervert!”

“It was just a PJ (｡•́︿•̀｡).”

“I said what I said.”

Their relationship had taken a weird turn, but Terrence was sure to make it work.

That was until he was faced with the magnitude of the ‘stay away from me in reality’ mandate he had been given.

When she meant to stay away, she meant stay away.