My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Oh No…
Breakfast was finally done, and true to his words, Jeremy went to the kitchen to deal with the stacked dishes.

Jane had followed him to help in place of Elara, despite her insistence. The whole family dismissing her desire to help was no joke—they completely suppressed her.

Now that her siblings were gone and her grandparents as well, one to catch up with a show of theirs and the other to use the restroom, she was left with only her parents.

She threw herself into her mother’s lap with a grunt.

Mrs. Sinclair chuckled, “Has it been hard, baby? How’s being 16 in an adult body working out for you?”

“Terrible!” Elara exclaimed. “Mummy, you have no idea how different my adult self is from me. She’s practically someone else!”

Mr. Sinclair nudged her nose lightly, and she burst into laughter. He smiled.

“Anything you wanna share with us?” he asked dotingly while Elara played with his fingers.

They had been that close during her teen years. Thinking about it, no one else was closer to everyone in the family than her (except her parents to each other), probably because she showered all the affection she had on them since she had no one else.

It did make her wonder—could her siblings have been jealous of this?

Adult Elara had found this out. Turns out they were grateful since, with her hogging all their attention, they were relatively free to do most things without parental nosiness. Additionally, they felt that their parents gave them just the right attention needed, beyond which would enter realms of strictness—something they’d rather not deal with.

They did find their sister’s attitude of holding onto their parents’ skirts, even as a teenager, as odd as could be but brushed it off as her own uniqueness.

That was until IT happened.

“Did you guys ever learn of my high school life?” she finally threw the bomb she had been fiddling with.

Her parents were silent and then let out a deep sigh, almost at the same time.

“Yes,” her mum replied solemnly. “It was quite… an eventful day back then.”

“It was an ex of yours,” her dad sighed deeply at the very thought of that day. “He… had come pleading, with tears and snot, and with such misery for you to have pity on him and do something about his social life that had been killed.”

Mr. Sinclair stopped, as if too pained to continue, so Mrs. Sinclair picked up from where he had stopped.

“Apparently, this was the fate of all who agreed to play ‘lovers’ and ‘friends’ with you, and when you came back, you showed zero sympathy and were even disgusted by the boy.”

“I had never seen that side of you; it was so queer…”

“Herald!” Mrs. Sinclair glared at him, cutting him off in his tracks. She continued.

“You attacked him verbally right before us. Angry, vulgar, and deeply resentful.

‘You broke the deal, you inferior piece of shit? You’re so fucked. Bullying? Ha! How’s that my fault? Did I bully you? So what if those bitches of mine did—why should I care? But since you wanna play boy, we’ll have more fun at school then!'”

Mrs. Sinclair sighed. “Sorry, I was so stunned then I basically memorized all your words, and your father slapped you before I could even do anything. Long story short, you cried and twisted the narrative to be the victim, but we weren’t that stupid, Elara, and your next action pretty much revealed that every other thing you said was a lie…”

Elara’s heart picked up pace, and suddenly her breathing became harsh.

She stared up at her mum from below and whispered, “What did I…?”

“You assaulted him,” Mr. Sinclair replied. “You beat him up so bad he came running back to us, and you were so enraged you chased him all through the compound into the house and nearly smashed your laptop into his face after cornering him—had we not stopped you.”

“You were screaming…” Mrs. Sinclair took over the narration. “Your eyes were red. And your words made no sense. You had clearly lost it. That day was… something else.”

Silence descended onto the room like a heavily draped carpet.

Elara did not in any way doubt her parents. According to her memories, along with the upcoming days after her resolution to ‘traumatize’ people into never forgetting her, her mental health plummeted, and she became even more erratic after befriending individuals more horrid than her.

Funnily enough, that boy wasn’t even a legit victim. He had been paid to parade as one by her clique when they started poking around for ways to get rid of her and found her fatal weakness: family.

How did she know? She ran out of home confinement to the place where they were holding a party about finally uprooting her and went insane.

Her parents already knew it was bad, but not THIS bad. It finally made sense why she was so close to them and her siblings, unlike normal teens who mostly avoided their families—she had no one else, and they were the bane of her sanity.

She took therapy for a year after that, and during that year, her parents did a good job compensating everyone she had harmed and managed to avoid her actions being a permanent stain on her reputation.

Until she eventually came around and apologized to everyone else herself.

“But even then, we could tell you were unwilling. That was one of the darkest days for our family and taught us that ignoring your child’s school life isn’t ‘privacy’—it’s ruin. Your siblings still complain about how we stalked them all the way from high school to college, but what choice did we have? It’s better than having what happened to you happen to them.”

Her mum spat bitterly. Obviously, that situation had been very traumatizing to her.

Mr. Sinclair sighed. “Don’t worry too much, Ela. Sure, you were definitely twisted, but various factors were at play then, especially the stressful environment. Working so hard to remain perfect while having no one to rely on. You had depression, and it manifested as… that.”

“And then one quack tried to tag you as a psychopath because you were a bit troublesome during sessions! Thank goodness we met our now-family therapist, Mr. Elon, who helped you so much!”

Mrs. Sinclair pulled Elara into a stuffy embrace. “Don’t think about it. It’s all in the past now. It’s all in the past. You were bad, but you’ve changed. Did it… affect you later?”

Elara peeked up from her mother’s shoulder to her father’s worried face and smiled reassuringly.

Actually, it did. Very much so. A past she hated enough to want permanently buried six feet under. Obviously, she never made peace with it… But not anymore.

“No, Mum,” she caressed her back comfortingly. “Not at all.”

***

The depressing topic had finally been taken care of, and Elara brought up something else that immediately elevated the mood.

After catching up with her parents, she crashed out in her room for a while and felt the nostalgia drown her.

Terra had pretty much cleared this place up, but something about the room brought Elara back to her past.

The depressing mornings that came with the thoughts of arriving at school and resuming her freak show. The suffocating nights filled with insomnia, terrible nightmares, and freak-out sessions at the thought of school the next day.

And rare weekends when her family couldn’t spend time with her, leaving her to crash out and spend all day doing whatever just to avoid this terrible space.

Thinking of it, her sudden attack on those psychos after being confined by her parents was probably triggered by this same room. Her poor parents had no idea and probably still didn’t.

But now, looking at it… nothing. She felt nothing.

“I guess it’s only something when you allow it to be.”

After that, she visited her siblings for games with some thoughts in mind.

Her memory of the past was mostly complete, but her future ones, ones after age 18, were still fuzzy, and even after being told about her actions, it felt like she was learning about someone else’s history and not hers…

She popped into the room where Jeremy lay battling with his console, “Aww, gaming? Damn, and I wanted to demolish you in chess for a brief moment.”

Jeremy paused his game and faced her with a cheeky smile. “I’ll be there in ten to beat your amnesiac ass.”

Elara grinned, “Oh please, even with Jane, you’ll only do so much; let’s put both of you on the same team, okay~. I’m being nice here, seriously!”

Jeremy grinned wider, “Let’s see if you can still be cocky after I’m done with you!”

Elara: Hehe.

***

The next day, Elara could barely hold down her extroverted desires and took off to have some fun after letting everyone know.

She decided to stroll the neighborhood first, parking her car at a hidden corner of the street before picking up her phone.

“Hey, Terry,” she called out while observing the beautiful buildings and weather. She had talked to everyone else but him after her arrival and felt bad about it, so she decided to call him as soon as she could.

“Hm, yes. I’m having a morning stroll for now. Huh? Oh don’t worry, this street isn’t THAT… And I can take care of myself… I… Huh?”

Suddenly, the blunt weight of a heavy substance collided with her head, bringing with it a swirling dizziness, and before she could get herself, she collapsed to the floor helplessly.

Her phone fell along with her, its screen shattering into pieces.

She groaned, closing her eyes instinctively to shield from the warm liquid that dripped down her head.

‘Is that… blood…?’

That was the last thought that came to her before she passed out.

Meanwhile, on the other end, Terrence’s shaky voice faltered after one last “Hello?”

Oh no…

He crouched downwards, with a face as pale as ashes and eyes smoldered with despair like dry coals.

Oh no…

His breathing elevated to dangerous levels and was sure to distort into an attack if not stabilized immediately.

Oh no…

“Elara…”

His vision blurred, his figure staggered and before he could do anything, he passed out.