My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Kidnapped (2)
[TW: Mentions of bullying]

“What happened?”

“The most unlikely thing to happen!”

“Can someone spill the fucking tea and stop teasing me?!”

“Girl, it’s everywhere! Find it yourself!”

“Ah, fuck!”

And it was.

On X, Facebook, YouTube, the news, TikTok… everywhere! The whole world was in an uproar. After all, who on the face of the earth didn’t know about the Astridge family?! Unless they lived with zero tech or under a rock!

The headlines blew up, swiftly displacing every other popular news!

Trouble ensues in the richest family of all time—the Astridges.

Was Mr. Terrence overreacting?

Fans support him still; critics judge him as ungrateful!

The unlikely incident in the peaceful family of the Astridges! What hides underneath their façade?

Divorcée and former Mrs. Astridge and son say they support the confinement—what did the duo of father and daughter do to deserve such estrangement?

Terrence, CEO of Neva, confines father, and sister on charges of kidnapping!

Fans heartbroken to know that Mr Terrence, the heartthrob and diamond bachelor of the century might have a lover.

No leaks, no clues—how careful was Mr. Terrence with his suspected lover?

…

..

.

***

“What are you doing?! How could you do this to Father?!” Ariel screamed while struggling to escape her entrapment. She had been handcuffed to a chair and thrown into the interrogation room, and the bastard—the culprit of it all—stood overlooking her with bleak eyes.

She gritted her teeth. Her anger wasn’t even about herself but her dearest father! He had been escorted into a room and confined there! The audacity, the guts, the heartlessness!

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! They all stood and watched you do this?! I warned Father! How could he allow you such—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Terrence replied with a grimace. “Your buzzing has been quite infuriating for a while.”

He approached her with a grim look and, with a slam of his fist, came face to face with her aggrieved expression.

“Where. Is. She?”

Ariel’s heart plummeted along with the temperature within and around her from the sheer energy that radiated from the male. His eyes were bloodshot, and the greyness of his pupils had taken on the lifelessness of ashes.

Her body, regardless of her intention, quivered fearfully, and had it not been for how empty her bladder was, she was sure she would have wet herself.

But she persisted. “I have no idea…”

“Father,” Terrence turned his back to her. “I won’t harm him.”

“Of course, you won’t!” she cut him off, elated but alarmed. He couldn’t be dumb enough to cut off all leverage he had on her just like that… right?

His back was facing her, but for some bizarre reason, she could feel the menacing smile that came with his words.

“But I will bankrupt him.”

“…What?” She tensed up.

“You and him. It’ll take some time, but with him confined in the nursing home against his wishes, and you in jail for your crimes, I’m sure there’ll be enough time to make it happen.”

She tensed up, but her response was stalled.

“He’ll be taken care of, definitely. Of course, that is on the grounds that…” He turned towards her with an unfeeling smile. “She has not a single scratch on her.”

Ariel’s expression froze. He… could do it. With his power, influence, and wealth, he could, and even Father’s softheartedness could only do so much for her and against him.

Her expression had been too blatant, and Terrence couldn’t help smiling with a sense of schadenfreude. What a fool.

“If she does have scratches,” he continued, “then during your time in prison, I’ll gladly let your enemies devour you however they want.”

“Terrence!” she exclaimed madly, slamming her feet underneath the table. “You cannot be serious! For a woman?!”

“…And if she’s dead,” he abruptly stopped, with a suddenness so oppressive that Ariel found herself unable to continue her reproof.

He faced her, calmly, a bit too calmly. His obscured face shadowed the look in his eyes but not the evil in them.

“You do not want to know what I will do to the entire Astridge bloodline.”

It was like icy water on a nude body standing in the coldest regions of Antarctica—the feeling that invaded her, that is. She was sure that this particular promise, he meant every bit of it.

“So?”

She didn’t realize she had been panting for breath with her head hung down until he spoke. She glanced at her skin—ramrod hairs and sweat pouring like a heavy downpour.

Her mind blanked out as she gulped.

“I… I’ll tell you everything.”

***

Elara wasn’t sure when it all ended. What she knew was that everywhere hurt. She twisted her nose at the acrid smell that invaded it, and when she looked over, she frowned heavily before slowly scooting away from her position.

She had been lying down beside her vomit. That was when she remembered. She had been beaten so much that she vomited and passed out from the pain. And her brain graced her with a memory.

Back then, in middle school, she had been invisible. The first reason was that she had moved many classes in advance due to her smarts, and now everyone was way older than her. No one wanted to hang out with a kid so much younger than them.

Her hair had been quite long, and she decided to try something new on a certain day; she let it down despite her dislike for hair touching her skin. When she arrived, for the first time, people recalled her existence.

The teacher finally asked her about the real pronunciation of her name, and her classmates approached her. She got waves of compliments and even flirtatious remarks, which she accepted despite her unease.

She never understood why people loved attention so much until then. She had been comfortable with her invisibility and only disliked it low-key because of how lonely she was.

But after that day, she realized that she, in fact, did not want to remain like that at all. And so, she began wearing her hair out and dressing nicely, even adding in a bit of makeup to complete her new look.

Needless to say, she blossomed like a rose, and soon, many people became interested in her. In that brief moment, she had company—maybe not friends, but she wasn’t lonely anymore. Neither was she invisible—she never knew school could be so fun until then!

Unbeknownst to her, trouble was brewing beneath the lovely surface, and she, blissfully unaware of it, enjoyed her brief moment of joy.

Someone had once said to her that one might not want to get involved in politics, but politics was very much into them and would readily get involved with them regardless of their wishes.

She didn’t understand then, despite her agreeing, or rather, she believed the politics being spoken about was about the country’s politics and hadn’t yet realized that the thing about politics was that it existed everywhere.

School politics were one of the most ruthless of all, perhaps because these children were more inclined to let the demon within them run free than adults, who had to learn to control theirs better with age.

As a loner who was in school but couldn’t be bothered by its intricacies, she didn’t know this and could never have thought that a harmless transformation of hers was disruptive enough to place a target on her head.

In truth, it shouldn’t have been enough… For her to reach the level of a threat in need of eradication, she should have to be at a higher level, but one tiny thing tilted the weight against her—her looks.

She was so pretty that just a little change was all it needed to bring her to the spotlight. To thrust her into a position that left a sour taste in some people’s mouths.

Ogbarajuo odoro. A phrase in her local language that meant: after much compilation, the results would finally be given. That was what happened that day.

She was cornered in the toilet, surrounded, and beaten the shit out of. The ladies each gave her three hard slaps, followed by a complimentary knock on the head. There had been six of them, and the last one, who felt she had ‘missed the show,’ decided to use punches and kicks on her instead.

All older girls… Well, most of the students in the school were older than her.

Her dainty figure stood no chance, and after crying and begging until she was silenced by the pain, she curled up in the school bathroom, shivering. By the time her hair was ruthlessly scissored into a mess of curls so short she might as well be bald, she was too much in pain to respond.

It took her minutes to stagger up, only to come face to face with the mess of her head. Her dried-up eyes were wet again, and she cried. What… what to do..? Her only lifeline… the only thing that gave vigor to her dead school life…

But then an idea came to her mind. Maybe if she went out like this, someone could help her…?

She did. That moment was break time, and she staggered with her chair to a corner alone. She felt their glances and whispers, but no one said a word. She went to class, and none of her ‘friends’ bothered with her. The teacher didn’t even notice her, despite being at the front of the class.

She became… invisible again. That day, after school, she disappeared. She went to a barber and had her mess of hair trimmed down. During the process, no tears fell; she merely overlooked her notes. It was the notes she had written of her imaginary friend—Sarah.

She was sweet, kind, and charming. Comforting and… perfection.

She closed the book and left it that day in the barber’s shop.

Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. From her brief moment of fame to the collapse of everything to the indifference of the whole school. It was all ridiculous, and she was the most ridiculous of them all. She had been too passive. She’d have to take matters into her own hands from then on.

***

It was a memory in her mind that had affected her throughout her teen years, even into her university, until Dora’s betrayal formatted her to her factory settings. Vague due to its trauma, yet distinct enough to influence her to such an extent.

She continued to school as normal for the next couple of days, her parents unaware of what had happened except that she had suddenly shaved off her hair to her scalp because it was too annoying, and her injuries were dutifully hidden from them until they were gone.

She became a loner again. No one disturbed or approached her, and after middle school, she stubbornly and decisively took three years to learn self-defense.

Apart from the hidden consequences that followed that event, such as her future psychopathic tendencies, one thing was ingrained within her—a loathing. She loathed, to her very bones, even till now, she loathed indifference.

Indifference. She wasn’t sure towards what or who. She just loathed it… The idea of being invisible once more, she absolutely abhorred it.

“Hah… fuck. Why are they only terrible memories? Fuck school, haha…”

A noise came from far away. She blinked, her eyelids were heavy, but she forcefully parted them.

The entrance was opened, and a large amount of light filtered in. She blinked drowsily, and despite her struggles to keep awake, the heaviness drowned her, and with one final blink, she lost consciousness.