Chapter 88
Lake:
It is safe to say I ran out of the restaurant as quickly as my legs could carry me. I could hear faint cries behind me, echoes of a male voice screaming my name, but I paid the voices no mind. I had to be out of the building as fast as possible, so as not to make a public mess of myself.
I walked to my car and leaned against the first door, flinging my hands over the car and placing my forehead on it. I shut my eyelids very tight, to stop the tears that lingered in them from flowing. Immediately my tongue sipped the familiar taste of the noodles, and tears gathered in my eyelids. I wanted to scream for joy, yell out in anger and cry in pain, all at the same time. So, I decided to be silent instead, it was the only reaction that would not expose any of the many things I felt.Belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.
As I ate the noodles, I saw myself again. I saw that day, very clearly. It played out in front of my eyes like I was watching a movie. It was the event that changed my life, the moment I fought hard to bury at the back of my mind. But all my many emotions – feelings, rather – brought it springing to the front seat of my mind.
It was raining heavily that day. I had only had breakfast, a tasty bowl of cabbage noodles while playing with my favorite dinosaur figure. I was just five, in my toddler seat, waiting for my mother to clear my plate and kiss me on my forehead as she always did. But when she opened the door, it was not to kiss me. She stared down at me with tears in her eyes, shook her head, and turned away.
I was confused, utterly confused. My little legs dropped to the ground as I pushed my chair away. I dashed out of the room and tried to run behind her, but my little legs were no match for her long and adult ones. I cried out to her, called out to her. She was pulling her luggage along with her.
I did not know where she was going, but something in the way she had looked at me told my little mind she was not coming back. She flung the door open and entered into the rain with her box. The sound of our door banging shut was accompanied by a louder thunder. I screamed at the top of my voice with tears in my eyes, ready to fly down the steps of the staircase, I did not care that I might crack my skull and die, I did not know.
But I could not. My nanny seized me from underneath my shoulders as she lifted me into the air. I kicked, screamed, and cried. I wanted to give her a kick to her nose so she would let me go. However, she soon figured out my plan and scooped me in her arms. She did not stop until she was in my father’s room.
He stared out of the window, watching the droplets of rain slide down the glass. I ran to him and pulled him by his hand, his trousers, his legs, anything to make him stand up and listen to me. But it was all of no use. He did not so much as look down at me.
And my mother? She did not tell me goodbye. All she did was leave, leave me to ask why to leave me to wonder what I could have done better if I could have tried harder.
I cried for her every day and every night until I eventually stopped feeling the pain. There was nothing in my chest besides emptiness and hollowness. I intended to keep it that way.
Wherever she came from, she had to return there because I wanted nothing to do with her.
“Lake.” I heard Kenji’s voice call from behind me. I raised my head and tilted my neck to look at him.
He seemed distraught while panting heavily.
“Look, man…”
“I doubt I’m in any mood to talk to you right now. Just go home, Kenji.” I cut in. He stayed quiet and staggered two steps backward.
I pulled my car door open and flung myself into my driver’s seat. The sound of the engine roaring to life was the last thing I thought of, before speeding out of the parking lot.
*********”
Kenji watched his best friend’s car speed out of the driveway with tears in his eyes. He turned to the restaurant door and found the woman standing there, her eyes red and swollen.
She had just lost her son again, but he was about to lose his best friend and brother. And for what?
Kenji looked away from her and found his car. He took slow steps to the sky-blue automobile and flung himself into the driver’s seat with the same style he had seen his friend use.
Immediately he put the car on the ignition, the woman began walking to his vehicle. He pressed his leg hard against the accelerator and sped up the car, rushing out of the driveway before she could get close to him.
He wanted to tell himself he was not at fault for how things had turned out, but a great part of him knew it was a lie. He had known the secret, yet he had kept it away from Lake. That was his mistake and Lake had all right to be mad at him.
Kenji did not know how he managed to deliver himself to his parent’s home, but he knew he was not delighted when the one who opened the door for him was the last person he needed to see in his current mood.
Once he walked past her, Jade locked the door and began to walk behind him.
“Kenji, what is the matter? You don’t look well.”
Kenji did not speak to her. To be fair, he did not wish to speak to anybody, not even himself. But ever persistent Jade pushed the door of his room open and invited herself in.
“Ken, I know you went to see the alpha. And to return with a gloomy face makes me know that something is not right. So you better talk to me or I’ll go over to Lake’s mansion and…”
That was it, he had heard enough. He dropped his coat on his bed and frowned as he turned to her.
“And do what, Jade? Tell him that I’m sorry. Tell him that I did not intend to keep the truth about his mother a secret and I wish he did not find out the way he did. Then don’t bother, because these are all the things I plan to say and I know he would not listen.”
Jade blinked twice at him. Kenji shook his head and looked away from her.
“It’s pointless, Jade. He won’t listen to me, not anymore.” He sighed a heavy sigh and allowed himself to fall on his bed. The soft mattress welcomed his butt, and Kenji felt his weight soak the wooden bed.
“But he’ll listen to me,” Jade said aloud. Kenji was going to throw his head back in laughter if he did not know that his cousin was serious.
Jade was the last human being Lake intended to see right now. She would only end up humiliated…
“Jade!” He cut his thoughts short and screamed out his cousin’s name when he saw her stomp out of the room.
Why did she have a knack for humiliating herself?