Part 11 # Mad Obsession
Someone suddenly knocked on the door. It was Olivia.
“Madam, may I come in?” she asked with a suspicious smile, brandishing a lewd photo of Seno with a woman-Olivia herself.
“Come in!” Lara ordered, gasping for breath. Seno had just come home after spending the whole day with her, even though he hadn’t been asked to.
The next day-early in the morning-Seno had to go out of town to continue the payment process to acquire a partner company. Lara didn’t pay much attention to the details because she didn’t care about Seno’s activities.
“What do you mean?!” she raised her voice, forcefully grabbing the indecent portrait from Olivia’s hand and tearing it apart until it was unrecognizable.
Olivia chuckled cunningly. “I have a thousand nude photos of Seno that are more shocking than the one you just destroyed.”
“Divorce him.”
“Y-you!” Lara was truly angry and indignant, but Olivia just kept making her furious.
The darkening sky made the atmosphere in her room even more stifling. The increasingly cold air made her hair stand on end.
What kind of dream was this? Why was Olivia-that slut-now in front of her? Lara had never expected this.
Olivia’s presence was like a ghost she desperately wanted to avoid. Her embodiment resembled a ghostly creature that should never come close to her.
The pain in Lara’s heart had not completely disappeared. Even though Seno had tried to redeem himself, her anger hadn’t faded. She still needed time to forgive him, if she could.
“W-what are you doing!” Lara exclaimed.
“Don’t you see? I’m threatening you. Divorce him!” Olivia flashed a sly smile that didn’t even look at Lara sympathetically. She was still in the hospital and injured.
The aura of amorality and cruelty seemed perfectly attached to Olivia. There was no trace of mercy in her heart. She was born with various cruelties ingrained in her to the core.
Olivia never knew what love and affection were, only obsession and vengeance. Those two things shaped her into such a cruel woman, one who justified everything to achieve her goals.
“What’s in it for you?! Hasn’t Seno already given you a luxurious apartment? What else do you want?!” Lara fumed, remembering that Olivia should have felt content with everything she had received.
She didn’t demand much. She just wanted Seno to stay by her side and be a good father to their future child.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.
“Oh! That apartment is nothing. Haha…” Olivia chuckled, mocking Lara’s overly simplistic thoughts. “That’s why, being wealthy requires a little bit of intelligence. Calling an apartment expensive, haha…”
“Y-you!”
Lara blinked in disbelief. She was so hurt to be laughed at by Olivia. How could she not appreciate such an expensive gift? What did Olivia really want?
“Do you still want to outdo me? Dream on!” Lara retorted, mocking Olivia’s baseless obsession that had plagued her for so long.
She initially didn’t realize Olivia’s insane obsession, but slowly, she began to dig for her own clues that had long pointed to the unnoticed competition.
Back in college, after winning a beauty contest, Olivia had seemed to distance herself from Lara. Olivia didn’t realize it, but she was jealous of Lara’s achievements.
The invisible competition always seemed to manifest when Olivia successfully snatched away Lara’s possessions. For example, a project from a lecturer that should have been Lara’s suddenly got taken by Olivia.
Another research project that seemed trivial, assigned to Lara, suddenly had a new supervisor and became Olivia’s task.
Lara thought it was all just a coincidence. It wasn’t until now that she realized Seno had also fallen into Olivia’s trap fueled by her crazy obsession.
She had been so naive and foolish, thinking everything was unrelated.
“You just realized?” Olivia didn’t seem offended. She seemed to admit that seizing everything belonging to Lara was a victory trophy for her. But, of course, that wasn’t her ultimate goal.
“You’re insane!” Lara refused.
Seno and Olivia’s affair, which Lara had discovered, had truly shattered and tormented her. The fact that Seno pampered his mistress with so much wealth made her heart as a wife ache deeply.
However, Olivia’s insane obsession only made her angrier. She never thought that Seno had fallen into that evil woman’s trap.
Her view of the affair incident became different. She didn’t feel that Seno was entirely to blame.
“Enough! Don’t think too much! Quickly! Divorce your husband! Or…”
“Or what?!” Lara challenged. She didn’t want to be manipulated by the vile woman in front of her any further.
She now knew all of Olivia’s tricks to constantly outdo her. Even by snatching Seno away from both of her hands.
“The photos you destroyed will be spread. I still have many copies. Haha…”
“What?!”
As much as Lara hated Seno, she certainly didn’t want him to suffer from such embarrassing things.
Moreover, Seno’s grandmother-the only woman Lara loved-would surely be very ashamed of the scandal that would happen.
She didn’t want to destroy the Adhijaya family. It was all for Grandma and also her future son-in-law.
“How dare you threaten me!”
“Calm down, MADAM LARA! That won’t happen if you divorce Seno. I’m still being kind, you know, calling you ‘Madam’ because I don’t want to speak harshly.”
Olivia tossed her shoulder-length hair arrogantly. Her eyes were watching Lara’s every move to inflict more pain.
Seeing Lara’s reaction silenced without saying a word, it seemed that Olivia’s intimidation was yielding the results she hoped for.
Was Olivia really serious about spreading nude photos of Seno and creating a scandal? If he went bankrupt and their company’s products were affected as a result, wouldn’t Olivia also suffer? Lara started to hesitate.
“Why are you silent?”
“I-I…” Lara was confused about what to answer.
Was she really supposed to divorce Seno just because Olivia threatened her?
Suddenly, a loud crash interrupted their tense standoff. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the room as the windowpane splintered. Both women turned towards the source, eyes wide with shock. A brick lay amidst the shards of glass, wrapped in a piece of paper. Lara’s hands trembled as she unfolded the note, revealing a scrawled message: “Leave him, or else.”
Her heart pounded in her chest, the weight of the threat crushing her resolve. Olivia’s smug expression only intensified Lara’s fear. The room seemed to close in on her, the walls pressing in with an oppressive force.
Lara took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “This is insane,” she whispered, more to herself than to Olivia.
“What’s insane is thinking you can keep Seno,” Olivia retorted, her voice dripping with venom. “Make the smart choice, Lara. Before things get worse.”
Lara’s mind raced. The threats were escalating, and Olivia’s determination was unwavering. She knew she couldn’t let this woman ruin her life, but she also couldn’t put her family in danger.
Summoning every ounce of strength, Lara straightened her shoulders and met Olivia’s gaze head-on. “I’ll think about it,” she said evenly, masking the turmoil within. “But don’t underestimate me, Olivia. You won’t win easily.”
Olivia’s smirk faltered slightly, but she quickly regained her composure. “We’ll see,” she replied, turning on her heel and striding out of the room.
As the door closed behind her, Lara sank onto the bed, the weight of the situation crashing down on her. She clutched the note in her hand, the words burning into her memory. She had to find a way to protect her family and outsmart Olivia, no matter what it took.