Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 62

Guilt. It was the one feeling that she was having right now. Looking at Larse who was absent-mindedly staring out of his huge glass window. Tapping his fingers all the while looking back and forth at his phone, his face was lace with lines, burdened by something that was going through in his mind.

She had found out that the man had been holed up in his office ever since his wife got back. She accidentally found about it when Larse asked Lorraine to get him a change of clothes yesterday.

Larse would take his shower in his private bathroom, eating order out food, and then continued to drown himself in work.

Crystal already knew what was going on within his mind, but she was reluctant to ask since she didn’t want to bruise the man's already broken ego and the fact that she didn’t know what she could say or do to make him feel better.

So instead of facing it she just decides on the easiest and safest option to do right now, and that is to try to take the man’s mind off things.

Taking several deep breaths to calm her nerves, she then knocks on the man’s door staying there until he finally looks at her.

“Oh hey!” He greets.

A line formed on the side of his lips as he stood up from his chair. Though the man looked cheerful Crystal could see that he was weary and burned out from all that was happening.

“Hey, I packed quite a lot today for lunch, so I thought you might want to try out my cooking, you haven’t ordered have you?” she says in a shy sheepish tone, showing the packed lunch she had brought.

Larse brows furrowed, suddenly looking down as he seemed still in a daze. “Oh, is it lunchtime already?”

Crystal couldn’t help but worry, feeling a bit responsible for the man's current situation. It seems as if Larse was unable to cope with the stress and reality of what was going on with his life right now.

Not even thinking twice, she grabs onto the man's hand and pulls him onto his sofa, Larse didn’t have any qualms, obediently sitting as she began taking out each of the packed lunches that she made.

“Yes, it is. Here, I think you’re going to like this,” she says as she began taking out every container and began arranging it in front of Larse.

Crystal actually had prepared this for him, since she had been seeing the food that he had been eating these past few days. She was worried that the man might not be getting the right amount of nutrition as he seemed a little sluggish and weak lately.

She had prepared a separate container for the rice to make sure there was plenty along with several other ones for the side dish.

There was chicken that she cooked to golden brown perfection, before glazing it in a nice coating of honey soy and pineapples, a side of pickle relish and young papaya, and garlic buttered baby potatoes, for the soup she made beef stew with plenty of corn kernels, carrots, and cabbage, perfect for reinvigorating the man’s body and for the dessert she made sticky cake with toasted coconut and yema a dessert made of cooked milk.

“Wow, you made all of this.” Larse eyes sort of twinkled looking at the luscious and mouth-watering feast that was prepared for him, his mouth was open and was almost drooling at it making Crystal smile in delight.

Knowing that somehow brought a bit of cheer in the man managed to make her feel a lot better now.

Though she wanted to make sure that the man would eat his fill, she couldn't stay there for long since Lorraine was still waiting for her in their own office, plus she knew the man needed his space for now.

“Eat up okay, I’ll just come back for the lunch box later,” she says as she stood up.

Larse turned to her with a much more cheerful smile. “Thanks, Crys,” he says as she started to leave.

Crystal just gives him a nod and proceeded to go out of the room, he took a peak for a moment to check on him and was smiling from ear to ear as she saw him dig in on the food with gusto. Seeing that finally put her at ease, so she was much happier when she walked back to their office.

She found Lorraine patiently waiting for her inside, anxiousness written all over her face as she looked at her with a puppy dog eye. Yet, she still waited for her to be seated before talking.

“How’s my brother doing?” she asks pulling her chair closer to her.

She lets out a deep sigh. “Stressed,” was all she could say as she couldn’t describe the depth of the man's sorrow nor the things that were going through his mind right now.

Lorraine bit her lower lip in her distress. “This is a first, usually whenever he and Dana would fight, my brother makes sure to try and fix things before they go to sleep, he doesn’t care if his wife’s in the wrong, if he needs to apologize he’ll do it just to be sure that they’re okay, so I wonder what happened this time?” Letting out a deep breath from frustration.

Seems Larse wasn’t the only one being affected by the whole situation as it seems even Lorraine was quite down right now.

“Maybe he finally realized that he shouldn’t always let his wife push him around, especially if he’s the one who’s in the right,” she lets out.

Even if she said those words to Lorraine, in all honesty, she knew that it was really intended for her, not wanting to feel conflicted or troubled right now because of this, she wanted to repeat and assure herself that everything she was doing was for the better.

“Same here, that’s why I could never understand why my brother lets his wife get away with it,” Lorraine agreed as she too seemed discontented and angry at Dana who seem to not know the word content.

But of course deep in Crystal’s mind, she was going to make sure that the woman would find out the price of being too greedy.

“It’s because your brother’s been trying to make his marriage work somehow.” It was a thing that she had found out about the man which she admired the most.

Of course, there was in no way that it would be possible with Dana, seemingly as she had managed to do a lot of things behind the man’s back and was still proceeding to drive their marriage into more uncharted and rocky shores. For her, it was already impossible to try to mend that kind of relationship.

Besides the fact that she was also there, who would make sure that the woman would see the errors of her action and make everyone see the kind of person that she was.

“Well, I don’t blame him, I mean, do you know how it would feel getting married to someone you barely know, just because of our parent's life long promise to their friends, I’m really glad they didn’t do that to me,” Lorraine was truly pitying her brother.

It seems that even though she was the least favorite, she was still thankful that their parents did not bother with her. Making her have at least an ounce of freedom from them.

“Yeah, even I don’t think I’d be able to go through with that.” It was true, even if she never had an arrangement like Larse had, she understood how it felt being forced to do something she did not want.

“But still I don’t understand Dana at all, I mean, my brother is already trying his best to make things work between them, yet she seems uninterested at all,” Lorraine grumbled, mouth pouting from the annoyance that she felt.

Crystal ended up chuckling understanding it very well. “I don’t know, it may be that some people just don’t know how to appreciate the things that they have,” she just says to her.

“Well, I hope my brother snaps out of it, always trying to please mom and dad, I wish he’d realize his mistake, and try to do what’s right for a change.” Loraine let out another deep breath in frustration.

“When that happens, I doubt he’s still going to stay with Dana,” she tells her, grinning at the thought of the woman being found out.

She knew very well that if that would ever happen, Larse would be able to easily find someone better than Dana. With the man’s extremely good looks and vast fortune, she was very sure that a lot of women would be lining up in front of him.

“I don’t mind, I never liked her anyway,” Lorraine rolled her eyes but smiling at the thought of it.

It seems Dana did not know how to really choose her battles wisely, making Crystal feel even better, knowing that in time, she was going to be able to see the woman’s demise.

“Let’s just hope for the best for your brother,” she tried to smile but it ended up becoming a smirk.

Since she was already imagining how Dana would look, once she loses everything. All because she was manipulating, greedy and a total fool.