Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 50

Crystal was still deep in thought up to that day, she was suddenly in turmoil upon seeing the little boy. Conflicted, because of the fact of what would possibly happen to the child if she continues with what she was doing right now. She really didn’t want to drag the kid, but she knew that stopping was not an option, since she knew sooner or later things were bound to end up in a mess with all that the woman was doing. So, she wanted to make sure that she was there when that happened.

“Miss Aimely, you may go in now,” the voice of the woman woke Crystal from her thoughts.

“Okay, thank you.” Standing up from the sofa chair.

She quickly pats her black pencil skirt to make sure it didn’t have any crease and did a few touches on her white peplum top before proceeding to open the door, not really minding the funny look she was getting from the receptionist at the desk.

“Good morning!” She greets in her most cheerful yet polite tone.

Larse was sitting at the back of his desk when she got in, but she can see the tension and worry in his eyes as he caught him massaging his temples. The man quickly stood up, plastering a smile on his face as he moved towards her.

“I’m sorry for making you wait like that,” he chuckles scratching his nape as he waved her to sit.

“Oh no, not at all mister August,” she states to try to stay in a polite yet business-like manner, before sitting at the long sofa chair.

“Larse! just Larse would be fine, please,” the man says as he took the seat right next to it.

“Okay.” That was all she could say as she didn’t want to cause any problems.

“So, how goes the work?” Larse seemed to relax a bit seeing she was taking out several documents.

“We are already finished to about eighty percent, so we might be done earlier than expected,” She proceeded to put all of her reports in front of the coffee table to show some of it to the man.

A sigh of relief came out from Larse, making him press his hand to his face. “Thank you, that’s really good news for me, you guys are a lifesaver.” He smiles at her.

Seeing as the man seemed to be in a chatty mood and informal with her, Crystal decided to take her chance right then and there.

Sitting in a more relaxed state she turns a bit to the man, crossing her legs so she can place her hands on top of them.

“Is everything okay Larse? I mean, I noticed you’ve been really stressed out lately,” biting her lower lip as she said those words.

Crystal immediately got a reaction from the man as Larse swallowed hard while looking a bit dumbfounded for a moment before snapping back to reality.

“Yeah, I just have so many things in my mind right now,” he chuckles as he tried to look the other way but ended looking at her again as she seemed quite serious.

Crystal's face had this worried look that seemed so caring, making Larse melt then there as his eyes were suddenly glued to her.

“If it’s all right, may I ask a question,” she says softly.

“Su...sure, go ahead,” the man quickly answers smiling.

Seeing as there was no problem and by looking at things Crystal knew it was all right for her to go through with what she had in mind.

“I’m not trying to impose or anything, but your company is one of the best and largest there is in our country and I am familiar with some of your work. So may I ask, why all of a sudden you decided to outsource. I mean, doesn’t your company have a department for this kind of work?” It was one of the things that have been bugging her for the last months.

Though she was really thankful for it, there was also a part of her that was worried as it only meant one thing for a big company like Larse's.

“Yeah, I know it’s weird, but this is my last option If I want to make sure the company doesn’t end up in a mess,” the man said letting out a pained laugh.

It was as if he had suddenly lost strength after mentioning it.

“Might I know why?” There was no turning back.

It had been months since she’s been seeing the man in his office and all of the time he had always been friendly in his approach, trying to be familiar with her. She would have been okay with it if there was no work involved, but this was a risk she knew she wanted to take.

Larse let out a chuckle. “Well, after my marriage, my father-in-law kept asking for favors. Like putting some of their family members in certain positions. Since he and my dad are really close, plus the fact that I just got married to her daughter, I wasn’t able to decline. My dad was the one who decided on which department was available for the additional workforce, I thought it would just be a few low positions, but they ended up taking important areas within the company. So, instead of filling up and lessening the workload, I ended up with a whole lot of mess because of those people. I tried several approaches for the past years but they just kept messing up, the worst part is I started losing some of my best employees because of them, and I couldn't do anything about it because I know my dad’s going to get pissed if I try to fire them,” he whined all the while gritting his teeth.

Crystal felt sorry for the man, she felt his pain, increasing her resolve. Knowing that what she was going to do was right.

“Aren’t you the one running the company now?” she asks once more.

Larse let out a chuckle. “No, I’m just the acting C.E.O. since my dad hasn’t stepped down, he wanted to make sure that I can run the company for at least five years before he passed give’s me full control, and from the looks of it, I might end up losing this. I’m not sure if my dad purposely put those people there to try my managing skills or he just ended up being manipulated by them,” he sighed after that.

“I think it’s the first one, maybe he wants to try and see how you’ll be able to handle things here without his help,” she says with a cheerful voice, wanting to make him feel better.

“Without firing those people?” That caused Larse to laugh.

“What if they resigned?” She says grinning.

“I doubt that would happen, with how much they’re getting here, there’s no way they’d leave the job,” the man puffed as he slouched on his chair.

“Not if you do something about it,” She urges him.

Knowing the other side of Larse from his other timeline, she knew that the man was capable and reliable, so she was sure that something was causing him to be downright helpless.

“Like what?” the man frowned, resting his hand on his head while leaning on the couch as he listened to her.

“If you have the proper people to handle it, you’ll be able to deal with those people. Else you might end up like the old company in which I work,” she points out.

“Why what happened in your old work?” that put Larse into attention.

Crystal knew that she was at risk here, but she didn’t really care now, especially since this was a chance that she wasn’t going to get again.

“I’ve been with a company which was run by people who really didn’t know what they were doing. If you’re new or know how things work, would really notice it until eventually, it takes its toll on them. The others, who don’t know and have no other option for work tend to hold on for much longer. I should know, a lot of my colleagues who were really good at their job weren’t able to cope up with the management and ended up resigning to find better jobs after just a few months, while us who didn’t really have the guts to leave stayed, though we’re being overworked,” she poured out, not leaving anything.

She didn’t mind if he’d look down on her since what she wanted to make sure is that the man did not end up like those people.

“That’s actually the reason why I decided to outsource since I’ve been receiving a lot of complaints lately,” Larse ended up sighing again, pressing his hands to his face as if he had a headache.

“Up until when are you planning to do this, I mean it’s not really practical for a company of your size to continue doing this, plus the department who’s supposed to handle this will end up as nothing but a waste of company funds,” she scolds him, wanting to at least give the man courage to act.

Yet it seems Larse was truly down, as he slouched to the chair and seemed so stressed out at the mention of it.

“I know, but I’ve already tried everything,” he groans.

“Have you tried putting someone in charge of those people?” she says raising one brow as she wasn’t really liking how the man was acting up.

“Everyone in the company knows about them, so even if I put someone in charge of them they end up scared because of their connection to my father and me,” he defends.

“Then why not put someone who has a better connection to your family? Let’s say a relative of yours or someone that you know would not fear them and is quite valued by your father,” she reiterates.

As it was a possible countermeasure seeing as the man seemed unable to handle the things himself.

“I’ve actually tried that and it ended up in an all-out war,” he sarcastically laughs.

“So you didn’t see it through?” Crystal’s face now straightened.

“Yes, I reshuffled them after a month just to keep the peace,” Larse let out another deep sigh.

“Then maybe that’s your mistake,” she says not wanting to hold back anymore.

Larse ended up with a pained expression as he looked at her. “What, why?”

Crystal not wanting to make the man feel any lower, decided to take it a bit slower. “I hope you don’t take this personally,” she says.

“Go ahead,” Larse sat up straight as he listened.

“Well, what you did just showed that you didn’t have the balls to run a large company like this. Those so-called relatives of your father-in-law can do what they want cause they know no one is going to oppose them, since even you are afraid of doing something. The proof of that is you surrendered to their whims, even though your own people did not,” she pointed out.

“If you only saw how much bickering and trouble that happened within the company you wouldn’t say that,” Larse let out another laugh at her.

“But I can since It’s a normal occurrence. Sometimes it can happen for years and I can tell you that the first person to budge is the loser. In your case it was you. What was the reason why you put those people there, Isn’t it so that they can have the job done. But you just didn’t let them do it, just because you weren’t able to handle some bickering,” she tried to make sure that she kept her voice in a soft yet authoritative manner.

“One of them ended up in a fistfight and threatened to sue,” Larse had this bored expression as he said those words.

“And who started it?” She ended up raising one brow upon hearing it.

“Who do you think?” The man smirked.

“Then why didn’t you just let them sue each other, it does happen you know,” she quickly states.

“Cause that wouldn't really be good for the company,” the man defends.

“Exactly! And wouldn’t that be enough of a reason for your father to at least reconsider?” She immediately reminds him.

That made Larse silent for a few moments. “I...I’m not really sure.”

“Who do you think he’s going to take the side of, your important employee or your father-in-law’s relative who doesn’t know how to do their job and also started the fight?” she wittingly asks smirking.

“I don’t really know who he will choose. I mean, the said employee’s actually my mom’s cousin and is an asset to the company,” Larse blurts out.

Crystal couldn’t believe what she was hearing, the man actually had the upper hand in this yet he just surrendered like that out of fear.

“Then all of this is really your fault if that’s the case and you deserve what is happening to the company right now and it will continue if you don’t get the balls to do fix things,” she wasn’t able to hold her self as she felt a bit disappointed.

The man was silent for a few moments, his face straight while in thought. Making Crystal feel really nervous from all that she had said.

“f**k, why is it when you say it, it seems so right,” Larse ended up chuckling

That made her smile, along with a sigh of relief, seeing as it seems to have cleared out something within the man’s mind.

“Because I experienced it myself, so I suggest you don’t make the same mistake that I have,” she says with a much more caring tone.

“All right, I’ll do that then,” Larse nodded smiling as his eyes seemed to now show a hint of determination.