Chapter 163

163 Extreme Regret

Somehow, I made it home. I didn’t even remember how I made it home after I had gotten into a cab. I’ll figure everything work-related out tomorrow. I’ll apply for sick leave or whatever was necessary later on. When I got home, I realized that I had no memories of my time in the cab at all. My thoughts were a jumbled mess and so were my emotions.

Thankfully, there were no reporters in front of my apartment anymore since the press conference made the rumors about us die down. I managed to get into my apartment before letting my body fall face first onto the bed. My entire body felt heavy as if it was made out of solid rocks.

“Mum?” I spoke through the phone while hating our much my voice broke and quivered.

“Rina? What’s wrong?” my mother asked in a panic.

She must have figured out that something was gravely wrong from my tone of voice. I wiped my tears from my cheek and eyes with my hand before taking in a deep breath. I’m such a mess and a failure for worrying my mother this way.

“Umm...I’m just calling you to tell you that I’ll be going back home today. So, yea, see you soon...” I said while I tried to keep my voice steady.

That was only half of the truth. The other reason why I was calling was that I wanted to hear her voice. When things got difficult, it was always my mother who was always there to comfort me with her kind words or to tell me off with her harsh words until I found the light at the end of the tunnel again.

“I don’t know what is going on but I’m happy that you’re coming back home, Rina,” my mother said in one of her gentlest tones.

“Thank you, mum...” I replied before hanging up.

.....

...

The sun had already set by the time that I arrived at my mother’s place. From the time that I dashed out of Ace’s office until that point in time, he never tried to contact me. There wasn’t a single miscall or text message from Ace on my phone. If I had to be honest, I would say that I didn’t expect him to suddenly disengage himself from my life like this. However, I had to say that this may prove to be for the better for both of us.

After all, what’s the point of going through all the ugly and emotional drama and argument if we’re just going to end up going our separate ways anyways.

He’s still my boss at work and I still have to work with him as long as I’m still working at Jessen’s and Hill’s. Maybe I can request a transfer back to my old department. My old boss will probably take me back, although without grilling me for a good reason for my move back. I still wanted to work on Project Alpha till the very end, though. That may prove to be troublesome because that would mean that I would have to see Ace everyday as the project’s supervisor.

Everything was so messy and complicated.

I see. This is precisely why the company had put in place that ‘no dating between employees’ rule in the first place. Here we younger people all thought that the older people who put that rule in place were lame and too conservative. Now, I guess I had grown older in a matter of hours because I was truly seeing the merit of having that rule in place. It was all to prevent young and stupid people like me from getting myself into this kind of damaging and career-limiting situations.

'

“Rina, you’re back...” my mother said when she answered the door.

“Hi, mum...” I said before trying my best to smile at her.

The moment that my mother opened the door to our apartment for me, the ugly voices inside of my head quietened. The tears that I had been holding back flooded my eyes and ran down my cheeks as I pulled my mother into a tight hug. I felt her arms around my body and then she began stroking my back just like she always did to comfort me whenever I got scared of upset as a child.

“Everything is going to be just fine, Rina...” she whispered to me comfortingly.

My mother being the understanding mother that she was, focused on feeding me some warm food without asking me any questions about why I had suddenly turned up in tears in front of her apartment door. After trying my best to eat some of the food that she had prepared for me, I realized that I wanted to tell her about my troubles. It may not solve anything at all, but I had made up my mind not to keep any secrets away from my mother anymore.

“Mum...” I called her name softly.

“Rina, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. No matter what, I’m always here for you,” my mother said before she smiled a little at me.

Her hand reached out for mine from across the table and gave it a comforting squeeze. Her kindness only made more tears well up in my eyes. Why did the world outside have to be so tough and filled with wicked people? I wished that I could just hide in this little apartment and live a quiet life with this special lady.

“Actually, I want to talk about it. Would you mind listening?” I asked in a small yet hopefully voice.

“Of course. If that is what you want...” my mother replied.

How do I even start telling her about what happened?

“Well, today the woman who was Ace’s secretary before I took the role came to our office. She’s pregnant and she was there to demand for Ace to take responsibility...” I said before my voice started to crack and I had to take a pause.

My mother’s expression turned into one of extreme shock. I must have had that expression on my face too earlier in the day when I found out. She was speechless and so I was for a while.

–To be continued...