Part 23 # Laying a Bait
As Lara opened her eyes the next morning, she was surprised to see Seno had already packed their belongings into the suitcase. “Are we leaving?” she guessed. Hopefully, her guess was correct.
The chirping of birds accompanied this bright morning. Seno was just wearing a green polo shirt, not his suit or work shirt. It seemed like he was off duty.
“Yes, we’re leaving today,” he said, smiling at her.
She was so happy. Finally, she could leave this house. It’s such a relief! She couldn’t barely breath in here.
Seno was seen pulling their suitcase to the door. The room wasn’t too spacious because it was actually just a guest room. Well, good news is, they didn’t have to bother looking for their scattered stuff. The room is really small and tiny.
“Ready to go?” Selly suddenly asked as Seno opened the door to their room. This time, she was wearing a tight purple t-shirt with matching training pants. It seemed like Selly would have a sports class in the first schedule.
“Yes, Lara wants to go home,” he said, glancing at her as she just got up from bed.
Lara was looking for a hair tie that she couldn’t find. She felt very exhausted. Ever since she got pregnant, her body temperature often felt hot, even though the weather wasn’t too warm. Whether it was because of the baby or the weather becoming extremely hot. She’d seen it in the news that not only was there global warming phenomenon but also global heating.
“Here,” Selly handed her a hair tie as she was lifting her hair up high. It seemed like she understood her intention to look for the missing hair tie.
“Why are you leaving?” Selly asked again, raising her eyebrows. Selly, with her round face, looked very cute. She was quite pretty because she didn’t have any pimples. Maybe, only one or two red pimples would appear when she was menstruating.
Otherwise, Selly’s face was always smooth like a Korean actress. Seno funded all her facial treatments with his mother-in-law, of course.
“I misses my home,” Lara replied with a smile. There was no reason to hate Selly. She could be childish sometimes, like showing off her wealth often, but in this house, Selly was the one who often talked to her when grandma wasn’t around.
Actually, Lara quite liked her.
“Oh, okay … take care,” Selly said before leaving them.
Selly’s straight back moved away with the cheerful footsteps typical of young people. Selly was listening to pink headphones that were always on her head. She said the headphones were noise-canceling, but she often hummed. It seemed like there was music in her headphones too. It would be fun to have headphones like hers.
“Don’t you want to say goodbye to ma and grandma?” Lara looked around, searching for grandma and mother-in-law. That day, the main house was very quiet. Where did everyone go?
“No need, mama and grandma went jogging then did some exercises. They said they’d be back in the afternoon.”
“Oh, I see. I’ll take a shower first, okay?”
“No need, Lara. Just shower at home, okay?”
Lara blinked in disbelief. Why did Seno seem so rushed?
“I have a meeting soon. I’ll drop you off first, okay?”
“Oh, okay.”
Lara followed Seno’s steps as he walked out of this house. They passed through a small corridor connecting the house to the garage on the ground floor. The atmosphere there was quite dark, even though it was morning.
There were some dim neon lights, actually, the atmosphere here was quite romantic. Unfortunately, Seno and she weren’t in the mood for romance. They remained focused on walking towards the car. Seno didn’t contact their private driver.
“You’re driving yourself?” she asked when she saw no driver waiting for them in the passenger seat.
“Yes. I’m busy. Waiting for the driver takes too long.”
“Oh ….”
Seno quickly put the suitcase in and opened the door for her. He then sat in the driver’s seat and started the car carefully. A moment later, their car glided onto the highway, passing by some swaying Palm trees in the cool morning breeze.
From her side view, Seno looked handsome. A slightly flat nose-typical of Asians-but with tanned skin and sharp facial features, made him look charming. His wavy hair looked sweet. His asymmetrical smile and way of speaking made her like him even more.
Compared to Andre, ah, why was Lara comparing them? Andre was the past and why was she suddenly thinking of him? It wasn’t funny at all.
“Aw!” Lara was startled when Seno suddenly slammed on the brakes. There was a car that stopped abruptly in front of them. That’s what made Seno reflexively step on the brakes.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking worried about their unborn child.
“I-I’m fine,” Lara said nervously. Her heart was racing. She was very surprised. Her stomach suddenly felt painful due to the tension she felt.
Not long after, a woman was seen getting out of the car. The woman didn’t seem unfamiliar with her ponytail that perfected her professional appearance. A collared shirt with tight jeans wrapped her body. The tall woman was slender, like a model, with a firm and beautiful face, more masculine.
“Sorry. Did I startle you earlier? There was a cat crossing. I stopped the car to save it,” she said as Seno opened the car window on the right side.
“Yes! You almost caused my wife to miscarry!” Seno retorted sharply. He even seemed very angry and didn’t look at the woman properly.
“Here’s my business card. You can contact that number if you need insurance for health check-ups or maybe your car got scratched? I’ll take responsibility. Okay?” the woman said kindly.
Seno reached for the business card and read it slowly. “Mahya Grace? Are you a reporter?” Seno asked.
Hearing the name Mahya Grace, Lara froze.
Was she that ‘Mahya’? Lara immediately glanced at her. Mahya’s face was really different, but her behavior was similar. Mahya was like that. She even willingly rescued a cat stuck in a tree when they were walking together before.
“Mahya?” Lara murmured. She hesitated to call her. Suddenly, she felt embarrassed for cutting off contact with her when she was pregnant. Mahya and Lara used to be quite close friends. Until one day, Lara experienced this sudden pregnancy. She was embarrassed, so she cut off contact with all her friends when she was in college.
“Yes. I’m a reporter. May I have your business card?”
“Here. I’ll ask for compensation soon.”
“Alright. I’ll wait for your call,” Mahya said with a suspicious smile. Lara recognized that smile. Did Mahya deliberately play Seno and involve him in this small accident?
“Be careful next time! You’re a really bad driver!” Seno scolded angrily.
Lara was still throwing glances. She saw Mahya didn’t even recognize her. Indeed, they hadn’t met for several years; maybe Mahya forgot her face. Sometimes, humans were like that.
“I’m sorry, Madam. Goodbye,” Mahya bid farewell with a smile.
Right, she didn’t recognize her. Even when their eyes met, Mahya seemed to ignore her.
***This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
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