Chapter 2 Backlash

"Lauren..." She paused for a second and slipped out of the bed. "I guess you're right. I'm such a fool crying for a person who doesn't even care about me. I'm not someone's puppet or trash to be dumped easily."

Slowly but surely a proud smile made its way to my lips. "Good job, Lauren. Your convincing powers are improving day by day." I mentally praised myself, feeling proud.

I clapped excitedly. "Then let's teach him a lesson."

"What can we do?" She asked.

A wicked smile formed on my lips as a sinister idea popped into my head. "I'll not tell you, I'll show you but first tell me where can we find him at this hour?"

"Umm...at his restaurant in the mall."

"Perfect. Let me change then we'll leave."

Finally! It had been too long since I did something crazy. I was super excited.

We drove to the mall in Christy's car as I didn't have any besides it was her problem I was going to solve so her car it was. She parked the car in the parking lot and unbuckled her seatbelt.

"What now? Are we going to confront him?" She asked.

"Nope." I grinned. "Something better." I gazed out of the window looking for the particular thing I was here for. "Can you tell which one is his car?"

"Look straight. That black BMW parked near the yellow board." She pointed at the car. "But why do you want to know about his car?"

"Because we're going to damage his car."

"What?! No, Lauren, this is insane." She shrieked, her eyes turning wide like saucers. I gave her a deathly look which made her release a sigh.

"Okay fine but we don't have to damage his car. We can flatten the tires of the car or something, that would be enough."

I gave her a sweet, innocent smile. "Deflated tires won't make any difference but a single scratch will pierce through his heart. And my darling, we are going to scrape his car."

"What? No! This seems like some childish prank."

"It's not."

"You are behaving like a high school girl on revenge, Lauren. This is ridiculous."

"Revenge is revenge taken by whosoever. Besides, I'm not harming anyone, am I?"

"No, but-"

She tried to argue back but I didn't give her a chance to speak as I stepped out of her car and dragged her out too.

"Let's go," I said as I prepared myself as if I was going on a war.

"Lauren this is stupid. We will be reported if we get caught. We'll have to pay a huge price." She kept on rambling.

"Exactly, if we get caught. See, no one is here, not even CCTV covers this spot. Now, don't be a chicken, and let's enjoy the moment." I said, taking out a flexible knife from my jeans pocket.

"You keep a knife in your pocket?" She asked in utter surprise

"Self-protection." I shrugged my shoulders and ran my finger through the side of the blade, inspecting the sharpness.

"It's sharp. Perfect."

"Take this and do the honor," I said firmly, giving her the knife but she stepped away.

"I'm not doing this. Lauren this is a crime."

I banged my one hand on the hood of the car, showing the knife to her with the other one "Now."

"No. It's not right and besides this car-"

"Oh, shut up. If you can't then let me do the honor."

A screeching sound pierced through my ears as I grazed the knife on the hood. The black metallic color started to fall off. I felt satisfied like I gained serenity.

"Lauren, no-"

"Don't worry Christy your friend is here. I will take you revenge." I said absent-mindedly. My heart and soul were dancing in glee as I carved patterns on the car. Ignoring Christy's rambling I kept on scrapping the color. It was childish but there was a sudden rush of adrenaline that had me continuing my work. It was giving me immense joy. My eyes were glittering like stars in the clear night sky.

"Lauren for god sake listen to me for once. This is not his car. You are scrapping someone else's car." She whisper-yelled, grasping my upper arm.

But it was not her statement that stopped my hands to stop my heart to drum louder

"What's going on here?"

"Shit!! Imma outta here." I heard Christy's dreadful voice before she decided to leave me alone.

My heart got filled with fear, my own soul cursed me for my stupidity and my legs gave up on life, still, I managed to turn and face the owner of the voice and when I did, my face lost colors. All the wicked plans flew out of my mind and the knife I was holding dropped to the floor.

I was doomed.

Sean Peterson

Work. Not my solace but a necessity for me to keep myself away from unwanted thoughts and loneliness. Being on top of the ladder doesn't mean the person is always happy. There are always undesired, voiceless agonies, chaos, and sometimes dense, painful silence ruining the happiness and joy of being at the top.

Climbing the ladder of life alone hadn't been easy for me when every single step felt heavy and the ladder seemed to be broken at some steps. But I had to. To survive. I did it myself without support because there was no one with me to encourage me, to look after me if I fall.

After numerous struggles to succeed and numerous battles with myself and the world, I was at the place where I aspired to be. At the top.

"Mr. Peterson, I do want to do business with you but the amount you're offering under this deal seems to be quite less." David Bill spoke, slipping the catalog file on the table.

I was at the dinner meeting with David Bill, a young, budding businessman. His father had passed him his rubber industry only a month ago. Honestly, I was impressed with him, I appreciated his approach. I saw capability in him.

Putting aside the glass of water, I put my forearms on the table. "Mr. Bill, XDS Auto Tech is a prominent company and we here do fair business. We make sure that our business partners never catch a glimpse of loss." I paused, studying his features.

"I've heard that Mr. Peterson. I know there is no loss in this deal but my concern is the profit amount."

I again sat straight and adjusted my suit jacket. "Mr. Bill, rest assured that it is the best amount being offered by any Automobile company.if you still feel less it's less then let's put it this way..... You desperately need partners to improve the image of your company, so high profit should not be your main concern at this point. And l don't think l need to remind you how your company's image would rise if you do business with us"

He knew I was right that's why he agreed without thinking twice. After signing the deal, we stood up to bid our goodbye but before leaving the place I stopped to do one thing that was needed.

"David," I called him informally. "I appreciate your working attitude. Keep working this way and you'll reach heights." I patted his back to which he smiled.

"Thank you, Mr. Peterson. It's a big compliment coming from you."

I had to praise him. Being a beginner he needed a little push to help him recognize his worth and to help him grow. I always praised good work, not caring if it's small or big. Talent must be appreciated no matter what.

I bid the final goodbye and marched out of the restaurant to the elevator. I received a conference phone call from my best friends, Xavier Knight and Daniel Adams

These two people were like eye-blinding sun rays that penetrated my gloomy soul, increasing the brightness level to a hundred.

"How it went?" Xavier asked, referring to the meeting.

"It went well. Now we have a new rubber supplier for our tire manufacturing unit." I responded as I stepped out of the elevator into the parking lot. Sticking the phone to my ear, I marched towards my car.

"That's like my Sean babe. I knew you would do it." I rolled my eyes at Daniel's stupid comment.

"Don't you have a wife to call babe? Stop calling me babe and focus on your son and wife." I rebuked. His son was now three months old.

"Who said I'm not focusing on my son? You are the one that is out working I'm at my home playing with my burrito"

Smiling, I shook my head. No matter how much I complained or criticized his childish behavior, I had to agree that he always managed to bring a smile to my face. It was his specialty, his uniqueness.

I heard Xavier chuckle. "So, heading home now?" He asked.

"Yeah, need some sleep," I mumbled. A sudden frown appeared on my face when my eyes landed on two women standing near my car, doing something that I couldn't comprehend.

Were they trying to steal my car?

"See you tomorrow, guys." I hung the call and marched towards them.

"What's going on here?" I asked in a hard, stern voice.

One of them scurried away in fear when she saw me but one was still there. Slowly, she turned to face me and I frowned deeply when I saw a familiar face.

Miss Hart?

Her wide eyes made me raise my eyes in confusion then something dropped from her hand. I lowered my eyes to the floor and saw a knife. What was she doing with the knife?

"Oh, hello, Mr. Peterson. H...how was your m...meeting?"

Why is she stuttering?

"It went well. What are you doing here? And what are you doing with a knife?"

"Oh, it's a mall, sir. A public place and I came for shopping. I...I shopped for a knife." She laughed nervously.

Yeah, of course, I had asked a stupid question. It was a public place.

I just nodded my head and unlocked the car with the remote key and made my way to the door but stopped when she suddenly came in front of me, almost hitting my chest.

"Why are you blocking my way, Miss Hart?" I frowned as I took two steps back from her.

She scratched the back of her neck and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She mumbled something to herself then spoke, "I...uh, I want to know wh...what happened in the meeting, what all you talked about? Yeah, this is what I want to know."

"Excuse me?" Was she even listening to herself?

"Actually I...I need to make notes so-"

"If I wanted you to take the notes I would have asked you to accompany me to the meeting," I stated the obvious.

"Yeah, that makes sense" She again laughed nervously. What the hell is happening to her?

"Miss Hart, step aside, I have to leave," I said a little firmly.

"No!" She shouted all of a sudden, again coming closer to me. "I mean... No, I still have something to talk to you."

"Talk to me in the office." I softly pushed her aside and took a step forward but abruptly stopped when my eyes landed on the hood of my car. My eyes bulged out.

It was scrapped!

"Fuck! Who did this to my car?" I yelled, rubbing the scraped part out of the hood. No matter how many cars l can buy but it hurts to see a single scratch in my car

"I swear it wasn't intentional."

I heard Miss Hart say. It's her? Gritting my teeth I furiously glared at her.

"It was you? Why? Are you crazy or what?" I shouted.

"I swear I had no idea it's your car. I wouldn't have done it if I knew it's yours. I thought it's someone else's car and-"

"Mine or not, you can't do that to anyone's car!" I banged my fist on the hood. "Damn!"

"Don't do that you'll damage it more." She shrieked.

Seriously?

"Oh, now you care?" I snapped, glaring at her in anger.

"I'll pay for the damage, I swear." She said in a shaky voice.

"Pay? Really? Well, reality check, Miss Hart. It's not always about money. It's about what you did and why! Why for no reason you'd damage someone's car? What was going in this stupid head of yours?" My voice came out in a roar. I was beyond angry at her.

"I had my reasons to damage the car but I'm sorry that it turned out to be yours."

"Is this how you apologize?" My head tilted in disbelief.

"Yes. No. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I...I ... Please don't fire me from my job."

Oh, wow, now she is giving me ideas.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my face with my palms. "Sean, don't be angry. Calm down." I mumbled in my head. Sighing, I looked at her. I had just signed a new deal l was in a good mood but she ruined it