When a curse is broken

12. To lie or not to lie

Chapter 12. To lie or not to lie

Sbhum

Marlyn came back from dreamland to find Benjamin glaring at her. They were currently sitting in his office organizing the next big project.

Marlyn gulped, "I'm sorry," she said. She had once again got distracted, and with the boss in front of you, it was the worst thing ever.

"Where is your head today?" he shook his head.

Marlyn just gave him a pained smile, could he ever imagine what difficult position she was in?

"Go, get a hot chocolate," he said, returning back to his computer.

Marlyn silently got up and rushed to do so, just as silently, she came back and put the cup before him.

"That's for you," he said, not looking away from his computer.

"What?" Marlyn looked at the load of papers, which one?

She tentatively took some papers in hand looking at them, when in reality her mind was muddled, not thinking anything in particular, but still racing.

"What about these?" she asked, her voice tiny, she had the sensation she was doing it all wrong. How long till she would really get kicked out?

He stopped scrolling through his infinite e-mails, and stared at her. His blue gems were so heartachingly unemotional. She could not read him anymore. Was she ever able to? She wondered. Had it all been a joke to him?

He took the papers from her hand and placed the cup of smoking hot chocolate under her nose. She looked at the chocolaty substance, then at him. Tears welled in her eyes, but she made an effort to blink them away. He remembers, she thought.

"Are you going to tell me what happened the other day?" he asked. 

Silence.

"Take a break," he signed, then returned to his screen.

She did not move.

"Mommy, I met with daddy today," Ellie had announced right after she had woken up yesterday. "What?" Marlyn had asked with a jumping heart. That was when Ellie had stuck out the photo of her and Benjamin taken back when they were in university. "I met with daddy and we played together!" She screamed with joy. Marlyn had stared horrified at the picture Ellie had dug out from her old things.

She needed to talk with Benjamin clearly, it was now or she might never ever have the courage to do so.

"Benjamin," his name escaped her lips in a whisper, she blinked, she didn't know if she had really spoken it or it was her imagination.

He turned to look at her. She gulped, she had indeed spoken.

"Why did you break up?" Her heart almost stopped, then got back to tick tock like a bomb, there, she had said it.

"Break up what?"

Marlyn blinked, was he serious?

"Three years ago," she stated. She did not know yet if she asked it to get a considerate answer to console her heart or to test him for Ellie.

He laughed, "If you are trying to get me back, there is the door," he said coldly.

"Why, just why?" She felt pathetic, here she was trying to tell him about his daughter and he was mocking her. He did not deserve Ellie, he had rejected her once, and was probably going to do it again. Why she made her heart suffer so much, she did not know.

"Just tell me, I deserve a closing!" she pointed.

"We are long done," he cooly stated, not paying her attention.

"I told you I was pregnant, and you didn't care," her voice sounded strangled even to her ears, pathetic. "Was that the reason you literally disappeared from the face of earth?"

"You were pregnant?" he said, then scoffed, "Do me a favor, sign for the resignation and go lie to someone else," he said.

Tears slipped from her control, probably in a match between Ellie and her in crying, she would totally be the winner, after all Marlyn was her mother.

Three years ago everything had happened so fast, one moment they were happy, the next, he accused her of unknown things and disappeared from the face of earth.

Where did she go wrong?

Everyone had warned her, told her he was a player, he would eventually dump her and she wouldn't even know what hit her. She wasn't worthy of him anyway, she was nothing like the beautiful girls he used to date after all, plain simple nerdy Marlyn, they called her, the dull one.

They were not wrong, if Marlyn could meet those people back, she would applaud them for foreseeing the future.

Marlyn laughed maniacally, "Fine, FINE...alright, we are done," she said, anger taking over, "but I am not going to resign. Remember this day and your words because if you ever, EVER, want anything with us, you are not getting it!" She proclaimed, her whole body was trembling. She collected the dignity she had left, rose on her jelly legs and walked away. "And I don't lie," she said before slamming the door shut.

**

Marlyn ended up in the bathroom bawling her eyes out for good fifteen minutes. When the tears drained she looked at the blank wall. These days her and bathrooms were becoming the best of the best friends. She was sending more time in bathrooms than any other place.

Angrily she pushed the door of the stall open and splashed her face twice, her breathing hard.

She had tried, she had told him then and he had not believed her, she told him now, and he still didn't believe her. She was done with him, she had done her duty of telling him, and what she received was only more humiliation. She didn't want in the future to be guilty whenever Ellie might ask her about her dad. Her dad was a coward, and Ellie was better without him.

But her heart was crying, she did not expect anything from him, but a little consideration for his daughter. Instead, he had accused her one more time of lying, like she was only after his money.

He did not deserve meeting Ellie.

In utter rage she stalked back to her desk, holding back tears she typed some lines and printed the page. Somewhere inside her head she knew she was doing something very foolish, but her furibond state did not leave her space to think clearly, nor did she want to. The only thing that mattered was that she did not want to see him, ever again. 

***

Marlyn broke back through Benjamin's office door, who looked up with such a disattached expression on his face that she almost forgot what she was there for, and the only rational thing that came to her mind was not rational at all. She grabbed the cup of hot chocolate still sitting on the desk untouched and without any hesitation emptied it on him. She almost felt bad for wasting such a good cup of hot chocolate, but at least it had served a good cause.

"What the hell, woman!" He screamed getting up from his seat, trying to wipe the liquid away from his perfectly white shirt.

"Ha, you totally deserve this!" Marlyn uttered with a wicked smile, finally feeling satisfied with her life she turned on her heels to get the hell out of there, then almost forgetting, she turned back again and slapped an envelope on his desk.

"There, live a happy life!" she said, venom dripping each word. It was her resignation letter.

She collected her purse from her office, and after a couple of rushed goodbyes wearing her charming angelic smile, she finally walked to the daycare.

TRNNNNN TRNNN TRNNN

Fire alarms blasted in the whole room.

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Published 22/05/2022