After Last Night | Chilumi

Chapter 08: A wise advice

"Hello, mother."

I lifted my tired gaze and made no effort to even try to muster a smile. My mother raised her eyebrows slightly and tried to smile too, but failed in the attempt. Still seated at the desk, I lifted one hand from the keyboard to greet her. She barely reacted. She checked the folder she carried under her arm and flipped through the pages one by one, almost as if pretending I wasn't there.

" I Finally see you working. They told me you were still sick," she responded coldly. "What happened to your hand?"

Kiana Viator, the woman who once gave me life, was never too expressive or showed any hint of interest when it came to me or my brother. I dared to say that the only thing that held us united was the memory of my late father. Such awkward moments for anyone else far from us were our daily bread.

"Yes, I still am, but I have a lot to do. Is there a problem?" My mother turned her gaze to me and gave me a displeasure grimace; I returned the gesture, trying to provoke her. I still hadn't thought of a believable excuse to explain my bandaged hand and hide the "small" incident with Yoimiya's mirror, so I ignored her question.

"Ah... Well. Evidently, you don't come in the mood to talk."

I went back to work after crying an entire night. That last positive test marked the end of my life before it even began: I felt terrible every time I thought about what the future held for me. I wanted to get rid of it and at the same time keep it. I wanted to tell Childe and at the same time hide it from him until the end. I wanted to make a decision, but I was afraid to do so.

As contradictory as ever, I decided to set aside my morning sickness for just one day and go to the office. Not because I was worried about losing my job, but because it was important to me that my mother didn't suspect anything. Besides, there was still something I always used to do when situations like this happened to me: one person to whom I would confide my deepest and most embarrassing thoughts. My uncle, godfather, second father —whatever silly nickname conveyed how close I was to him.

"Is Zhongli here?"

"His office." Mother pointed to the elevator with the tip of her pen, and I got up from my swivel chair with short steps, but she stopped me just as I moved away from her a bit. "Stand up straight and don't slack off with that old man. I want to see you working."

I ignored every word and kept walking. Mother was like that most of the time —No, always. When I turned eighteen, it annoyed me that I couldn't have a normal conversation with her. The Lumine of that time was an idiot; growing up a few years, I realized I didn't need more than a small talk where we only discussed work. Neither she nor I aspired to go further. Although everyone around us believed our relationship shouldn't be that way, mother and I never listened to them.

I went up to one of the highest floors of the building. When I got out of the elevator, everyone seemed to be taking advantage of the lunch hour to leave their stations. While the staff headed to the cafeteria or kitchen, I went in the opposite direction with the intention of seeing Zhongli. I wasn't worried that he might not be there, after all, being the CEO of a company as big as Viator's gave him the power to have lunch whenever he wanted. And if I knew him well enough, I could deduce that he would take advantage of the company's break to fool around in his office.

"Lumi! All good?" A sudden shout caught my attention. Zhongli's secretary approached me, who also seemed to be leaving her post. Sometimes her histrionic personality overwhelmed me, but she was a good girl most of the time. I wondered if I could consider her the only "friend" I had made in that company.

"Hello, Tao. Is he busy?" I pointed ahead with my index finger while smiling slightly at her. She widened her eyes and smiled in the same way, shaking her head. She suddenly looked down at her wristwatch and walked in the opposite direction.