chapter 162

Even while speaking this, he didn't look at her which caused a misunderstanding to circulate between them. Eric felt disheartened and ashamed to feel inferior to Mark who understood Lucy better than him. Whereas Lucy thought of his ignorance as his way of expressing his anger and disappointment in her for lying to him."Oh…" Lucy couldn't say anything else.Her Godly handsome Boss looked sad and cheated all because of her.The four thugs watched their Boss's car leave."Boss and Ludo Lady looked so different.""Of course they would. Ludo Lady lied to Boss," one grumbled."I never imagined that I would see Boss like that one day…"---The ride back to the apartment complex was extremely quiet. Nobody said a word. Even though Lucy had a thousand things to say to him, in the end, she couldn't find her words.The car stopped.Lucy didn't realize that they reached home. Eric waited. But she didn't move. He slowly peeked at her and found her to be in a daze."We are here."Lucy snapped out from her daze and looked around.Oh...we are back.She bit her lip and nodded. They climbed up to their floor super slowly, dragging their feet. Outside their home, they stood like that in silence for a few moments. The dim light shone upon Lucy's violet earrings, making Eric freeze.The stiffening feeling enveloped his chest again. The scene replayed in his mind endlessly as if it got stuck to him like a broken recorder.Lucy and that man…Lucy didn't want to settle things half way without clearing it out. She was about to say something when Eric spoke first, "E-earrings…"She paused and blinked her eyes. She touched her dangling earrings and said, "Earrings?"Eric pursed his lips and raised his arm towards her. With his palm stretched out, he slowly and softly said, "I don't think you...need them anymore."Lucy froze."So it's better to give them back," he felt a tightening knot in his heart. His own words twisted him in pain. But he felt that there was no need for her to have those earrings anymore since he failed so miserably today. His actions not only scared her, but he failed to realize it too.So according to him, she didn't deserve such a half baked gift.But Lucy was unaware of his mental anguish. So for her, asking to give back the gift to him meant that he was so furious at her that he thought she didn't deserve his gift anymore.Tears threatened to escape her eyes. This was her first gift from the man she was madly in love with. She wanted to hold it dear to her heart forever. She wanted to safeguard this precious gift even if it would turn all old and worn out in the end one day.She trembled and her body shook slightly. She lowered her head and tried to hide the tears finding their way out of her misty eyes.Her fingers tremblingly took out the earrings and with a heavy heart, she handed it to him. "...H-Here…" her voice choked.As the beautiful, violet earrings landed on his palm, he tightly closed them in his fist. The pain and the tears left Lucy unable to say anything else.She quickly turned and fumbled with the lock. She opened the door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.Eric blankly kept rooted to his spot for a long time before he quietly entered his own house and shut the door too.Lucy collapsed on her knees and burst into tears. She gasped and sniffled as she didn't let herself cry louder in fear that Eric would hear it. She touched her empty earlobes, and tears streamed down her cheeks even more vigorously than before. She kept wiping her tears, but they refused to die down as if a dam was broken apart. She hugged her knees and hid her face in them as the hot tears sleeplessly ran down them for the entire night.---