Irresistible Boss Succumbing to Your Touch (Maria Anita) novel Chapter 494

Manuela’s POV

"Do you really have to go?" I asked my brother who had just put his suitcase in the car.

"We do, Manu, but we'll come visit you more often." My brother hugged me very tight.

"Tell Dad I'm fine, so he won't worry." I said goodbye to my brother and sister-in-law and watched their car drive away.

"Little one, I'm worried. That woman won't give up. She can't get into the building, but there's no way to keep her out of college," Flavian said with his arm around my waist. He had been repeating the same thing since Saturday, and I knew he was right, but I did not see how to avoid it.

"I know she won't give up, but I don't know what to do," I said as we walked to the car. We were back to the routine of him driving me everywhere.

"You should file a complaint against her and Julian," Flavian was insisting that I should go to the police station and report the assaults.

"Flavian, she's my mother. It's not even about Julian - he's my brother, though we'll never be like real siblings. But she's my mother. I still have this illusion that someday she'll let go of all this - whatever it is - and treat me well. Come on, she's my mother, she must like me at least a little bit." My eyes were already overflowing again. I would never understand why she did this to me.

"Manu, I know it's hard, but you need to accept that this woman is not your mother." I was startled by how Flavian spoke. "She might have given you life, but she was never your real mother, because a mother doesn't do the things she has done to you."

"What did Cam tell you?" I looked at him alarmed. My mother had done many terrible things to me; the beatings had become routine throughout my life. The verbal and moral abuse, I didn't even count those anymore. The emotional abandonment was just a detail among everything else.

"He told me enough to make me want to kill that woman and that punk!" Flavian was gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Flavian, I've distanced myself, I'm away from her, so all that's in the past." I tried to downplay things, even though I didn't really believe it myself.

"It's not in the past if I can see the shadow of the bruise she gave you under your makeup. It's not in the past if I can still see the cut on your lip and the scratch from her ring on your skin. It's not in the past because I pulled that punk off you when he was about to hit you again." Flavian was very angry, and I needed to calm him down.

"Okay. I'll do anything you think is best, even drop out of college, but I won't report her." That was my final answer, and I knew he wasn't satisfied.

"Look, let's do it this way: you're going to stay glued to that little friend of yours the whole time you're at college, and I'll take you and pick you up everywhere. You won't leave the classroom alone - I'll drop you off at the door and pick you up at the door. Same thing at the office, Rick will keep an eye on you for me. I'm thinking about hiring a security guard..."

"Flavian, that's overkill. What do you think she can do besides assault me and take me home? If she takes me, you'll go there, break everything, and bring me back," I said, making it sound very simple.

"You bet I'll break everything and finish her off, even if you keep insisting she's your mother!" Flavian gave me a sideways glance, and I wasn't even going to argue about that. "If she touches you again, Manu, I'll personally lock her in a cell for the rest of her miserable life."

"Alright. Let's hope it won't be necessary." I ran my hand through his hair, "Don't be angry."

"She is. And cowardly. The least I deserved was for her to tell me to my face that she wants this divorce. I deserved a conversation, don't you think?" He looked at me sadly.

"You deserve much more than that! Have you told your friends?"

"Not yet, just you. I'll go there this weekend and tell them when I get back," he sighed. "Thanks, Manu, you've been a great friend, you've been my support all these months."

"Isn't that what friends are for?" I smiled and nudged him, just as the elevator doors opened on our floor.

"Look at Chip and Dale! You two are inseparable," Patrick laughed. He was sitting in my chair and also looked like he hadn't slept.

"What are you doing here so early?" Rick asked him, finding it strange that he had arrived before us.

"Didn't sleep. Thought it better to come to the office, but I finished everything I had to do and got bored. So I sat here playing secretary," Patrick smiled, but his eyes didn't shine as usual. "What happened to your face, Manu?"

Yeah, the makeup wasn't as effective as I thought, as Flavian had said, you could see the shadow of the bruise underneath it. I spent the next half hour telling Patrick about the recent events, and he insisted on assigning a company security guard to accompany me, but just as I did with Flavian, I rejected the possibility. These men had a security obsession. Or was I really refusing to see the danger? Either way, I pushed the thought deep into the back of my mind, not wanting to think that I might be wrong.