A Tale of Chaos in Bloom

She took in the fresh air as the calm wind gently blew her wild raven hair. This was definitely not the plan at all. She was meant to work there for at least eight months and probably get promoted before she moved on to a bigger company, but that had all gone down the drain after she reported her boss to HR for making sexual advances.

"The system is royally fucked up, innit?", she spoke with her thick British accent to no one in particular, earning her weird glances from passersby. She wasn't going to let it go like this; she couldn't let her boss - sorry, ex-boss - ruin her life plan.

One thing that made Lottie different from the rest of her family, apart from her appearance, was the fact that she didn't back down until she got what she wanted, and if it didn't go as planned, she always found a way to let it go without any hard feelings left. Now she wanted her closure.

Lottie dropped her carton of office belongings on the ground carelessly and ran towards the parking lot, not caring about the stares she was getting for the second time in just a day. As she ran, she thought…was it wrong of her to have reported her boss repeatedly even though she knew they were ignoring her?

Were they trying to stop this tragedy from happening because they knew there was nothing they could do about it? Should she have kept quiet about it even though he was subtly sexually harassing her?

Even though she couldn't answer the other questions, she definitely could answer the last one, as her body subconsciously reacted to the flashbacks of how he had hit her ass with his disgusting meaty fingers, and the answer was a big no; she did the right thing, and she was about to make him pay for it.

Coming to a halt, Lottie stood in front of her boss's obviously expensive car and grinned like a maniac. She would make him pay, and that was the only thing ringing in her head as she removed the heels she had gotten from the second-hand store across the street from her house - her father's house - and smashed them on the windshield with all her strength, but it didn't budge.

She smiled more crazily - if that was even possible - she would have been disappointed if it had broken immediately; after all, he had obviously spent a lot of money on it. She tried again and again until it finally cracked, making her laugh out loud, so loud that the security guard had to check what was happening.

She wasn't laughing at the fact that she had managed to get her closure; she was laughing at the fact that the alarm didn't go off, but that didn't matter anymore; her voice was enough to alarm most workers, including her boss, who she could see standing by the window and holding his chest, his mouth wide open in shock, his eyes protruding as if he was getting strangled to death.

It made her wonder what it would be like to sniff the life out of him and watch the light go out of his eyes, but she couldn't do it; she wasn't that violent, nor was she irrational to the extent of making her life plan completely unattainable - which had actually been ruined with only little hope.

She snapped her head a little bit too quickly - she knew she was going to regret it later when she felt a little bit of pain - to the direction of the security guard approaching her with a look of despair.

She kind of felt sorry for him because she knew he was going to take the brunt of it all, but then again, it wasn't any of her business, as he was probably sleeping on duty; she didn't get that kind of liberty when she worked here, so it seemed kind of unfair to her, so he deserved it.

She smiled at the man in a blue uniform who approached her hurriedly, the look still plastered on his face that it didn't seem like it was going to disappear anytime soon.

"Mr. Samson, how are you doing today?", she said as if she hadn't seen him earlier when she came to work.

"Why?" That was the only thing the man could weakly mutter as he stared at her with teary eyes. He turned to the ruined car, the alarm finally beeping loudly as the headlights went on and off, then turned back to her.

"Just why, Lottie? Did I ever offend you?" He asked, a lone tear that had managed to escape trailing down to the edge of his mouth. Now she kind of felt bad about it; maybe she should have considered him, but it was too late now; there was nothing she could do about it.

The smile on her face disappeared as if it was never there to start with when she saw another tear escaping.

"I'm sorry; I wasn't thinking straight”, she said meekly.

Was she sorry about doing it? No, no, not at all. Was she sorry about making the friendly man's life miserable? Yes. She heard earlier this week that his mother was diagnosed with cancer and he had more liabilities in his name than his salary.

"It won't fix this, an apology won't cut it for what you've done. It won't!" he said. His shaking hand touched the damaged car with caution as if the whole expensive metal would shatter into chunks of metal if touched too much.

"Charlotte Thompson!” her short boss growled, or at least he tried to but it came out as a screech. The first time she started working here and just met him, he made her wonder how a person so irritating and disgusting both in personality and physique could exist and still be successful.

He didn't seem smart to her from the few conversations they've had so far, or maybe she was just smarter and it wasn't just a bluff, she had earned her bragging rights from her outstanding certificate by graduating as a top student in the college she attended.

She could still remember as clear as day her boss's reaction to this information. " Meh, it's from a local college so I'm not surprised”, he had said lazily. His protruding belly moved fluidly like a water balloon.

"Charlotte, I'm talking to you!" her boss's annoying voice snapped her back to reality. "How dare you do this to Patricia," he whimpered as he touched the car with love.

The first time Lottie heard him call one of his cars by a name, she found it kind of cute as weird as it was but that changed when she found out that he named them after the girls he has had his way with.

When she found out she got disgusted and hearing him talk about it now made her more disgusted and irritated so much that she wanted to walk away, and she did just that, sashaying towards her box still in the exact spot she had dropped it earlier.

Heaving, she lifted the box up and turned to her ex-boss and screamed "I don't regret it" and walked away, smiling when she heard him mutter a long string of profanities at her, giving her the exact reaction she wanted.

Muttering to herself, she said again…"I freaking don't regret it”.

"Okay, maybe I came to a conclusion a little early. I definitely regret it”, Lottie said.

She threw her head back on the couch and sighed when she heard one of the kids scream. She was definitely not living her best life right now, and that alone made her feel like she should have just left her boss to be the scum he was, but that was too late, way too late.

A week had passed since she got fired, and another week had passed since she received a demand letter from her boss's attorney to pay for the damages she caused. She needed a job quickly, and the only thing she could do right now was babysit her sister's twins, Arabella and Luca.

The job didn't seem like it was going well, and it was evident in the way the whole room was messy, and the two six-year-olds were screaming, probably at each other's hair.

Banging her head harder on the couch, she said…"This was definitely not part of my plan, not one bit. I wasn't supposed to see these little devils before the Christmas period."

It wasn't that she didn't like them one bit; it was just that she hated the fact that things were taking an unplanned and unexpected turn. It wasn't in her favor.

"Lottie, I want ice cream”, one of the twins, Arabella squeaked out. Her sea-blue eyes glowed vibrantly.

"And me too”, Luca chimed in, hopping around with more energy than his sister.

"And me three”, Arabella added.

There was something about her that made Lottie prefer Luca, and that was the fact that she always hid the carefree part of her until Luca showed his own. It made Arabella wonder how she could ever live without Luca, but she didn't want to think much about it... for now.

What was her main focus right now was that she had to scrub off the dirt from their tiny little bodies before taking them to the convenience store not far away from the house to get ice cream for them.

"Chop, chop, now, into the bathtub if you really want ice cream”. Lottie stood up with a groan, her movement quite unstable as the twins yanked her hand nonstop from both sides.

…..

"Do you really think I should try it?", Lottie asked her youngest sister for probably the seventh time within a span of minutes. Sighing, the fourteen-year-old nodded her head before sinking back into her mystery novel.

When she had taken her sister's twins out to get ice cream for them earlier, she had seen a job listing by luck to work as a Secretary for the Chairman of Aurora Inc.

She didn't really pay much attention to it when the job ads were being played because everyone, both in England and internationally, knew that the Chairman of Aurora Inc didn't employ females into the headquarters, but that was until she heard the requirements, which stated that it was strictly for females.

She knew that if she got the job, she wouldn't have to worry about the debt she had incurred two weeks ago. Hell, she would have more than enough, but the biggest issue here was that the conglomerate was one of the biggest in England, and she was sure there would be people who graduated from high-class colleges, unlike her.

But it still wouldn't hurt to try her luck... at least that was what she thought until she opened the barely functioning computer her late uncle had gotten for her about four years ago.

Reality had dawned on her, but she still wanted to try her luck, and Ruby, her younger sister, was the only person she could seek help from to boost her confidence since Ruby didn't kiss up to people and always shared her opinion about a specific matter with little to no empathy.

Turning towards her younger sister again, she groaned out, saying, "Ruby, I don't think it will work out. This is like the biggest company in the whole of Britain."

"It is the biggest company, Lottie”, Ruby replied halfheartedly. She moved her weight to the other side so that she could see better with the dim light illuminating the lamp.

"Exactly!" Lottie exclaimed, probably a little bit too loud as a head violently snapped up from the third bed out of the four in the room.

"Lottie, could you please keep your voice low? It's too late into the night for you to act as rashly as you do in the afternoon. Your attitude has already cost us a lot, seeing as we have a huge debt in our name now”, the girl on the third bed with similar features to Ruby said in a gentle voice.

"Emily, have you had a thing against her before?" Ruby asked, her attention still on her novel as she shifted her glasses to make them sit properly on her nose bridge.

"Shut up, Ruby. I wasn't talking to you”. Emily said, her upper body completely in an upright position now.

"Neither was Lottie talking to you", Ruby fired back at her elder sister, glancing at her for only a minute before diverting her attention back to her book.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that, young lady. I'm older than you”, Emily said, her face red with anger. Even though she was the most reserved and fragile-looking one among them, Emily's anger was always out of this world.

She always acted on impulse and did irrational stuff whenever she got angry. Knowing Ruby well enough, Lottie knew Ruby would only make matters worse by giving lazy but infuriating replies back if Emily snapped, and it wasn't going to end well.

"Okay, let's all take a deep breath—"

"Shut up, Lottie”, Emily cut her off abruptly. She transferred all the aggression to Lottie, and Lottie didn't like that one bit. She didn't like it when people cut her off, and she had noticed that Emily was already making it a habit ever since she brought back home thousands of pounds in debt.

"Told you she's a mad bitch in permanent disguise”, Ruby commented before dropping her book and removing her glasses, clearly showing she didn't have interest in the banter anymore.

That was one thing that always made Lottie stare at Ruby in awe—it was the fact she was always the cool-headed one among all of them.

Since Ruby was obviously not interested in exchanging words with Emily and apparently she was still mad, she turned to Lottie.

She glared at her, and spat out. "You are just a wretched bitch sucking this family dry. You think you are special or anything because of the way people around you worship you. Trust me, you are nothing close to special. Just because your looks are different doesn't make you any better. You are completely plain and an itch to this perfect family."

Lottie knew Emily was just mad about the fact that her marriage had to be shifted forward because her mother was contemplating using Emily's dowry, which their father had left for each girl before he died, to pay for the debt Lottie had just brought home.

But she couldn't still lie that it didn't hurt. Whenever Emily wanted to get on Lottie's nerves, she always talked about her looks.

The whole family had the same features, which included blonde hair, pale skin, and sea-blue eyes, which they obviously inherited from their mother, Karen Thompson. Well, it was all of them except Lottie who took her father's look of hair as dark as midnight and emerald eyes.

"I promise to get it back”, Lottie said weakly. Her gaze dropped low in guilt and shame for not being the perfect sister she needed.

"That's what you always say. That's what you also said when Ma had to use your dowry to compensate Jackson for beating him blue and black. I don't know why Ma isn't over your bullshit yet and just leave you to fend for yourself. Maybe you would learn that way. You are freaking 23 already”.

Lottie could see the pain in Emily's teary eyes and couldn't utter a word. Her heart wrenched, and it felt like she was being suffocated; she could hardly breathe.

"Goodnight, big sister," Emily said, laying emphasis on the ‘big sister’.

She needed to get the job; she definitely needed to get that job so she could pay her family for all that she had done to them and tomorrow would be the judge of that.