24. Argument

                                    

                                          
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Vera slams the door to her upstairs office open, startling both her security guards and her secretary standing right by it. She throws her bag to the couch, and drags a stressed hand through her hair. Her mind is spinning and she hates it.
Her main office in the Venus Foundation building is on the highest floor, with several large windows overlooking the gated property outside. It's a large, bright and spacious office, the walls white and couches in beige leather, much different to her darker office in Venus Foundation B. 
Usually, this office makes her feel suffocated. It's why she built her own office, her own company, it's why she didn't just settle with running the Venus Foundation.
The entire Venus Foundation was founded by her father, and then it passed down to her older sister. Remembering them usually makes her feel suffocated, especially inside this office. But today, it would almost feel more suffocating inside her own basement office than in here. She just can't stop thinking about Elena. Or, to be more precise, Elena's wife.
It's been eight years since then. Since she saw her sister for the last time, yes. But also since...
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry."
The memory is so distant that Vera is convinced that she's making it all up. Stumbling around her office, Vera rests her hands against her desk and closes her eyes, trying to find a memory that had just awakened from the deep depths of her brain. 
That year, eight years ago... she's almost erased all of it from her mind. Every single part of it is gone. Finding her sister on the floor in this exact office..., the company passing over to her..., the funeral and... the library.
"I don't know what you're crying about, but I do know your tears won't fix anything."
"Shut up."
There was a girl there, and Vera is starting to remember it all. She was staying behind in the library, refusing to go back home to an empty house. She remembers feeling miserable, her dinner for the day being a single cupcake, which the school cafeteria had served only hours earlier. The sun was gliding down the sky, the entire school felt empty, and all she kept telling herself was to not cry. Because tears don't fix anything, and Vera has always been smart enough to know that.
But then there was this girl, a few years younger, sitting on the floor of the library and crying and sniffling in a way Vera had just told herself not to do. So she just...walked up to her. Looked at her, confronted her. Wanted to tell her to stop crying, because well... why would she be crying? Who could be more miserable than Vera herself? Who dared to be more miserable? The girl definitely looked miserable, with tears over her reddened cheeks.
"Oh don't be such a crybaby."
Vera remembers feeling pity for the first time that year, for someone other than herself. Before she knew it, she was giving the girl her dinner, feeling much better about herself, thinking that maybe she should go home, after all, and just eat there.
"Here, have this. You'll feel better if you eat it."
And the girl sniffled, looking up at her with wide eyes. Vera saw her as nothing but an underclassman back then. A pitiful girl, probably crying over her grades or something. But the way she wiped her tears and accepted Vera's gift with outreached hands, couldn't help but bring a smile to her face.
"Well, aren't you cute?"
"Thank you."
She remembers the girl's blushing cheeks, but she also remembers never thinking about her again after that moment.