Chapter 285 - An ex-husband's regret

In the time it took Wang Lu to get from the study to the front door, the ringing doorbell had turned from a mild nuisance to a raging headache.

Wang Lu opened the front door and glared at everything in his path, the sun, the grass, the birds flitting through the air, and especially the smiling postman with a package in his hands. It was too early in his opinion to be smiling that much and genuinely.

"The Lu's mansion?" Came the gentle inquiry from the postman who had dimmed the wattage of his smile

"Yes," his voice was hoarse, roughened by lack of sleep and a serious hangover.

"I have a package for you," the postman answered before thrusting a clipboard at him "please sign here"

Wang Lu grabbed the clipboard and sprawled almost illegibly across its surface before passing it back, the postman quickly replaced it with a slim but thick package and a murmured, "have a nice day" before backing out of his driveway.

Wang Lu looked at the package in his hands, but didn't even bother to check the name on it. It looked important and it was obviously something that would require all of his attention, he wasn't ready to give it yet.

Standing in the doorway with the noise of birds in the outer garden filling the air, he scratched his face absently and wondered where his butler and servants was, closely followed by thoughts of coffee.

He closed the door gently, if for no reason than to prevent aggravating the marching band in his head, and stepped back into the house.

Wang Lu turned towards the kitchen and froze when he caught sight of himself in one of the decorative mirrors on the wall.

He looked rough, haggard, and unkempt. His eyes were swollen and red, rimmed with an even bigger band of red and veins lining his pupils. His lips looked just a little blue and thinned, he could see the lines bracketing his face and the scruff that he had left untended for several days that was growing into a red rash of a beard.

His hair was clean but otherwise in disarray but his biggest shock was the look in his eyes, it was too much and too little all at the same time and Wang Lu remembered why he had been avoiding mirrors for a while, call him a coward but he wasn't ready to see what he had finally become....yet. Ever since he came back from meeting Lei Zhao, his life let's say has been a quite a mess.

Arriving in the kitchen he cast a cursory look at the expanse of steel and marble with nothing out of place and finally located the bubbling coffee pot.

It told him his butler and servants was somewhere in the house, maybe too far away to hear the doorbell ring. Two cups of black coffee later he felt more like himself more capable of dealing with the contents of his slim package.

Wang Lu eyed it again, noting the lack of a return address or the indication of whoever sent the package. He knew the contents were going to be life-changing, he couldn't exactly dismiss the strong sense of foreboding that had gripped him since it landed in his hands but he vaguely wondered if he was interested in having his life changed just yet. He was still reeling from the last time he had his world ripped out from under him.

Wang Lu eyed the package with mounting curiosity and swore, a harsh sound in the serene environment of the kitchen before getting to his feet to dump his cup in the sink before returning to hunch over the package.

He swore again and attacked the packaging. The pictures slid out first, then the letter then a thin stack of papers.

He tore open the letter first, unable to look at the pictures, the last time he had looked at pictures he hadn't quite survived it. Even now he wished he had been given a choice of ignorance, he wished someone had asked his permission before forcing their own twisted truth on him.

The first line snagged his attention... It began innocently enough.

"All these years you have been blinded by your ego. I hope these removes the blind fold from your eyes. And you regret losing the only person who truly ever loved you."

The words hit him with the force of a death knell, he couldn't help the low grunt of anguish, he quickly abandoned the letter in favor of the pictures but they weren't any kinder.

Slowly, the blindfold was removed from his eyes. He couldn't help returning to the letter every time, hoping to find something, anything to make sense of the hell he had put himself through.

Every line, every flat surface, every glossy picture condemned him, told a story in which he was a villain. He felt his heartbreak, felt the tears stream down his face until they eddied in his scruffy beard. 

Around Wang Lu were the pieces of a lie he had believed but he couldn't even claim to be the victim, he couldn't claim to be the one hurt. He had been the blind person, breaking the people he loved, blinding by his hurt pride and a huge ego.

He had destroyed something, something he hadn't deserved in the first place.

For maybe the first time in a long time, he had a purpose, it wasn't pretty, it wasn't good, it didn't suddenly make him the good guy but at least he was no longer the blind fool playing the martyr.

Wang Lu pulled all the pictures and papers together and headed for his study in purposeful motion, he had things to do. 

He dropped everything on the table and reached for the phone. First things first, he needed to truly see people for whom they were, starting the ones closest to him.

The connection clicked and he heard that familiar voice from several miles away, "hello mother"