Chapter 15 Sudden Offer
“Why me?! What I failed to provide him with?! I- I did everything he told me, I swear, I wholeheartedly did…”
Sobbing wretchedly, her tears soaked his shirt miserably.
“I devoted myself… Loved him endlessly… I always did everything he said… you- you know that, right, William?”
Sniffling, clutching his shirt helplessly to express her ache as he held her face, wiping her tears while she spoke between her sobbing.
He swallowed hard, resenting the stream of her tears as he nodded.
“Yes… I know.”
“I kept our relationship a secret… I gave him all my passwords… left all my male friends, stopped talking to guys and yet… was that not enough for him!?”
She continued to cry, questioning her fate that brought false hopes for a beautiful tomorrow.
“Please don’t cry… please…”
“Everything has fallen apart, William,”
Burying her face in his chest to muffle her wails, she held onto William with all her might.
He knew he shouldn’t but failing to control the urge, he cupped her wet cheeks, forcing her to greet his blazing gaze… still desiring her.
“I gave you hints over hints ever since I came but you never listened… you always thought I am the bad one,”
Her lips quivered, whimpering, “I thought it is because you like me and lying to turn me against Luke,”
“Do you consider me that low?”
Her eyes widened in horror when he almost gave up on her and unknowingly, her hand extended for him, holding his sleeves.
“I am sorry… I never imagined that Luke would do this… I trusted him blindly… Weren’t we in love…?”
“If you were then why didn’t he tell anyone about you guys?”
Leaving his wrist from her grasp, William became dire for a moment, unintentionally hitting her sensitive spots by mockery.
“If you were then why didn't he talk to your parents and then leave?”
She lowered her head in shame. Bending forward, he stopped right at her face, using a piercing statement,
“If you were in love then why did he say all those horrible things, Arabella?”
Shutting her eyes, she almost released another cry but couldn’t when her phone rang and it was Luke again.
Her heartbeats enhanced to the level she could feel numbness in her body, afraid to share a single romantic conversation with him.
William picked her phone and offered it to her call, waiting patiently for her reaction.
“Aren't you going to pick his call?”
“N-No,”
“Why not?”
“How can I after… hearing all this?”
When she didn’t pick the call, he sat back on the table, sharing a brief silence.
Piercing an arrow through his chest at her anguish and failing to endure further, he lowered his gaze dejectedly and asked for confirmation.
“...Do you want to talk it out with him, Bella?”
“No! Why would I want to fall lower in my own eyes?... I-I can’t be that desperate… to long for a man who isn’t serious,”
Stammering, her mind ceased to function at the slightest perception of marrying the wrong man.
He offered her the glass of water again to stop her agonizing sobbing which was driving him insane.
Hesitantly taking the glass, she took a few sips to relax herself a little.
“...I thought he changed… that he became better for me but I guess… I had only exasperated him, I was wrong,”
When she was clutching the glass with her both hands.
“Change, huh?”
William shrunk his eyes, perusing her countenance that knitted an ache, a terrible one, enough to stifle him.
Curling his lips in a painful smile, he stared, and stared.
Waiting for her to look at him once, at least once, she didn’t,
“But I am still here for you, Arabella, again. Sadly, you don't notice me,”
When his voice broke, her eyes widened, recalling everything he did ever since he came.
“William?”
“... I am sorry, I am so sorry about Luke. If I had known… I would have… done something,”
Turning his head away, he got up gradually, holding his sides in frustration, resonance becoming croaked as if he was controlling himself.
“You… left because of us, right? For the safe shelter of your heart?”
He didn’t- he couldn’t reply.
Taking a deep breath, considering it a wrong yet the right time.
“I am still here for you. You have begun to exist in me more than myself and that is why I am choosing you over my brother,”
William, once again, confessed his most wicked, most heartfelt, his uncontrollable intention.
“...And for the first time in my life, I want to follow my heart too which resides under your shadow. That is why,”
He shifted to his knees, he could feel his heart pounded madly, breaths tightening around his throat in fear of a slap.
‘Look at me once, just once, please, connect your eyes with mine on your own too,’ .
“I will keep you happy, pour all my affection and attention, I will cherish you, Bella, give me a chance, please…”
He forced the lump in his throat followed by a heartbreaking tear, sharing his one and only desire.
“Marry me instead, please,”
Only to receive instant rejection, “William.. I.. I don’t think I can,”
She shifted her head away from him more as she was already stuck in an emotional turmoil of her recent separation.
“So you will marry anyone but the man who cares the most for you, who showed you that your so-called relationship was worthless discarding how badly it could ruin my bond with my brother,”
Veins popping on his forearm with wrath surging to his veins because she had failed to understand what he ended up bargaining- his bond with his brother- for her.
Yet he had become weak, too weak in her matters. Tilting his head with pure hopelessness brimming, his eyes were pleading for a chance.
“....I don't love you, William,”
But, she would have noticed ‘if’ she had looked into his begging eyes in the first place.
“Let's be real here, Bella, love doesn't carry a marriage. It's about compassion, companionship, care and affection which all I hold for you,”
“Do you even want to take revenge for what he did? Make him regret it?” He became senseless at this point.
“I do but not in such an horrendous way,”
His eyes widened in appall when she, once again, pierced his soul beautifully. Stepping back with a clenched, so painful, painful enough to suffocate him.
“...So now you consider marrying me as horrendous…?”
“No, no, William, I didn’t mean it like this,”
Turning his head away, he wiped his eyes that gleamed with tears with his sleeves roughly to not break before her and panted heavily.
“It's alright… I.. I.. am.. sorry.. I should have thought.. of course.. It’s- It's your life and decisions are yours entirely, I shouldn’t have acted hastily,”
Forcing a shaky smile, he waved his hand, failing to forge one sentence properly.
“I-I… What was I thinking? Sorry.. Sorry… you can sort your matter with Luke however you want… work out your relationship if you want,”
Ravaged, the man who was placing a gamble where he lost, he shut his eyes.
He gained nothing, worse, lost everything. His bond, his relationships and the one he cherished above all.
“William-”
“Just,”
Forcing a heartbreaking smile, after limitless endeavors, a tear rolled down his cheek as he left with a final plea before leaving her shadows after attaining nothing.
“Don't tell Luke I told you that, at the very least,”