Belittle Me Now And Cry Later

Chapter 4

"And you proved you only cared about money!" Mrs. Sterling shot back. "The fact that you're still bitter about it all these years later proves we were right about you all along. You never loved Lily. You just wanted access to our wealth!"

Marcus shook his head vehemently, water flying from his soaked hair. 

"No. No! I took the ten thousand and didn't complain because I wanted to prove to you that I loved your daughter. I wanted to show you that it wasn't about the money—"

"Well, you failed," Lily said flatly. "Because here you are again, begging for money. Just like always. Just like every other time you've shown up here with your pathetic excuses and your dying mother and your sad little life."

"My mother is actually dying!" Marcus's voice cracked on the words, emotion finally overwhelming his attempt to stay calm. "This isn't a lie or an excuse. She has hours left, and the hospital won't help her without payment. I'm not asking for charity I'll pay you back every cent. I just need—"

"You need to leave," Mrs. Sterling said coldly. "Right now. Before I have security physically remove you."

"Wait," a new voice interjected.

A man emerged from behind Lily—tall, handsome, dressed in an expensive suit that probably cost more than Marcus's mother's entire medical bill. Marcus recognized him immediately: Zachary, the eldest son of JSK Corporation, heir to a billion-dollar empire.

And from the way Zachary's hand casually rested on Lily's shoulder, from the way Lily leaned subtly into his touch, Marcus suddenly understood what was happening.

"This is fascinating," Zachary said, a smile playing at his lips as he looked Marcus up and down like an interesting insect. "So you're the famous husband. The bone marrow donor. The charity case."

"Who are you?" Marcus asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Zachary," the man said smoothly, extending a hand that Marcus made no move to shake. After a moment, Zachary withdrew it with a slight shrug, seemingly amused rather than offended. "I'm Lily's... well, let's call me her future. You, on the other hand, are her past. A past she's eager to forget, from what I understand."

Mrs. Sterling beamed at Zachary. "Mr. Zachary has been courting Lily for several months now. His family owns JSK Corporation perhaps you've heard of it? Though I suppose not. People in your... situation... don't tend to follow business news."

"Several months," Marcus repeated slowly, looking at Lily. "You've been seeing him for several months?"

Lily met his gaze without flinching, without guilt. "We're still married, Marcus, but barely. That's a technicality we'll be correcting very soon."

"I see," Marcus said quietly. So this was how it was. While he'd been working multiple jobs, trying to support himself and save money for his mother's mounting medical bills, his wife had been courting a billionaire heir. The betrayal cut deeper than any physical wound.

But he couldn't afford to think about that now. His mother was dying.

"None of that matters," Marcus said, forcing himself to focus. "Lily, please. I'm begging you. One hundred thousand dollars. That's all I need. I'll sign whatever papers you want. I'll agree to any divorce terms. I'll disappear from your life completely. Just please help me save my mother."

For a long moment, Lily said nothing, simply studying Marcus with an expression he couldn't read. Then, slowly, deliberately, she smiled and it was one of the cruelest smiles Marcus had ever seen.

"You want me to give you money?" Lily asked softly.

"Please," Marcus whispered.

"You know what?" Zachary interjected suddenly, that amused smile still playing on his handsome features. "I'm feeling generous today. Marcus, is it? I'll make you a deal."

Hope flickered in Marcus's chest. "A deal?"

"Sure." Zachary lifted one expensive Italian leather shoe and held it out toward Marcus. "Lick my shoe. Get down on your hands and knees, lick my shoe clean, and I'll consider helping you with your little problem."

The corridor fell silent except for the drumming of rain outside.

Marcus stared at the offered shoe, at Zachary's mocking smile, at the cruel gleam in his eyes. Around him, he could hear the barely suppressed laughter of the maids, could feel Mrs. Sterling's satisfied smirk, could see Lily's cold indifference.

They were enjoying this. All of them. They were enjoying watching him be humiliated, degraded, broken down into something less than human.

And for a moment just a moment—Marcus actually considered it. For his mother, wouldn't he do anything? Wouldn't he swallow his pride and his dignity and everything that made him human if it meant saving her life? but then something inside him snapped.

Marcus's hands clenched into fists at his sides, and when he looked up, his eyes were blazing with an anger he'd kept suppressed for far too long.

"After everything I've done for this family," Marcus said, his voice low and shaking with barely controlled rage, "after everything I've given you—you dare humiliate me like this?"

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"Oh, please," Lily scoffed. "What have you done that's so special?"

"I saved your life!" Marcus roared, the words exploding from him with years of pent-up frustration and hurt. "Not once, not twice, but THREE times I donated my bone marrow to you! The doctors warned me. They told me the third time might kill me. They said my body couldn't handle it, that the risk was too great. But I did it anyway do you know why?"

No one answered. They just stared at him, some looking uncomfortable now, others still wearing expressions of disdain.

"Because I loved you!" Marcus's voice cracked. "I loved you with everything I had. I loved you when we were in university and you didn't even know I existed. I loved you when I was just a poor student working three jobs to afford tuition. I loved you when you got sick, and I loved you when I married you. Everything I did, I did for love. And you stand there and mock me? You ask me to lick shoes?"

"Love?" Lily laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. "You call that love? No, Marcus. You did it for money. You did it because we offered a million dollars, and you saw your ticket out of poverty. Don't romanticize it now."

"I didn't take the million," Marcus said through gritted teeth. "You gave me ten thousand, and I accepted it. I accepted it without argument, without fighting, without demanding what I was owed. Do you know why? Because I wanted to prove to all of you that it wasn't about money. I wanted to prove that my love for your daughter was real!"

"Well, congratulations," Mrs. Sterling said. "You proved nothing except that you're a fool."

"Maybe I am," Marcus admitted, his voice dropping to something quieter, something sadder. "Maybe I'm the biggest fool who ever lived for thinking that any of you had hearts. For thinking that saving a life would mean something. For thinking that love could exist in a family like yours."

He looked at Lily, really looked at her, perhaps for the first time in years. And he realized that the woman he had loved the woman he had imagined her to be had never existed. She had been a fantasy, a dream, a beautiful illusion that had never matched reality.

"I don't even recognize you," Marcus said softly. 

"The Lily I fell in love with in university she would never have stood by and watched someone humiliate her husband like this. She would never have been so cruel, so heartless. But maybe that Lily was never real. Maybe I was in love with a ghost."

"Are you finished with your little speech?" Lily asked coldly. "Because it's getting boring."

Zachary laughed. "Wow. Quite the performance. I almost feel bad for you, Marcus. Almost. But you know what? I've changed my mind. I won't help you even if you do lick my shoe. People like you don't deserve help. You're just waste taking up space in the world."