Marcus looked at me with cold indifference. “I don’t want to know.”
“I wished that someday you would hug me. Just once.”
“That was only your fantasy.”
Tears burned behind my eyes. “Yes. Just a fantasy. I understand that now.”
“Tell me what exactly made me inferior to him? Why did your love belong only to him?”
“Because he shouldn’t have had to endure this pain. But you… you were born to bear it.”
“Your existence itself was a mistake.”
I was shocked. “What?”
“I never wanted you. When your mother was pregnant, I hoped she would…”
“Stop!”
Marcus smiled with vicious satisfaction. “Did you think you were the rightful heir? You were just an accident!”
“You know why Sable will leave you? Because she’s seen your true nature,”
“Don’t mention her.”
“She’s a smart girl. She knows being with you only brings suffering.”
I’m warning you…”
“Just like your mother-eventually she’ll regret ever meeting you.”
My voice dropped to deadly calm. I understand now.”
“Understand what?”
“Why I’m alive. To make you suffer.”
“You…”
“And now, you’re suffering enough.”
I walked toward the door. “I won’t be visiting you again.”
Marcus shouted behind me, “You’ll regret this! You’ll end up alone like me!”
“Goodbye, Marcus.”
“I curse you! I curse you to never find true love!”
I stepped into the corridor like a man walking away from his own grave. Edward was waiting by the door.
“Your Majesty, are you all right? Should I take you somewhere to rest?”
I raised my hand to stop him. “No. Go back, Ed. I need some time alone.”
I walked to the hospital entrance. Outside, rain was beginning to fall. Heavy drops splattered against the concrete.
That’s when I saw them-a father and son running in from the rain. The father held an umbrella over his child, his own shoulder soaked through. The man was completely focused on protecting his son.
They burst through the hospital doors, shaking off the rain.
The father knelt down, concern written across his face. “Are you cold, sweetheart?”
The boy shook his head. “No, Daddy.”
The father gently wiped raindrops from his son’s face. “When we see the doctor, don’t be scared, okay?”
“I will be scared…”
The father pulled his child into a tight embrace. “Don’t worry. Daddy will stay with you the whole time. I’ll always protect you.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Daddy loves you more than anything in the world. You’re my little hero, right?”
The father removed his own jacket and wrapped it around his son. He smoothed the boy’s damp hair with gentle fingers. The child gripped his father’s hand trustingly.
The father answered every one of his son’s questions with infinite patience.
The scene before me felt like a knife twisting in my chest. I watched this man shield his child from rain, give up his own comfort without a second thought, offer unconditional love and protection.
Why can other children have this kind of father’s love, but I can’t?
Am I truly not worth loving?
If I’d been afraid, would he have comforted me?
Maybe… maybe I really was just an accident…
At that moment, I recalled some fragments of memories from my childhood.
Seven-year-old me sat by the living room window, watching the driveway. I’d been there since four o’clock, waiting for Marcus to come home. The servants had decorated the entire house with balloons and streamers-bright blue ones, my favorite color.
When his car finally pulled up, I ran to the front door and waited. My heart hammered with excitement.
Marcus walked through the door, briefcase in hand, talking on his phone. He strode right past the decorations without even glancing at them.
“Dad, today is my birthday…”
“Oh, is it.” He didn’t look up from the papers he was shuffling through. “Have the servants buy you a cake.”
He walked straight to his study and shut the door.
I stood there in my new birthday outfit, surrounded by decorations he’d never noticed, waiting for something that would never come.
I was ten, racing home with a trophy from my first competition victory. I burst through the front door, excited to share my achievement.
“Dad! I won! I came in first!”
Marcus glanced at the trophy with disinterest. “Good. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
He disappeared into his study, leaving me standing alone in the vast foyer.
I was twelve years old, lying in bed with a high fever. Katherine was traveling. The servants suggested calling Marcus, but he only sent a doctor to check on me.
The servants cared for me instead. I dreamed of Marcus coming to my room, checking my temperature, telling me everything would be okay. But when morning came, I was still alone.
The memories cut through me like shards of glass. Standing there watching this stranger love his child unconditionally, I felt the full weight of what I’d been denied.
This is what fathers are supposed to do. This is what love looks like.
And I never had it. Not once.
The rain continued falling outside, but I couldn’t move. My throat closed up. Every breath was a struggle.
Am I really so fundamentally flawed that my own father couldn’t love me?
What’s wrong with me?
I pressed my back against the cold hospital wall, fighting to keep myself from falling apart in this public place.
Sable’s POV
I stared at the scattered files across my desk, but the words blurred together. My mind kept circling back to Caelan’s interrupted conversation.
He wanted to tell me about “everything between us”…
The pen slipped from my fingers. I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to push away the memory of his expression-so serious, so determined to finally say whatever he’d been holding back.
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