My Fiance Claimed to Be from a Parallel Universe to Sleep with My Bestie Chapter 08

My Fiance Claimed to Be from a Parallel Universe to Sleep with My Bestie Chapter 08

On the day I was discharged from the hospital, Talia threw me a welcome-home party at the bar she owned.

Then I suddenly saw someone painfully familiar.

His build, his face, the set of his features, and especially the affection in his eyes when he looked at me all resembled the Marcus I used to know.

I turned my head toward Talia.

She gave me a sly smile.

I understood at once.

She really had gone out of her way.

After quietly piecing together what had happened between Marcus and me, she had found me a stand-in.

The young man walked toward me, his voice soft and intimate.

“Nora.”

I lifted my eyes to him.

“Do you know you’re here to be someone else’s stand-in?”

The young man nodded.

“It would be my honor to be your stand-in.”

I let out a scoff.

“But to me, using a stand-in is never love. It is nothing more than base desire.”

“How could I let a fake version of him cheapen what I once loved?”

Of course, the same was true of my hatred now, too.

I took a few bills from my wallet and told the young man to leave.

When I looked up, I met Marcus’s red-rimmed eyes at the entrance of the bar.

He had actually found his way here.

A decent ex should stay dead and buried.

I was about to ignore him completely.

But he rushed over, trying to hug me.

“Nora, I’ve missed you so much.”

“I know I did so many things wrong.”

“I shouldn’t have lied to you. I’ve already made Celeste leave the company, and I’ve made her leave our home too.”

“I’ll give you all of my shares in the company.”

“I renovated our home again. It’s filled with everything you like now.”

As if afraid I would refuse him, he spilled out one promise after another.

I cut him off coldly.

“What do I like?”

“You like white things.”

I looked into his eyes.

Then I pointed at the red dress I was wearing.

“I liked white before because you were wearing white on the day you saved me as a child.”

“But the color I have always loved is red, the color of life.”

Marcus’s pupils froze.

Pain and guilt spread through him all over again.

“Nora, I was wrong.”

“Please, give me one more chance, okay?”

“I really can’t live without you.”

He half-knelt in front of me, humbled to the point of humiliation.

But not even the smallest ripple stirred inside me.

“Once, I begged you like this ninety-nine times, but not once did you turn back.”

“Ninety-nine times was so many that it felt like surviving trial after trial.”

“A ninety-nine-dollar train ticket was so cheap. And yet for an entire year, I let myself wander barefoot over the glass you shattered, bleeding with every step.”

“So what right do you have now to beg me for one more chance?”

Something in Marcus’s eyes seemed to break apart piece by piece.

I had already stood up.

“Marcus, in love, you can choose A and later choose B, but you cannot keep both A and B at the same time.”

“No one gets to have it both ways.”

He still wanted to say something.

I had already looked at Talia, signaling that I was tired.

Talia immediately stepped forward and had the bar staff throw Marcus out.

He did not fight back.

It was as if only this could ease the pain inside him.

But none of it had anything to do with me anymore.

Marcus did not leave.

He kept waiting outside the place where I was staying.

“Nora, don’t make me leave yet.”

“I hurt you ninety-nine times. Let me atone ninety-nine times. If you still can’t forgive me after that, I’ll go. Is that okay?”

I moved my ankle, which still had not fully healed.

My voice was indifferent.

“What you want to do is your business.”

“This is your own work to do, not mine.”

“I have no intention of playing along.”

This was only his one-man show.

It was just like all those times before, when he had protected Celeste and left me to drown alone.