Chapter 195 You Never Shed Tears for Me
"I've only now realized... I might not have loved you, but I would have married you. Back then, I never truly loved anyone, so I didn't know what love felt like."
"But why be so foolish..."
Isabella said a whole lot and shed a whole lot of tears.
Yet, Marcus laid there on the hospital bed, quiet as a whisper, never once fluttering his eyelids.
He was still in a coma, completely unconscious.
Isabella raised her hand to wipe away her tears. "From now on, please just forget about me, Marcus. You have a better life and greater achievements ahead of you. I believe that one day, you'll become everything you've dreamed of."
"And me... I've fallen too far; I’m hopelessly entangled with Sebastian. You can't help me now, don't even try to save me."
"My coldness is for your own good."
After Isabella spoke these words, she stood up and gently touched Marcus's face.
"Sorry," she whispered—her final words to him.
As she exited the room, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper watched her leave.
Her expression was far from warm. "I'm leaving, and I hope he recovers soon. I won't come back, but I will keep an eye on how he's doing until he's fully recuperated."
"Go on, then," Mrs. Cooper said tersely. "It's best you don't come. Marcus is engaged, after all. If his fiancée found out... well, what then? How would we explain?"
It was then Isabella remembered. "Right, his... new fiancée, where is she?"
She had heard the news that Marcus was engaged again, this time to a woman born into a prestigious family.
Yet, despite the time that had passed, she hadn't once laid eyes on Marcus's fiancée.
Now with Marcus in trouble, one would think his betrothed would come to visit, to keep him company.
Mr. Cooper responded, "She's still abroad and won't be back until the end of the month."
"Has she been out of the country this whole time?"
"Yes."
Isabella asked, "So... she and Marcus, they've never met?"
"They'll have plenty of time to get acquainted later," Mrs. Cooper snapped, "Don't pry any further, and don't you dare meddle and wreak havoc on this engagement!"
"You're reading too much into it," Isabella retorted. "Fine, I'll drop it. It's none of my business anyway."
"Good, now leave."
"There's just one more thing."
Mrs. Cooper, growing more impatient, sighed, "What now?! You're such a nuisance!"
"Don't tell Marcus I was here," Isabella instructed. "If he asks, just say... I... never came."
Mr. Cooper appeared taken aback, but then nodded, "Understood."
Isabella's decision was meant as a final blow to Marcus's heart, severing any lingering hopes he might have held onto. It was for his own good.
Without another word, Isabella left the hospital.
The car was parked just by the curb.
She pulled the passenger door open and sat down, "Now, let's go back to Willowbrook Estate."
The interior smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. Isabella merely scrunched her nose, choosing not to comment.
"Satisfied?"
"Yeah..." Isabella nodded her head slightly, "I've done right by my conscience."
Sebastian chuckled softly, "You've got some nerve, Isabella."
"Thank you," she said simply.
"What for? I'm the one with no conscience, no sympathy, the heartless one."
"Thank you for letting me see Marcus," Isabella said, looking down, "You could have refused and confined me to the Willowbrook Estate."
"Yes," Sebastian replied, "I should be crueler to you. I shouldn’t have gone easy on you."
His laugh was cold and laced with contempt.
Isabella kept her gaze fixed on the road ahead. "I'll never meet with Marcus again. This was the last time."
"So what?"
"You can rest easy now."
"It's you who can rest easy, Isabella," Sebastian said, "You use 'never seeing him again' as a way to protect him. You’re afraid of what I might do to him..."
Isabella shook her head, "What you said is just one aspect of it. I also stopped seeing him because I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea about us anymore."
"You'd court danger to meet him, and he risked his life for you. If I wasn’t blind or a fool, there wouldn't be any misunderstanding about the depth of your feelings."
"It seems... no matter how much I explain, it's pointless," she sighed.
Sebastian tilted his head, reached out, and gently lifted her chin to examine her face, "Have you been crying?"
"Yes..." She murmured, caught by his observance.
"Your eyes are swollen like that because you shed tears for him."
"This is the last time."
His fingers delicately traced the skin on her cheek. "It seems you haven't shed any tears for me," he noted.
Isabella met his gaze, "I..."
"What? Were you about to say that you’ve actually cried for me too?"
Isabella didn't know how to start.
Upon reflection, she realized she hadn't. Did she even have the right to cry for Sebastian? She could only hide away, in the restroom, beneath the showerhead, crying secretly without letting it last too long, for fear that her teary eyes would give her away.
Her prolonged silence only made Sebastian's heart grow colder.
“At the hospital, you rushed straight to Marcus, not sparing me a glance or caring where I was...” Sebastian said with an edge, "Well done, Isabella. Really well done."
In a soft voice, Isabella asked, "Will you listen to my explanation? Will you even believe it if you do?"
"I'm all ears," he said.
Sebastian then let go of her chin and started the car.
Throughout the drive, he focused on the road, not looking at Isabella once.
From time to time, she would glance up at him, then lower her gaze again, her fingers intertwined nervously.
Now that everything that needed to be done was behind her, Isabella thought it was time to reflect on the entirety of the situation.
She needed to keep a clear head and sort through the events that had unfolded.
A trap had been set from the moment she received that anonymous text message – she had walked into a well-laid plan.
Looking at Sebastian's resolute and stern profile, she pondered his intelligence and years in the cutthroat world of business. Surely, he wasn't someone who could be easily fooled by such ploys.
She felt a twinge of unease.
"Why do you keep looking at me?" Sebastian spoke indifferently, "Thinking of another lie?"
“I’m not...” she denied.
"Then, you must be figuring out how to appease me, to calm my anger?"
"That's not it either.”
He hummed lowly, "Then what is it that you're planning to do?"
"The truth," Isabella replied. "My meeting with Marcus was orchestrated by someone."
She expected Sebastian to at least show a flicker of surprise, maybe raise an eyebrow, or at the very least, tap his fingers on the steering wheel in thought.
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