Chapter 9

He ended his part of the story and looks at me with a silent pleading in his eyes. He wants me to console him. He wants me to tell him that he's not really done anything wrong. He wants confirmation from me that maybe  what he did wasn't so bad after all.

"Do you still love her?" I ask, and he winces like the mere memory still brings him pain. "Do you still feel it was all worth it?" His head sinks low as I see his body convulse with sobs. I feel like reaching out to him and consoling him, telling him that I didn't mean to make him cry. I didn't mean to make him feel bad, he did what he had to do for the person he loved. I feel like giving him a hug and getting the strange satisfaction of him crying on my shoulder. I'm too dirty though and I don't feel like I'd appreciate it myself.

Instead, I begin to tell him about Lucas. "I met Lucas after my first week here. When I was still getting used to the fact that the life I used to know before was gone and now I was going to live like a personal help as I watch them spend my inheritance. Lucas saw me sitting alone at one of the benches on the bus stop, the rain getting me drenched and he came over offering me a ride under his umbrella. That was exactly two years and five months ago, that was a day that I thought whenever I remembered it, it would always being me joy, whenever I remembered it. My parents had never really allowed me to mingle with boys that much when we were still together, so I guess it was the notion of the strange boy actually comforting me that madenme stick to him so much".

I can see him intently watching me, listening to me, like I was weaving a tale of fantasy and intrigue right in front of him "What happened next?" He asks and so I go on to tell him the rest of the tragic tale.

I tell him of how I loved him and how he said he loved me back. He said he'd never leave me alone. He said he'd always be there for me, no costs attached, no questions asked. I put all my hopes in him, that if there was one thing that was right in my life at this time, it was him.

Then his looks came in and suddenly I started being put on the block to achieve his dreams. Suddenly the price that had to be paid for him to get to the success he so dearly craved, was me. I had to pay up, for him to have sucess. "You saw how that ended didn't you?" I say and he dosen't even try to hide the fact that he'd seen what happened in the restaurant. "How about we help each other?" He says and I can feel the tears falling down my cheeks.

"I need a wife, that's the condition my parents gave me for my sins to be forgiven. I need a wife and you need a home. We can both help each other" he continues. What???. I look into his eyes to see if he's toying with me. All I can see is a resolve, and instinctively I nod. What do I have left to lose anyways.