BONDS UNBROKEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Chapter Seventeen

Dumfounded, Briella looked at Marcellus in disbelief. Her lips parted slightly, but no words came. She shook her head slowly, her eyes wide, as though she were staring at a stranger.

“That’s it?” Her voice cracked into a shout, raw with fury. “That’s your reason?!”

Marcellus flinched but didn’t answer. He stood there, his silence heavier than any denial.

“Tell me,” Briella pressed, her voice trembling. “You stayed away, you treated me like I was nothing, you shredded me in front of people who look up to me—all because you were… afraid? Because you didn’t know how to face me?”

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her anger swallowing the tears that burned in her eyes. Marcellus lowered his gaze, his throat working as though he wanted to speak, but nothing came out.

Briella took a deep breath, pressing her hands to her chest like she was holding herself together. Then her voice cracked open, sharp and aching.

“Leave my house.”

The words hung in the air, brittle as glass.

“You don’t understand,” she continued, her tone suddenly lower, but heavier. “You don’t understand what I went through. I lost the best human in the world, Marci. I lost Genevieve. Do you know what that did to me? Do you know what it took for me to even keep breathing?” Her voice broke into a sob. “And after that, the only thing I had left was waiting for you. My second favorite person in this entire world. I waited… and waited… and waited. But you never came.”

Tears streamed freely now. She turned her face away from him, ashamed of how broken she sounded.

“When you finally showed up, I thought maybe… maybe I could breathe again.” She let out a bitter laugh. “But you came back a stranger. You hurt me. You looked me in the eye and still didn’t see me. You never even asked what was wrong. Do you know how much that cut me? How much it still cuts me?”

Her voice rose again into a shout, each word laced with pain. “So leave! Leave my house, Marcellus!”

But before she could push him away again, he stepped forward and pulled her into his arms.

“Let me go!” she struggled, pounding his chest with her fists. “I said leave!”

He held her tighter, unyielding but not forceful—just firm, as though he was holding on for dear life. And then, as if all her strength suddenly slipped through her fingers, Briella collapsed against him. Her sobs tore through the silence of the room, violent and raw.

“I missed you so much,” she choked, her voice muffled against his shirt. “You’re such a bad person, Marci… you left me, and then you gave me such a stupid reason… I hate you, I hate you…”

Her words fell apart into hiccupping cries, broken and small. Each one shredded Marcellus’s heart.

With every tremor in her body, with every sharp intake of breath, he wished he could erase himself, wipe out the years of pain he had caused. But who would hold her if he was gone? Who would stay if not him?

All he could do was hold her tighter, rocking her gently like she was fragile glass.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair, over and over, his voice cracking with sincerity. “I’m so sorry, Brielle. I should have been there. I should never have left. I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry.”

Time slipped away.

Two hours later, they were sitting on the couch, the storm of sobs now quiet, leaving only a heavy, tender silence between them. Briella leaned into the armrest, her swollen eyes staring blankly ahead. She hadn’t said another word since breaking down.

Marcellus sat close, not daring to touch her again, his voice low but steady as he finally explained.

He told her everything. How his mother deceived him, manipulated him into choices that drove him far from the life he wanted. How he had been trapped in obligations he never asked for, in a world that demanded everything from him and gave nothing back. He recounted the years—the loneliness, the anger, the guilt—and how he had tried, failed, and tried again to find a way back.

He gave her every detail, every scar of the past ten years.

Briella sat there silently, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her face unreadable. But as his words filled the room, as his voice trembled on certain memories, she felt a warmth push against the walls she had built around her heart.

She turned to look at him, her eyes still tired, still stained with pain. For the first time in years, a small, unguarded smile tugged at her lips. It wasn’t forgiveness—not yet—but it was something.

She had missed this. Missed him.

But she still didn’t speak.

She simply let her gaze linger on him for a moment longer before looking away again, hiding the fragile curve of her lips, hiding how much she still loved him despite it all.

And Marcellus, seeing that fleeting smile, felt his heart exhale for the first time in years.

....

✨ End of Chapter Seventeen ✨