Married the "Old Geezer", Now They All Cry!

Chapter 3

Lilian curled up in fear just as my parents and Howard walked in.

Seeing the cut on her wrist, Howard immediately rushed over to her, his face full of concern as he held her protectively in his arms.

My parents wasted no time in turning on me and demanding, "What do you think you're doing? Didn't you say you were going to marry that man? Why are you doing this to our baby girl?"

I took a quick look at the shallow mark on Lilian's wrist, which was nothing more than a faint red line without even a single drop of blood.

"You'd better take her to the hospital, or it'll heal before you even get there."

My parents were so furious that they pointed at me and stammered, "You... you... you're impossible!"

Howard chimed in, "If you want to die so badly, go do it by yourself and leave Lillie out of it. You're nothing but a hypocrite."

I picked up the knife and walked over to Lilian. "Lilian, you said I did this to you, didn't you? Then, let me show you what a real cut looks like."

Without a second thought, I brought the blade down.

Just then, Howard threw himself in front of Lilian and grabbed the knife with his bare hand. Blood immediately started pouring from his palm.

Lilian let out a terrified scream.

Howard shouted, "Have you lost your mind?"

With a sudden twist of his hand, the knife ended up in my stomach. Blood kept gushing out as I collapsed to the floor.

Someone yelled, "Get Lillie to the hospital! Don't waste any more time."

I tried to call out to my parents, but they seemed to know exactly what I was going to say.

My father cut me off, "What are you still playing at? How could you be stupid enough to stab yourself? That blood all over you is probably just fake movie blood anyway!"

My mother chimed in, "I can't wait to see how long you can keep up this act!"

And just like that, they hurried off with Lilian without so much as a backward glance.

My consciousness was slipping away by the second, and more and more blood was pooling beneath me.

In the haze, I thought I saw Howard burst through the door. He scooped me up with such desperate tenderness and carried me to the hospital.

I could even make out my mother crying and my father beating himself up for not having taken a closer look at me.

A bitter laugh echoed inside my head.

I knew how desperately I had always wanted them to care about me, so it was no surprise that my fading mind would conjure up that exact fantasy.

*****

When I came to my senses, I was lying in a hospital bed, and my parents were there beside me, along with Howard.

For a brief moment, I allowed myself to believe that what I had seen before had been real until my mother asked, "Are you trying to kill yourself again? If you really are, then why didn't you just cut a little deeper?"

I was completely stunned.

She added, "Since you're awake now, you can just find your own way home. You've already dragged us all over the place. Oh, if you really want to die, at least have the decency not to do it in the house. It's nothing but bad luck."

After my parents left, Howard leaned against the wall and fixed his eyes on me. "I knew you still had feelings for me. All this drama was just your trick to turn down the marriage, right? I already told you, if you could just learn to be a little more generous like Lillie, I'd still take you back."

A cold chill ran all the way through me.

How ridiculous that I had actually let myself believe that maybe they did care about me.

"I'll pass," I said.

Howard fell silent for a moment, and then he stammered, "Fine. I was actually planning to stay and look after you, considering I was the one who accidentally hurt you. But the way you talk back to me? I guess you don't need anyone. You're on your own."

After that, none of them ever came back to see me. I gathered up everything I had and left.

*****

When I got home, I threw away every single thing that had ever had anything to do with Lilian or Howard.

I even cut my figure out of every family photo we had ever taken together.

"You're out of the hospital so soon? I knew you were faking the whole thing," my mother said with a cold sneer.

Lilian was curled up in Howard's arms. But the moment she caught sight of me, she pulled away from him. "Bella, I didn't mean to. Please don't..."

She reached out to grab my hand.

"What are you doing? What are you...?"

All of them froze when they spotted the pile of things I had thrown away.

I walked off without looking back, having no interest in watching them put on another performance.

"Bella must be doing all this so we will try to win her back," Lilian said.

And at that, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"That's probably it. After all, all she's ever really wanted was our love."

Back then, every single one of them thought I was just throwing a fit and trying to get their attention.

But they never realized I no longer wanted them, not my parents, not Howard. None.