Chapter 4
522 Words
After Marcus was hospitalized, the Bennett family began falling apart.
My dad rushed back and forth between the hospital and the company every day. My mom stayed by Marcus's bedside. Within days, she had stopped bothering with her usual flawless makeup and seemed to have aged years.
Sophie came too. Each time, she arrived with homemade soup and red-rimmed eyes. "Marcus, please eat a little," she would say.
At first, Marcus still tried to reassure her.
"This isn't your fault. I chose to save you. Don't cry, Sophie. It hurts me to see you cry."
I listened from nearby and nearly laughed out loud.
'This is almost touching.'
Touching scenes like that rarely survive time. No amount of affection could erase the fact that Marcus had lost both legs.
Marcus needed help turning over, bathing, managing a catheter, and massaging his residual limbs. He had once been the Group's youngest CEO, surrounded by people eager to flatter him wherever he went.
Now he needed a caregiver to help him use the toilet.
Eventually, he began rehabilitation with prosthetic legs and crutches.
One afternoon, Sophie visited and wheeled him to the rehabilitation room. Marcus braced himself on a pair of crutches and tried to rise from the wheelchair.
He gritted his teeth, veins bulging across his forehead as he fought to stay upright.
He hadn't adjusted to the prosthetic legs, and his balance was poor. He barely lasted 2 seconds before crashing to the floor. One crutch flew from his hand and struck the wall.
He lay sprawled facedown on the floor, gasping and humiliated.
Terrified, Sophie dropped into a crouch and tried to help him up.
"Marcus, are you all right?"
"Don't touch me!"
He jerked his hand away, his voice hoarse.
Sophie recoiled, completely at a loss.
An unpleasant odor suddenly filled the room. Sophie froze, then looked down and saw a dark stain spreading across Marcus's pants.
She turned her face away before she could stop herself.
Marcus saw it.
His stare turned terrifying.
"Get out."
Sophie panicked. "Marcus, I'm not disgusted by you. I just..."
"Get out!"
He snatched up a nearby crutch and swung it at her. He struck hard enough that Sophie bit her lip to keep from crying out.
I quickly stepped between them and pulled Sophie back.
"Sophie, wait outside. Marcus is upset right now."
Tears spilled down Sophie's cheeks.
"Marcus, I swear I wasn't disgusted by you."
Marcus shut his eyes and turned away.
When the caregiver came in to clean him up, Marcus kept his face turned toward the wall. Even so, I saw tears gathering at the corner of his eye.
In the hallway, Sophie sobbed until she could barely catch her breath.
"I didn't mean to react that way. I just couldn't help it."
I handed her a tissue.
"I know you didn't mean it."
I had said the same thing countless times in my previous life. I had never meant to hurt Sophie. I had only been trying to save Marcus.
No one had believed me then.
'Now she gets to learn how it feels when no one believes you.'
- Writer
