Chapter 338: We Can’t Change the Past, But We Can Build a Future Together

When Mary pulled her hands away from Mark’s face, the memory came to an end.

She’d shown him all of it through that simple touch, pouring it directly into his mind.

Mary hadn’t held anything back.

She’d shown him every memory exactly as it happened, no excuses, no embellishment, and above all, no attempt to present herself as someone better than she’d actually been.

That was exactly why the silence was so hard to bear now.

Mark still lay beside her, motionless, his eyes lost in the dimness as he processed everything.

Mary studied his expression with a mix of fear and hope, watching for any shift, any gesture that might tell her what he was feeling.

But there was nothing.

And with every second that passed, the anxiety grew harder to bear.

Because that stillness was exactly what she’d feared most.

Mary didn’t know if, after seeing the truth, he’d hate her for what she’d done to Rebecca, or for taking advantage of him at his lowest point.

Or if he’d simply pull away in disgust, finally understanding what kind of broken, twisted person she’d always been.

She’d handed him her entire past, unfiltered, and now she felt more exposed and vulnerable than ever.

"Sweetheart..." she started to say, her voice trembling. "I—"

Mark moved before she could finish.

He pulled her toward him and wrapped her in his arms, holding her against his chest in a warm embrace that caught her completely off guard.

Mary went still, holding her breath, everything she’d wanted to say vanishing all at once.

"...I’m so sorry," he murmured into her hair. "You were there the whole time... and I was so buried in my own misery that I couldn’t even see you."

Mary stayed rigid in his arms, not knowing what to do.

This was nothing like what she’d imagined.

She’d spent all that time bracing for his rejection, his anger, even his contempt.

For anything except this.

"You... you don’t hate me?" she finally managed to ask, her voice a thread of disbelief. "After everything I did... are you really not angry with me?"

Mark pulled back just enough to look her directly in the eyes.

"Of course I’m upset," he answered honestly.

For an instant, Mary felt all her worst fears coming true, but he didn’t give her time to sink into them.

"Just not for the reason you’re thinking," Mark continued, not looking away. "I’m upset because you didn’t trust me enough to tell me sooner."

He paused briefly, searching for the right words.

"You shouldn’t have carried all that weight alone... You could have given me the chance to be there for you."

"..."

Mark was still trying to sort through everything he’d just learned, but it was too much to take in all at once.

Mary had spent years loving him without him even knowing.

She’d been there during his worst moments, taking care of him while he could barely take care of himself, and had ended up carrying alone everything that happened during that week.

Mark, meanwhile, remembered absolutely none of it.

To him, those days were just a blank space, a part of his life buried under alcohol, pain, and self-destruction that had only ended once he ran out of money to keep drinking.

And yet, in the middle of all that, they’d conceived a child.

A child neither of them had ever known about.

Just thinking about it was overwhelming.

There was too much pain that had happened right in front of him without him ever seeing it, too many things he could no longer change, too many wounds he’d never get a chance to do anything about.

Maybe it was exactly that feeling of helplessness, combined with the certainty that he couldn’t change anything that had already happened, that pushed Mark to focus on the one thing he still could do.

Be there.

Hold her, support her, make her feel like she no longer had to carry all of it alone.

Maybe it was too late, maybe it wasn’t enough to fix anything, but it was the only thing he could offer her in that moment, and he decided to give it without holding back.

Little by little, Mary stopped resisting and finally relaxed against his chest.

"I never knew how to tell you," Mary confessed quietly, her cheek resting against his chest. "Not in that life, not in this one."

She stayed silent for a few seconds before continuing.

"The first time I showed you my memories, I still had this pretty stupid hope. I thought maybe, if you saw my face the way it was back then, something inside you would recognize me."

She lowered her gaze.

"But that didn’t happen... You looked at me like I was a stranger, and that’s when I understood there was no point clinging to it anymore."

Mark hugged her again, more gently this time.

"You know what really hurts me?" he asked quietly. "Thinking that in that life, the two of us were both completely alone, when really, we had each other the whole time."

Mary stayed silent.

"If you’d told me what you were feeling, if I’d known someone actually saw me when I felt invisible... maybe I would have reacted."

Mark closed his eyes.

"And maybe things would have ended differently."

Mary returned the embrace, holding onto him tightly, as if she could finally let go of everything she’d been holding in.

The tears weren’t long in coming, sliding silently down her cheeks. And yet, in the middle of that crying, a small laugh slipped out of her too.

"Honestly, I don’t think anything would have changed," she murmured against his chest. "We were both pretty broken back then... Even if I’d told you everything at the time, we probably would’ve just ended up dragging each other down even further."

She wiped away a tear with the back of her hand.

"But thanks for saying it anyway... You have no idea how long I waited for this moment."

Mark didn’t contradict her.

Maybe she was right, maybe she wasn’t; it was one of those questions that would never have an answer, one of those "what ifs" that stay floating in the air forever.

He tightened the embrace as the silence gave them time to take in everything they’d just shared.

Several minutes passed like that before Mark pulled back slightly and cupped her face with both hands. With his thumbs, he carefully wiped away the tears still lingering on her cheeks.

Mary stayed still under that touch.

The way Mark looked at her was so warm, so different from anything she’d ever known before, that for a few seconds she simply savored the moment until Mark broke the embrace again.

"Listen to me," Mark said quietly, not taking his eyes off her. "I’m not going to promise you I can make up for everything you went through, because that would be a lie. Nothing I do now can erase what happened."

As he spoke, he carefully brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

"But I can decide what to do from here on out, and I want you to know that I’m going to try to make you happy."

Mary stared at him, her eyes still wet, and something inside her started to unclench.

Because for the first time in a very long time, she felt like those words weren’t meant for some wrong version of her, or for Rebecca, or for some blurry memory of the past.

Mark was looking at her.

At Mary.

Exactly as she was.

"I love you," Mark murmured as he laid her back down on the bed and settled over her. "And I’m going to make sure you never doubt that again."

Mary smiled up at him from below.

"You’d better, sweetheart... I’m not letting you get away with it just on some pretty words," she replied, spreading her legs open. "I want at least ten kids."

Mark let out a small laugh and, instead of answering, leaned down and kissed her.

It was a slow, tender kiss, as if the two of them were trying to say, through that single gesture, everything they’d never had the chance to express.