Page 33 of Forever His Favorite
And then, as though his body could no longer hold itself up, Lucas collapsed onto his knees in front of her. His hands trembled, clutching the cake, tears burning his eyes as his voice broke.
“I was wrong. I was blind. I was stupid. I had your love—and I destroyed it. And now I’ve lost it all. Emily…” His voice cracked. “See, I’m begging you on my knees. Please love me again. Just once more.”
Emily stared at him, her heart clenching painfully. Years of memories crashed over her—the way she once waited, prayed, begged for him to see her, to care for her, to protect her the way he had in the beginning.
She had once thought his attention was everything, never realizing how it faded, how it turned to neglect until she was left starved and invisible.
Now, seeing him kneeling before her, she felt no warmth. No longing. Only pain.
Her feet moved on their own. She stepped toward him, then lowered herself down, her knees touching the cold ground in front of him, kneeling on the ground.
Lucas’s tear-streaked eyes lifted to meet hers, stunned.
From the side, Sebastian’s sharp intake of breath filled the air. Hearing the scrape of her footsteps, he spun around, his chest seizing when he saw Emily on her knees before Lucas. His feet moved quickly, instinctively, to reach her—because the sight of her kneeling in front of another man burned through him like fire. But before he could reach her, she was already speaking.
“What’s so special about you begging on your knees, Lucas?” She leaned closer, her eyes never wavering from his. “Look, I am on my knees too. It still didn’t change anything.”
Sebastian froze, his fists curling tightly at his sides. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding as fury and hurt twisted through him. Every second she remained on the ground tore at him, yet he held himself back. His chest tightened, his breath ragged.
Emily didn’t blink, her gaze locked on Lucas, her voice sharp with all the years of unshed anger.
“It didn’t erase anything,” she whispered, her words cutting sharper than a scream. “It didn’t erase the nights you made me feel sick watching you with Amelia. It didn’t erase the memory of you running to her in the middle of the night, even when I begged you not to.”
Her gaze flicked briefly to Dillon, cold and accusing, before snapping back to Lucas. “No one around you ever gave me respect. They insulted me to my face because you made it clear that I was a burden to you, not your girlfriend. Do you know how much it broke me when you made me beg for your mother’sring? I was so desperate to marry you that I threw away my own dignity.”
Lucas’s chest heaved, but he didn’t move.
Her chest rose and fell sharply as old wounds spilled out like fresh blood. “I still remember how Amelia looked me in the eye and told me you’d never believe me, even if I told you she stole my designs. And when I finally slapped her for mocking me, you proved her right. You fired me in front of everyone, humiliated me, and blamed me for defending myself. You never believed me.”
Lucas flinched, his hand gripping his knee until his knuckles went white as she continued.
“I remember the lies she told about me. I remember being humiliated in front of the whole world. I remember nearly dying when someone tried to kill me—and still, you refused to believe me. I remember it all. Every word. Every wound. Every betrayal. Even now, even when I see you on your knees, it hurts just as much as it did then. Nothing has changed. The pain never left.” Her eyes burned as she leaned closer. “So tell me, Lucas… what difference does it make?”
Lucas’s lips parted, but no words came out. He sat frozen, pale as though her words had stolen the last breath from his chest.
Sebastian, standing nearby, was no longer calm. His hands trembled with barely contained fury as his vision blurred red. He yanked out his phone, his teeth grinding as he typed a message to Leon with shaking fingers: ’Dig into every fucking thing Lucas did to Emily—her accident, Amelia, everything. I want every detail by tonight. Tear their lives apart if you have to.’ His chest heaved with rage, the thought of Emily enduring all this making it impossible to breathe.
Meanwhile, Emily pressed her palms against the ground, pushing herself to her feet. She stood over Lucas, her shadow falling across him.
“I’m not like you, Lucas. I don’t value everyone the same. I don’t fall for every man I meet. Jeremy is my best friend, but I never gave him as much importance in my life as I gave you.” Her fingers curled at her side. “For you, Amelia and everyone else mattered more than me.”
Her eyes burned as they found his. “You—” she breathed the name like a wound, “—you tore my love out of me, bit by bit, until there was nothing left.”
She swallowed. The silence held them both. “Your love was a sunrise,” she said softly. “I fell for it at first sight. It was breathtaking, and I forgot myself. But that same sun burned me. It burned everything away until I had nothing left.”
Lucas’s hands trembled on his knees, his face pale as ash. He couldn’t rise, couldn’t speak, because every word she spoke nailed him harder to the ground.
He looked into her eyes, voice trembling, his face wet with tears. “There will never be any more indifference. I promise you. I will never let you hurt again. I will never let you go through any pain ever again.”
Emily’s gaze didn’t soften. “There is no other chance, Lucas. I gave you as many as I could. There’s nothing left in me to give you.”
She inhaled, rose to her feet, and took a step back. Her chest tightened as she looked down at him and met his gaze. “Lucas, there are a billion women in this world. You can love any of them.”
He shook his head so fast it was almost violent. His voice came out raw, small and desperate at once.
“But there’s only one Emily in this whole world. And I only want her.”
Her lips curved into a bitter smile. “You can’t say that now.”
