[BL] The Mafia Boss Wants My Body

Chapter 293: Chapter 293: The Apology You Deserved

"I punished the person I loved most... for my own weakness."

Charles sobbed harder, clutching the front of Mark’s jacket as he listened to the painful truth.

"Please, Charles," Mark pleaded, his voice breaking as tears streamed down his face. "Please forgive me. I know I broke your heart. I know I shattered your trust, and I’ll regret that for the rest of my life."

He swallowed hard, struggling to steady his breathing. "But I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. However long it takes... whatever you need from me... I’ll do it. Just please find a place in your heart to forgive me, pretty."

Mark leaned forward until their foreheads rested together, their tears mingling beneath the soft glow of the fairy lights.

"I promise you, with everything I have, that from this day forward I’ll treat you the way you always deserved to be treated. I’ll cherish you, protect you, respect you, and love you with all my heart."

His voice trembled. "I can’t change the past, but I can change the future. I know I’m not perfect, but I’ll spend the rest of my life proving that loving you will never be a mistake again."

He gently squeezed Charles’s waist, his tear-filled eyes searching Charles’s face with hope and fear.

"So..." he whispered. "Do you forgive me?"

His heart pounded painfully inside his chest.

"Will you officially be my boyfriend, Charles?"

Charles looked at him, his vision completely blurred by a fresh wave of hot tears. His entire body trembled so violently that his knees nearly gave out beneath him.

Seeing him break down, Mark immediately used his trembling thumbs gently wiping away the tears that refused to stop falling.

For what felt like forever, Charles couldn’t speak.

He simply stood there crying, the cool night breeze brushing against his tear-stained face.

When he finally found his voice, it came out soft, shaky, and weighed down by all the pain he had carried for so long.

"I... I never really knew what it felt like to be loved by my partner, Mark," Charles whispered, his lower lip quivering. "For so long, I believed everything was my fault. I thought that because I was always the one who loved first... always the one who loved more... it meant people had the right to treat me badly."

He lowered his eyes for a moment. "I convinced myself that was the price of loving someone."

Slowly, he looked back at Mark. Through his tears, a faint smile touched his lips. "I love you so much... from the very beginning. Everything about you fascinated me. Even the smallest things."

A quiet laugh escaped him through his tears.

"Whenever we happened to be in the same place and you sat beside me... You always smelled so unbelievably good."

He shook his head shyly at the memory.

"It was such an intoxicating scent that I’d spend more time trying not to notice how good you smelled than listening to the conversations around the table. And... I caught you looking at me a few times. I never knew why you were staring at me, so I kept pretending I hadn’t noticed."

Another tear slipped down his cheek.

"I was completely drawn to you. But I’ve never been lucky, Mark. No one has ever treated me well my entire life aside from my family and my friends. So when I finally got the chance to date you... I was so happy. I thought... finally... maybe my luck had changed. But then... everything became so hard."

His voice cracked.

"The way you spoke to me... the coldness in your voice... it hurt so much."

Another tear rolled down his face, slipping past Mark’s thumb.

"Do you know what I did?"

Charles let out a broken laugh that sounded more like a sob.

"I lied to myself every single day just so I could survive it."

He lowered his head.

"I’d sit alone in the dark and tell myself, ’At least he isn’t cheating on me. At least he isn’t coming home and hitting me. He’s only hurting me with his words... so it’s okay. I can survive this. I convinced myself that your cold words were the best I deserved because my previous relationship had been so much worse."

He looked back into Mark’s eyes, completely broken.

"I endured every bit of the pain because I was terrified that if I left you... The next person would hurt me even more. I truly believed I was just... cursed to be unlucky."

Mark’s heart shattered as he listened to Charles speak.

"There were so many times I wanted to speak up," Charles sobbed, his voice cracking. "So many times I wanted to yell, to tell you how much you were crushing me. But I was so afraid. I was afraid of the reaction. I wasn’t raised to fight back, Mark. My parents... they raised me strictly, religiously. They made me believe that no matter the situation, we must learn to adjust, to swallow our pride, and to think deeply before we speak. I felt like speaking up or defending myself was wrong. But every night, I would look in the mirror and ask God,

’If I’m such a good person... why does the person I love keep hurting me? Why doesn’t he want me?"

Charles slowly lifted his trembling hands between them, curling them into weak fists.

"And the worst part... the part that kills me the most... is that I never said no to you," Charles wept, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper. "Every single time you wanted my body, even when I was bleeding inside, even when I was crying, I gave myself to you. Because I genuinely believed that if I let you hold me, if we were intimate, it would finally bring us closer. I thought it would make you love me."

With all the pain he had buried for so long finally spilling over, Charles lifted his trembling fists and began pounding them weakly against Mark’s chest again and again.

"You hurt me, Mark," Charles cried out, his chest expanding with a painful, loud sob. He hit Mark’s chest again, weaker this time. "You really, really hurt me. You broke me into so many pieces."

Mark didn’t move. He didn’t try to defend himself. He just stood there, letting Charles beat against his chest, his own heart breaking into a million shards. With every weak strike of Charles’s fists, Mark let out a choked, devastated sob, his tears drenching his face.

"I’m sorry," Mark wept openly, his voice completely shattered. He grabbed Charles’s hands, holding his weak fists against his heart. "I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for everything I did to you."

Charles looked up at him, his voice low and trembling as his fingers spread over Mark’s chest. "It hurt," he whispered. "You really hurt me."

"I’m sorry, pretty," Mark whispered back, resting his forehead against Charles’s.

Charles searched his eyes for a long moment. "Promise me..." he whispered. "Promise me you’ll never hurt me again."

"I promise," Mark replied without hesitation, his grip tightening around Charles’s hands. "I’ll never hurt you again."

Charles glanced around at the beautifully decorated poolside, taking in the flickering fairy lights, the candles, the roses, and the glowing words of apology.

A soft smile slowly found its way onto his face.

"It’s beautiful," he whispered. "I never imagined you would apologize to me like this. It’s far more than I ever expected."

Mark watched him anxiously, his heart pounding.

"So..." he asked quietly. "Do you forgive me? Will you give us another chance?"

A shy smile spread across Charles’s face.

His cheeks flushed a deep pink. He lowered his head and quickly covered his face with both hands, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Just propose already," he mumbled shyly.

A relieved laugh escaped Mark.

Smiling, he gently took Charles’s hands in his and slowly lowered them from his face.

"Don’t hide from me," he whispered with a tender smile.

Charles slowly lifted his head, his expression soft yet unwavering as he looked into Mark’s eyes.

"Yes, Mark," he whispered. "I’ll officially be your boyfriend."A soft, trembling smile touched his lips. "And... I forgave you a long time ago. I love you too much to stay angry with you. So you’re forgiven."

Mark didn’t wait another second.

He wrapped both arms tightly around Charles’s waist and pulled him into a fierce embrace, lifting him slightly off the ground as relief crashed over him.

"Thank you, pretty," he murmured against Charles’s neck. "Thank you... I promise I’ll never hurt you again."

When he finally pulled back, his gaze slowly dropped to Charles’s lips.

Unable to hold back any longer, he leaned in and captured them in a slow, heartfelt kiss.

This wasn’t like the distant, empty kisses they had shared in the past.

This kiss carried everything Mark had failed to say before.

His apology.

His gratitude.

His relief.

His love.

Their lips parted naturally, their tongues tangling in a slow, deep, and incredibly intimate rhythm. Mark tasted the salt of Charles’s tears, but mostly he tasted the sweet, intoxicating warmth of his forgiveness. He poured every ounce of his love and his silent promises into the slide of their lips, his hands sliding up to cup Charles’s jaw, deepening the kiss until both of them were completely breathless.

When they finally pulled apart, their lips reluctantly separating with a soft gasp, Mark kept his hands resting gently on Charles’s cheeks. He stared down at him, his thumb brushing over his cheekbone.

"I never want to be the reason you cry again, okay?" Mark murmured, his voice gentle yet filled with quiet determination.

Charles nodded, his heart overflowing with happiness. "Okay."

Mark smiled and pressed a long, tender kiss to Charles’s forehead.

"Thank you for not giving up on us."

Charles’s smile grew brighter, his eyes shining with the kind of happiness that had been missing from them for far too long.

Mark let out a soft chuckle before sliding one hand down to intertwine their fingers.

Charles smiled, assuming Mark was leading him toward the beautifully decorated poolside tent. Instead...