Chapter 142: Chapter 142: The Man Who Refused to Love Me

Mark stared at him for a long, tense moment before letting out a sharp breath. "Fine. Since you want me to sleep here so badly, I’m going to sleep here."

Mark walked over to the sofa in the corner of the room, sitting down and working on his laptop for a little while longer. Charles watched him silently, still refusing to get angry, holding onto the hope that the coldness would pass.

Eventually, Mark shut his laptop, set it aside, and climbed onto the bed, lying down on his side.

Hoping to bridge the growing distance between them, Charles carefully moved closer, slowly reaching out as if he wanted to cuddle him.

But before he could even touch him, Mark spoke coldly. "Please, I don’t like being touched when I want to sleep. Sleep on your own side and let me sleep on mine."

The coldness in Mark’s attitude was so intense that it genuinely started frightening Charles. A heavy feeling settled in his chest, making him realize there was clearly something seriously wrong beneath the surface that he couldn’t understand.

Hurting and deeply unsettled, Charles quietly forced himself to stop thinking about it and closed his eyes.

Beside him, Mark turned his back completely toward him.

And that was how both of them spent the rest of the night, lying on opposite sides of the same bed in suffocating silence.

In the morning, Mark woke up first. The moment he opened his eyes, he turned slightly and looked directly at Charles, the heaviness of sleep clearing from his mind instantly. Without moving much, he quietly shifted his gaze toward Charles, who was still asleep beside him.

Mark stared at him. He didn’t say a single word, and he didn’t reach out to touch him. His expression was completely unreadable as his dark eyes locked onto Charles’s peaceful, resting face.

In the middle of the silence, Charles shifted slightly and slowly opened his eyes. The moment his vision cleared, he found Mark staring right at him.

They locked eyes, staring at each other for a long, quiet second. But before Charles could open his mouth to speak, Mark abruptly turned his back toward him, cutting off the connection entirely.

Charles swallowed the words he was about to say, the lingering rejection from last night stinging all over again. He lay there for a moment longer, staring at Mark’s broad, tense back, before he finally sat up and stood up from the bed.

Even after everything, Charles forced a gentle, hopeful smile onto his face as he walked around to Mark’s side of the bed. "Good morning," he said softly, trying his best to break the ice and act normal.

Mark didn’t look up. He just gave a flat, careless reply. "Morning."

Charles took a deep breath, trying not to let the cold response get to him. He walked into the bathroom to wash his face and freshen up.

When he stepped back outside into the bedroom, Mark was still there. Charles approached him gently, his tone warm and caring as he asked, "What do you want to eat? I can go downstairs and prepare some breakfast for us."

Mark slowly sat up in bed. "You don’t have to."

"I want to," Charles insisted, keeping his smile gentle. "I’m willing to do it for you."

Mark stared at him for a long moment, his eyes scanning Charles’s face before he finally spoke. "Then there’s something I need to tell you."

Mark stood up from the bed and walked toward the armchair near the window.

Charles immediately turned toward him, his chest tightening as he waited nervously to hear what Mark was about to say.

Mark stayed silent for a few seconds before finally speaking.

"I spent the whole night thinking about us," he said calmly. "Thinking maybe we could actually work... maybe this could become something real."

Charles listened quietly, waiting for him to continue.

But then Mark’s expression hardened. "But I realized I can’t date someone like you," he said coldly. "I can’t have a hoe as my boyfriend."

The words landed like a slap across Charles’s face.

Mark held his gaze without looking away. "I tried, but I’m sorry. This can’t work between us."

Charles looked at Mark. Even after hearing such a humiliating insult, he didn’t get angry. He swallowed the pain and asked, "Is this the real you?"

Mark nodded once. "Yes. This is the real me."

Charles lowered his eyes briefly before nodding slowly. "Okay," he whispered.

Mark crossed his arms afterward. "So, will you get over me and let’s end this?" he asked.

"No," he said firmly. "I’m not going to get over you, and we’re not ending this." He took a slow breath, "I’ll go downstairs and prepare breakfast for us. Maybe after eating, you’ll calm down and we can talk about this properly again... because there’s no way we’re ending things before we’ve even truly started anything."

Charles turned and walked toward the door. But before his hand could even reach the handle, Mark’s voice cut through the room.

"Why don’t you want to end it?"

Charles stopped and walked back toward him, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "Because I love you. I don’t care what kind of names you call me... I love you, and I want to be with you."

Mark let out a cold laugh afterward. "You love someone you can’t even tell apart from his own twin?" he mocked. "What if it was Matteo you slept with last night instead of me? Would you even know the difference?"

"Of course I know it was you..." Charles said, his voice cracking.

Mark shook his head slowly. "I thought I felt something for you," he said. "But I was wrong. I don’t feel anything for you, Charles. All we both wanted was sex... and now it’s done."

Charles’s eyes slowly turned red, but he still didn’t argue. "Okay," he murmured before turning around again. "I’ll go prepare breakfast."

But Mark didn’t let him leave. He couldn’t understand why Charles wasn’t screaming or fighting back.

"You must be so used to that lifestyle that you feel absolutely nothing," he said coldly. "You don’t even react... or are you so desperate that you’re more concerned about breakfast than this conversation?"

Charles stayed quiet for a moment.

Then softly, he said,

"I’ll leave now, Mark," Charles whispered, his hand trembling near the doorknob.

But instead of calming down, those words only seemed to make Mark even angrier. "You’re truly a hoe," he snapped harshly. "You belong to the streets, not with me."

Hearing those specific words, the pieces suddenly clicked together in Charles’s mind. He finally realized what was happening, Mark must have heard his reckless conversation with Frank yesterday. This entire cold act was a reaction to that.

Charles slowly turned around and looked straight into Mark’s eyes. "Then take me away from that life," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. "And I’ll leave it behind permanently. I’ll be loyal to you for the rest of my life."

His eyes slowly filled with tears afterward. "I want to love you, and I want a real life with you. I love you... So how am I wrong for wanting you this much?"

"I don’t want you," Mark fired back instantly. "I don’t want someone whose first thought is to run back to sleeping around the moment they can’t get what they want."

"No, I won’t do that! It was a joke—"

"I don’t believe you," Mark cut him off.

Driven to his absolute limit, Charles realized he had no choice but to lay his entire past bare.

"Then you should hear this," he said, tears finally spilling down his face. "I’m not who you think I am."

Mark stayed silent, watching him. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"In the past, I was in a horribly abusive relationship," Charles explained, his voice shaking as the painful memories came rushing back. "My ex-boyfriend back then used to hit me and hurt me constantly. The relationship was toxic. He cheated on me multiple times, behind my back and even right in front of me."

"And I never dared to speak,"