Page 10 of Bullied Pregnant Mate

"I'll marry you," I said, the words out before I could even think them over.

Chapter 5 - Gina

My eyes widened, and I was a little in shock. Had I just heard him correctly? Did he just offer to marry me?

There was no way that Lucas, one of the many who tortured me and the guy who was my childhood bully, was offering to marry me so I could get the house. There was no way. It went against everything he was. All the ways he had consistently proved how much he hated me.

I shook my head, knowing my ears were just mistaking something else. This was Lucas, after all. He enjoyed seeing me in pain. He enjoyed making me feel small.

"You're funny," I said, shaking my head, hating him a little bit more. "Let's torture the poor girl while she's trying to hold onto something that's outside of her reach, is that it? You seriously haven't changed, have you?"

Lucas scowled. "No, I was being serious. I will marry you if you want the house."

I blinked and then felt my jaw drop slightly. I blinked again and felt like my entire brain had just stopped working. There was something wrong here—something I wasn't seeing.

Lucas frowned. "You good?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I can't marry you. I don't even know you. And that would never work." I shook my head. "I'm not in a mood for jokes right now."

"I wasn't joking," he said, taking a few more steps towards me. I wanted to move back, but the chair didn't give me anywhere to go. "I was being serious. If you want the house, I will marry you."

"I..." I was about to say I didn't need to be married, but that was a lie. If I truly wanted this house, I needed a husband—or at least someone who looked and behaved like one.

I shook my head. No. That was a crazy idea, and no one would even believe it. Chris, especially, would see right through it all.

"Why not," he asked, shoving his hands back into his pocket.

"Because it would never work."

He shrugged. "You don't know until you try. What do you have to lose?"

I'd already lost everything. I frowned. "My dignity. It is all I have now, and before you even ask if that's important, it is."

Lucas gave me a half-smirk, and I was pretty sure it was the first time I'd ever seen it. "I'm offering to help. I know we didn't get along when we were younger."

I frowned. Had he really said ‘get along’? He bullied me, and it wasn't simple things, either. He tormented me, and any chance he had, he made sure to make it known. This plan would never work, and I didn't want to be a part of it.

I shook my head. "Lucas, you were terrible to me. You treated me like I.." I was about to say the weakest link but couldn't finish the sentence. Did he still see me that way? Is that why he was offering?

He sighed, sounding irritated now. "Believe it or not, I'm not a terrible person, Gina. You've stayed alive this long, so you clearly know what you're doing. If you're the last living relative to inherit this place, you've grown yourself. Don't you think I have?"

It was a compliment, and I didn't know how to process it. I had thought those words for so long. All those years of planning and training to improve myself—had they paid off? I should have felt like a million bucks, but I didn't. I still felt like that little girl aching for her family to approve of her.

"Do you mean that?" I asked, waiting for him to add something or to take it back altogether.

"Why would I say it if I didn't mean it?'

"Because you used to say that I was a waste of space and that someone was going to challenge me for fun and win, and no one would mourn my death."

Lucas frowned, and I could see regret on his face. "Well…I was clearly wrong."

"About my death or being a waste of space?"

He took a deep breath in and sighed. "You know our pack is toxic. It's why I left."

"Not much of an answer or an apology."

Lucas looked me dead in my eyes and gave me a soft smile. "I know. Because words wouldn't express how sorry I feel right now, Gina. So, marry me. Let me help you get this house and whatever else you want. Let me make up for everything I did."

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