A Ruling Passion – Chapter 1776

Mark cocked his brow. “Melanie Lark? Hmph, who’s surprised that. she’s finally had enough of you and wants to part with you? You mistreat her. And of course, the whole trial of being bound to a man who doesn’t love you, must be hell. Maybe you should learn how to love someone first before thinking you’re viable for marriage, punk, so don’t keep her and waste her away. I mean, haven’t we been here before? You messed Tiffany up, and now you mess Melanie up. Seriously, can you ever act like a decent human being?”

He did not upset Alejandro, in fact, the latter had made enough mental preparations for the sort of mockeries Mark would definitely cast at him, so Alejandro could take them. “Yo, I’m here to ask you for solutions, I’m not here to be ‘educated’. I mean, pop’s gone, so maybe your big brother instincts compel you to be the fill-in, but eh, hard pass on the lectures. You claim I didn’t treat Melanie good enough, but what’s good, then? I bought her a limited edition sports car, gave her the most expensive jewelries, I’m giving her nothing but the best! But all she ever wants to do is to stay in the damn house caring for the kid. She doesn’t wanna go anywhere! And now, she keeps harping on a divorce.”

Mark let out a shrill snicker. “Women may be materialistic, but not all the time. They might be delighted by a car, or jewelries, or designer bags, but their delight is predicated on a foundation of relationship and bonding. If all they need is material, then that isn’t love to begin with. Besides... You might be able to charm naïve ingenues who’ve never seen the world before with all these flashy materials, those women will eagerly climb into your bed with their legs spread wide before they even think of leaving you! But Melanie isn’t an ingenue who’s never seen what material is like. For Christ’s sake, she grew up in the Lark family, she’s seen it all!"

“Not every woman acts as how you’d imagine they do. It could be any material, but it’s gotta be built atop of actual, genuine relationship to mean anything. Otherwise, it’s no different from a transactional relationship. Lemme guess, you didn’t usually gift Melanie things in the beginning, did you? All these gratifications, you’re only trying to repair your bond after noticing the red flag, which is why they are working so bloody well now, ” he continued. “Simple question: do you love her?”

Alejandro pondered on it for a while. “I don’t know. No one’s ever taught me how to love. But... I... I just don’t want a divorce.”