Chapter 278: 278/The Confession of a Bullet

Chapter 278:

Robert’s POV

The barrel of the grey pistol was aimed directly at me, and Julie stood before me like a little Angel of Death. Not a muscle in me moved, not a single hair on my head shook. I maintained my usual coldness, which had long been my shield against the world, and my features hardened like a marble mask. I moved with a slow, provocative calmness and sat on the edge of the bed, placing my hands firmly on my knees. I locked my eyes into her raging ones and asked her in a calm voice devoid of any shred of fear: "Julie... lower that weapon immediately. Playing with sharp tools is not like you."

Her lip trembled slightly, but her tone came out as dry as a barren desert, her eyes radiating a feral determination I had never seen in her before: "I won’t... this hand won’t lower until you give me the answer I came for."

I painted a faint smile on my face, hiding a storm of conflicting emotions, and asked her with a mocking tone: "Julie... tell me, what is your next plan? Do you think killing me will solve the mystery of your torment? Do you truly want to end my life?"

Her fingers squeezed the grip of the pistol so hard her knuckles turned white. She cried out with a burning pain that shattered the silence of the room: "I warned you, Robert... I begged you not to touch that woman, not to go to her... but as usual, you listened to nothing but your own ego!"

I returned to my usual coldness, leaning back slightly as I replied with sheer arrogance and confidence: "I know you better than you know yourself, Julie... I know that your tender heart won’t allow you to fire a single bullet at this body."

She didn’t collapse as I expected; instead, a strange smile etched onto her lips a cold smile that sent a shiver down my spine as she whispered: "Are you truly sure about that? Are you betting your life on the heart you shattered?"

I nodded my head in defiance: "Yes, I am sure... Now, stop this nonsense and lower the weapon."

In that second, I heard nothing but the roar of the explosion that shook the room. A bullet tore from the barrel, puncturing the silence. I suddenly felt a searing sting, as if a rod of fire had been thrust into my arm.

I immediately placed my hand on the site of the pain, finding that the bullet had grazed my skin and torn the fabric of my shirt. I looked at her in genuine shock; she stood like a mountain, her body didn’t even recoil from the weapon’s kickback, and her steadiness was terrifying. I barked at her sharply, my patience beginning to run out: "Have you completely lost your mind? Are you insane?"

The veins in her neck bulged as she screamed back at me with equal intensity: "You are the one who pushed me to this madness... You are the one who made me lose my sanity, Robert!"

Before the echo of her scream could fade, the door burst open violently. Ron rushed into the room, his body poised like a hungry wolf. He was stunned when he saw the blood seeping from my arm and Julie standing with her weapon.

He immediately raised his pistol toward her head. In that moment, a fire ignited in my chest, and I roared at him, the veins in my neck straining: "Lower your goddamn weapon right now, you bastard! Don’t you dare aim it at her!"

Ron stuttered in intense confusion, looking at me and then at her: "Sir... you’re bleeding... are you okay?"

I cut him off with a roar that terrified the room’s walls: "I told you to get the hell out of here right now or I’ll kill you with these two hands! Out!"

Ron cowered and rushed out, closing the door behind him. Julie turned to me, and with a terrifying coldness, she aimed the pistol at me again and said: "Go on... Ron is gone. Now, speak."

I squeezed my hand over the wound on my arm, trying to stem the bleeding, and said through gritted teeth: "Julie, don’t speak to me in that condescending manner... lower the weapon so we can talk."

She stomped her foot on the ground with frantic determination: "No talking before the truth! Speak, Robert... what happened in that room?"

I wasn’t afraid of death; on the contrary, I felt something moving in the depths of my soul something stronger than all my old grudges. In that moment, the fact that she was the daughter of the woman who destroyed my family no longer mattered.

I felt that I loved her strength, her rebellion, even this madness of hers. I fixed my eyes on hers with complete honesty and said: "I didn’t touch her... nothing happened between Sarah and me."

Her eyes narrowed with lethal suspicion as she asked in a trembling tone: "Swear to me... swear to me on your life that you didn’t touch her."

I took a deep breath and said with a sincerity that shook my very being: "I swear to you, Julie... my hand did not touch her body."

Her hand holding the weapon began to shake slightly, and she asked bitterly: "Then what were you doing? Why did you stay inside her room all that time while I was burning in the hallway?"

I exhaled a heavy sigh, trying to banish the images of the past from my head: "I was just sitting there, Julie... I tried, I swear I tried, but I couldn’t. Are you satisfied now?"

Her harsh features softened for a moment, and the pistol lowered slightly as she whispered in a lost voice: "What does this mean, Robert? Why couldn’t you?"

I regained my coldness and averted my gaze, saying gruffly: "Go to sleep now; the show is over."

But she surprised me with a reaction I didn’t expect; she fired a second bullet that nearly grazed my ear! If I hadn’t been faster and dodged it with a swift movement, it would have settled in my shoulder. Ron burst in again like a hurricane, weapon raised. I screamed at him, sparks flying from my eyes: "Ron! I swear to Almighty God, if you touch the handle of this door again, I’ll empty my bullets into your head! Get out!"

Ron fled, trembling with terror. I knew that if I survived Julie tonight, I would settle the score with him harshly. But clearly, Julie had decided not to let me out alive. I said to her in a wavering voice filled with disbelief: "You have completely lost your mind! Weren’t you the girl who collapsed crying because I was hit by a bullet last time? What has happened to you?"

She approached me slowly, the pistol still in her hand: "Yes, that girl is dead... You are the one who made me lose my mind and turned me into this monster! So talk to me clearly, what does it mean that you couldn’t touch her?"

I asked her while looking at the barrel of the weapon: "Do you truly want to hear the ugly truth?"

She answered with burning insistence: "Yes, I want it now."

Here, the confession tore from my depths to shake both our worlds: "Because I simply cannot... I cannot touch a woman other than you, Julie. I tried to escape you in the arms of another, but my body refused, my heart refused... even if I wanted to betray you, I am no longer capable of it."

She asked in a tone searching for truth amidst the rubble of lies: "Will I wake up tomorrow to have you tell me I was delusional? That this was just an act to make me lower the weapon?"

I smiled with a bitterness dripping with pain: "I won’t... The truth has been spoken, and it cannot be taken back."

Her eyes ignited with suppressed anger and she screamed: "If you love me as you claim, then why did you leave me? Why do you treat me like I’m your enemy? Answer me!"

My body went rigid. I couldn’t tell her she was the daughter of Violet, the woman who pushed my mother to suicide. I couldn’t shatter her small world. I said in a faint voice: "Because you lied to me, Julie, and I cannot stand lies in my world."

She burst into tears, trying to hold them back: "I was afraid of you! I feared your brutality... and look what you did to me when you found out the truth!"

I said with a weakness I wasn’t used to: "Alright, Julie... it’s over."

She suddenly asked with a childish eagerness, wiping her tears with the back of her hand: "Yesterday... was I imagining it when I heard you say ’I love you’? Tell me, Robert?"

I knew perfectly well that any wrong answer would end my life with a bullet to the head. I said clearly: "I did say it, in fact... yes, you weren’t imagining anything."

She commanded me in an authoritative tone, raising the weapon again: "Say it to me again... now."

I laughed despite my wound and the surreal situation we were living: "Am I to be forced to say words of love under the threat of a gun? Is this your new method?"

She said with unyielding insistence: "Yes... go on, say it."

I began to step toward her steadily. She said warningly as she backed away: "Stay where you are, don’t come closer!"

But I didn’t stop. I continued advancing until the barrel of the weapon touched my chest, right over my heart that beats for her. I said in a deep whisper that shook the corners of the room: "I love you."

Her eyes widened in thunderous shock. In that moment when her grip loosened, I snatched the weapon from her hand with skill and tossed it away onto the bed. I trapped her body with mine and confessed the secret I only realized today: "I love you so much that if I discovered you were the one who killed my mother with these very hands, I wouldn’t be able to hate you or stay away from you."

She looked at me with lost eyes; she didn’t understand the depth of my words. She asked me in confusion: "Robert... what is this talk? What does your mother have to do with this now?"

I didn’t give her a chance to think. I cupped her face with my hands in an overwhelming possession and kissed her a long, deep kiss that carried all my apologies and my pains.

In that moment, all considerations fell away. The past didn’t matter, nor the revenge, nor her being the daughter of my enemy... all that mattered were those heartbeats sharing my breath, the woman who owned me even as she aimed a gun at my heart.

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Julie’s POV

I was drowning in his kiss with a wild passion, as if I were trying to reclaim all the bitter days I spent away from the warmth of his lips. My breath mingled with his in a long embrace, my mind screaming with questions: Am I in a rosy dream, or is this beautiful reality truly happening to me? It can’t be... he confessed his love to me! He finally spoke it and made my shattered heart whole in a single second. Robert came back to me; he came back in a mad way I didn’t expect. Finally, we are living this moment I longed for and cried for so long behind closed doors.

He pulled his lips from mine very slowly, as if bidding farewell to every inch of them. I raised my eyes to meet his black ones, which were now overflowing with a tenderness I had never seen. I whispered in a trembling voice, tears still clinging to my lashes: "Robert... tell me honestly, is this real? Are we together now?"

He ran his large palm over my scattered strands of hair, stroking them with extreme softness as he replied in a warm tone that shook my being: "Very real, Julie... we are here, and this is not a dream."

I rushed toward him again, clinging to his shirt with an intense eagerness as if I feared he would evaporate. I said in a voice filled with certainty: "I love you... I love you to the point of pain, Robert... you can’t imagine how my heart was tearing apart while I was away from you."

That crooked smile that melts me etched onto his lips. He asked me mischievously as he toyed with my cheek: "You love me so much that you wanted to kill me and aim a pistol at me?"

I laughed with embarrassment amidst my pouring tears, burying my face in his chest to escape his mocking gaze: "I was never going to kill you... I was only trying to pull the truth out of your stubborn throat."

He raised an eyebrow in a lovable mockery and murmured as he pulled me closer: "Yes, of course... and that’s why you fired the first bullet, just to check my stability!"

Suddenly, I remembered the blood I saw seeping from his arm. I startled out of his embrace with genuine fear and examined his wound with eager eyes: "Robert... your arm! I hurt you... how did I forget this?"

He watched my reaction with calm eyes and said, tilting his head slightly: "Are you afraid for me now? Wasn’t it your hand that pressed the trigger just a moment ago with all that force?"

Guilt gnawed at my heart, and my eyes filled with tears that wouldn’t stop falling. I let out a muffled gasp as I tried to touch the site of the wound gently: "I’m sorry... I’m truly sorry, Robert... I never meant to hurt you. I was out of my mind from the intensity of the oppression and..."

He cut off the stream of my apologies with a calm and dignified voice. He placed his hand on my cheek to raise my head toward him and said: "Calm down, my little one... it’s just a slight scratch. The bullet was stray; it only grazed me and didn’t hit deep... I am a man used to wounds much worse than this."

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and said with an insistence that accepted no argument: "I don’t care... we must go to the doctor now so she can bandage the wound and sterilize it. I don’t want it to get infected."

His features hardened with a coldness I had come to love.

He replied with his usual coolness that hid so much: "It’s fine, Julie. No need for all this worry... I am fine as long as you are by my side."

I began to breathe a sigh of relief and regain my balance. I felt my sense of humor returning amidst my sadness, so I said playfully and softly: "If I had known that the path to your heart and your confession passed through threatening you with a weapon, I would have done this from the first day we met."

A deep laugh erupted from the depths of his heart a musical sound I had missed for months. He said in a tender tone: "And do you intend to threaten me with this grey weapon every time we disagree, Julie?"

I shrugged my shoulders with a childish coyness, looking at him with shining eyes: "If threatening is the only thing that works with you and makes you speak the truth, then I won’t hesitate to use it." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

He pulled me to him with force until my chest hit his. He said in a husky tone: "It won’t work again... the weapon’s effect was successful only once, so don’t get used to playing the role of a gangster."

I looked at him with sincere plea, like a child seeking safety after a long storm: "Robert... can I sleep beside you tonight? I don’t want to go back to my cold room."

His eyes gleamed with a possession that made my heart dance with joy. He replied in a resonant voice: "I wasn’t going to let you leave this room anyway... your place is here, now."

I lay on the wide bed beside him, feeling the warmth of his body surrounding me like an impregnable fortress. I placed my head on his broad chest, where his heart was beating strongly and steadily under my ear. My hand clung to his large fingers tightly; I was squeezing them as if I feared this scene would fade and I would wake up to find myself alone again. I touched my neck and whispered: "I could never take off the butterfly necklace you gave me... it stayed decorating my neck even in the hardest moments, even when you were treating me harshly."

He kissed my forehead with a tone full of regret and muffled sadness: "I’m sorry... sorry for every moment of pain I caused you, and for every tear that fell from your eyes because of me."

I closed my eyes in peace and said sincerely: "I accept your apology... I forgave you for everything the moment your tongue spoke the word ’I love you’."

A short, beautiful silence reigned, broken only by the sound of our calm breaths. I felt embarrassment color my cheeks red as I remembered an old thought. I said in a low voice: "Do you know, Robert? I truly thought you were going to propose to me when I first saw the necklace box... I foolishly thought it was an engagement ring."

He was silent for a moment, and I felt his body stiffen slightly. Then he asked me with a seriousness that stunned me and made my heart stop for a second: "And would you... truly accept marrying a cold-hearted man like me?"

I raised my head and looked directly into his eyes. With a decision that was final and without hesitation, I said: "Of course, I accept... I will accept you in all your states."

His tone changed to a sad warning, as if he were trying to protect me from himself: "I am a Mafia King, Julie... my world is dark, full of blood and black secrets... you have only seen a very small part of the filth I live in. Will you endure it?"

I didn’t let him finish his discouraging words. I interrupted him with a short, gentle kiss on his lips to silence him, and said with determination and resolve: "I don’t care about any of that... I don’t care how many people you’ve killed, nor the darkness of your world or the danger of your life... I want the Robert who is in my hands now. I want only you."

He smiled with relief, returned my head to his chest, and embraced me with his strong arms as if hiding me from the whole world. He whispered in his resonant voice, which was the last thing I heard before sleep overcame me: "Sleep now, my little one... sleep in peace."