Chapter 282:

Julie’s POV

I lay on my bed, feeling as if a massive weight was crushing my chest. My heart ached so much that I could no longer even take a breath normally. How could the mind process that the person to whom I gave every atom of my being was planning to sell me like a piece of junk? The pain of betrayal was gnawing at my soul, and Robert’s treachery had left a black hole inside me that swallowed everything. Even speech I had lost the ability for it; for what use are words when the world is shattering around you?

Every detail with him had seemed so real to me: his whispers in my ear, those warm looks he used to give me, and his touches that I thought stemmed from love... it turned out to be nothing but a cheap theatrical performance, a play he mastered to lure me into his trap. I screamed in my depths with bitterness: "I don’t want to see his ugly face ever again! I want to erase his memory from the very cells of my body!"

While I was drowning in those dark thoughts, the door opened slowly and my brother Steve entered, his features masked in confusion and anxiety. He stood at the edge of the bed, hesitating a moment before whispering in a low voice: "Julie... listen to me carefully. I have to show you something."

I turned my face to the other side with stolid indifference and said to him in a final tone: "Steve, if you’re here to convince me to go to the hospital, save your breath... I’m not leaving this room."

Steve sighed sadly, then reached into his coat pocket and took out a small box, placing it on the side table: "I wasn’t going to bring up the hospital now... but the pharmacist insisted you take this. It’s a pregnancy test."

As soon as those words hit my ears, I felt as if a lightning bolt had struck my body. Time stopped, and the blood froze in my veins. I looked at the box with genuine horror and exclaimed, my voice trembling: "No... that’s impossible... impossible, Steve!"

Steve tried to maintain his composure despite his obvious agitation, saying gently: "Julie, let’s not get ahead of ourselves... just take the test to clear the doubt and find out the cause of your deteriorating condition."

I lost my temper completely and screamed at him frantically, my body shaking violently: "I told you it’s impossible! I’m not pregnant... I’m not pregnant! Do you hear me? I’m not!" I began repeating the sentence hysterically as if trying to convince reality itself of the lie.

Steve approached me quickly and grabbed my shoulders firmly to hold me in place, shouting anxiously: "Julie! Calm down, please... why all this panic?"

My defenses collapsed, and I burst into tears, shaking my head left and right: "I’m not pregnant, Steve... this can’t happen to me now."

He tried to soften the intensity of the situation, patting my shoulder: "Fine, calm down... you’re not pregnant. Just pull yourself together."

I clung to his shirt and pleaded with him with wandering eyes: "Please... take this cursed thing back to the pharmacist, or throw it in the trash... I don’t want to see it. I’m sure of myself."

He nodded, trying to soothe me: "Fine, Julie, you won’t take any test now. The important thing is that you calm down and stop shaking."

I shoved my face into the pillow violently and screamed in a muffled voice: "I want to sleep... I want to be alone... Get out of here!"

He remained standing for a second and said sorrowfully: "I want to stay by your side; I don’t want to leave you in this state."

I screamed at him even more sharply: "Steve! Leave me alone now!"

Steve withdrew from the room quietly and closed the door behind him. I lay there and pulled the covers over my head, trying to vanish from the world. I closed my eyes tightly, but one idea began to gnaw at my mind like a worm; I remembered the date of my period... it had been delayed for almost two months! I tried hard to convince myself with a trembling voice: "No, this is because of the stress... my cycle is always irregular; this means nothing." Nevertheless, fear was growing in my gut like a ravenous beast. What if the nightmare was real?

Suddenly, driven by defiance and terror, I got out of bed and walked into the living room with stumbling steps. Steve looked at me in wonder and asked: "Julie... what happened?"

I stretched my trembling hand toward him and said in a voice full of challenge mixed with fear: "Give me that cursed test... I’ll show you now, and I’ll prove to you that your doubts and those of that pharmacist are stupid. I am not pregnant!"

Steve handed the box over cautiously, saying calmly: "Here it is... just be calm."

I snatched it from his hand and went into the bathroom, locking the door. I stood before the mirror, staring at the box for long minutes without daring to open it; my heart was pounding so violently that I could hear its echo in my ears. Finally, with fingers that were almost stiff, I opened the test and used it, tears streaming down my cheeks in silence. I placed it on the edge of the sink and stood away from it, whispering to myself like a drowning person clinging to a straw: "One line means my survival... one line means I am not tied to that monster forever... I will get one line... surely."

I approached very slowly, as if approaching a gallows. I looked at the small screen and was struck dumb when I saw two lines as clear as the sun. No... no... this cannot be real! I froze in place, and the world stopped spinning; I could hear nothing but a persistent ringing in my ears.

Suddenly, the door shook violently, and Steve entered, apparently having unlocked the door from the outside, saying anxiously: "Julie! I’ve been knocking on the door for five minutes and you’re not answering... what happened? Are you okay?"

I couldn’t respond; I was in a trance of shock. Steve approached, and his gaze fell on the test lying beside the sink. His eyes widened, and he asked in confusion: "Two lines? What does this mean, Julie?" He grabbed the box and read the instructions quickly, then a dead silence followed before he spoke in a low voice laden with shock: "You’re pregnant... Julie, the result is positive."

I exploded in his face with a hysterical scream: "I’m not pregnant! This test is broken... it’s lying!"

He grabbed my hand and said with a painful insistence: "Julie, look at the truth... you have to accept this so we can act."

I pushed him away with all my strength and ran toward my room, screaming in a breakdown: "I told you I’m not pregnant! I don’t want to hear another word!" I threw myself onto the bed and burst into a bitter, gut-wrenching sob; I was unable to comprehend that my womb was now carrying the fruit of that man who destroyed my life. Steve followed me and tried to sit beside me, saying pleadingly: "Please, sister... calm down. We’ll think of a solution together."

I raised my head, hair scattered over my tear-stained face, and screamed at him in total breakdown: "Get out of here! Get out and leave me to die alone!"

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Steve’s POV

I walked out of Julie’s room, feeling the walls of the apartment closing in on me, as if the air had become scarce. I closed the door behind me with a silence that didn’t match the noise tearing through my head. I headed toward the sofa with steps heavy with worries, as if carrying mountains on my shoulders. I slumped onto it and buried my face in my trembling palms; I never imagined things would get this bad. Betrayal, escape, and now... a child from a man who destroyed my only sister’s life.

While I was trying to rack my brain to find a way out of this vortex, my phone vibrated violently in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the screen; it was "Tono." I sighed with frustration as I answered in a hoarse voice full of exhaustion: "Hello, Tono... yes, I hear you."

His voice came from the other side, cautious but carrying a tone of reproach: "Steve, where are you? You haven’t set foot in the warehouse for days. I’ve run out of excuses for everyone; I can’t cover for you anymore. Even Mr. Carlos has started asking about you seriously, and you know he doesn’t like absences."

I closed my eyes tightly and whispered in a tone resembling a plea: "Please, Tono... understand me. I’m in a real bind. Just a few more days and I’ll solve everything and return. I have a pressing family circumstance I cannot leave."

But Tono replied with a firmness that made my heart sink: "Steve, I’ve already exceeded my authority. I can’t do any more. You have to be here tomorrow early in the morning, or you’ll lose your job permanently, and I won’t be able to stop Mr. Carlos from firing you."

I let out a desperate sigh and ran my hand through my hair: "Fine, Tono... I’ll see what I can do. Thank you."

I tossed the phone aside and began tapping my forehead with my palm lightly, trying to drive away the dark thoughts. A whole week I hadn’t gone to work because of Julie’s miserable condition; how could I leave her while she was breaking apart piece by piece? How could I leave the apartment when she refused to even get out of bed? I leaned my head back on the sofa cushion and closed my eyes, trying to gather my strength.

But the quiet didn’t last long; suddenly, the silence of the apartment was pierced by the sound of a violent, massive thud on the floor coming from Julie’s room, followed by a muffled scream.

I jolted from my place as if struck by lightning and ran toward her room, my heart nearly leaping from my chest. I shoved the door open violently and found her lying on the floor in a tragic position, her body shaking with an unnatural violence and her eyes staring at the ceiling. I screamed in terror that shook the room: "Julie! What have you done to yourself?"

I bent toward her quickly, trying to support her and lift her from the cold floor, but she surprised me with a physical strength I had never known in her. She pushed my chest hard, almost knocking me down, and crawled hysterically back onto the bed. She didn’t stop there; she was about to throw herself again with all her might onto her stomach, had I not lunged at her and locked my grip around her waist at the last moment.

I shouted while trying to steady her erratic movement: "Julie, have you gone mad? Stop it immediately! What are you trying to do?"

She looked at me, and the spark in her eyes had turned into something frightening a mixture of hatred, spite, and absolute despair. She said in a hoarse voice as sharp as a blade: "I don’t want anything connecting me to him, Steve... don’t you understand? I don’t want this cursed child in my womb! I don’t want it!"

I tightened my grip on her, feeling her body trembling under my hands: "Julie, calm down... you’re not in your right mind now. The shock has made you completely lose control of your senses."

She tried to break free from me, hitting my chest with her small hands and screaming in a breakdown that tore my heart: "Get away from me, Steve! Let me do what needs to be done! I will kill this fetus... I will never carry Robert’s child, I hate him and I hate everything that comes from him!"

I said to her in a calm tone, yet one heavy with pain: "But it’s your child too, Julie... it’s a part of you, don’t you feel that?"

She shook her head with a mad violence, her hair flying around her pale face: "Not my child! I don’t want to be a mother to that traitor’s lineage! I am not its mother, do you hear me? I am not its mother!"

I tried to lower my voice to absorb her anger, saying gently: "Julie... let’s do this. Let’s calm down a bit, take a deep breath, then sit and think calmly about what we’ll do later."

But she responded with a bitter, hysterical laugh: "I don’t want to think, and I don’t want compromises! I’ve decided and that’s it... I will abort this child; I will get it out of me at any cost!"

I said sorrowfully, my eyes brimming with tears: "You are currently under the influence of shock and betrayal. You cannot make a decision of such gravity while you’re in this state."

She lunged again toward the edge of the bed, screaming: "Yes, I can! Get away from me, Steve... I want to fall again, I want it to die inside my womb before it sees the light!"

I lost my patience at her persistence in self-harm and shouted at the top of my lungs: "Julie! Enough!" When she didn’t stop trying to break free, I was forced to do something I had never done before: I raised my hand and slapped her across the face with force.

A sudden, heavy silence fell, as if time had stopped. Julie froze completely in place, staring at me with wide, shocked eyes, while the marks of my fingers appeared clearly on her pale cheek. I felt immediate regret tearing at me, but I wanted her to wake up from that fit of madness before she killed herself.

I said with a trembling voice, regret breaking my tone: "I... I’m sorry, Julie. I didn’t want to do that, but you were going to hurt yourself."

In that moment, her strength completely failed, and that hysterical power vanished. She collapsed into my arms, sobbing with bitterness and terror, her entire body shaking. She whispered through her burning gasps: "I can’t, Steve... I can’t accept the idea that I’m carrying a child from that man who sold me... how will I look at its face every day?"

I stroked her messy hair with brotherly tenderness, trying to soothe her fear: "You will accept it with time, Julie... life goes on, and this little one is not to blame."

She raised her head suddenly and looked me directly in the eyes with a frightening coldness. She said in a cold, decisive tone I had never heard from her: "I won’t... I will never accept this." Then she followed with a final, irreversible decision: "Steve, I want you to help me find a way... I want to abort this fetus, and this is my final decision."