Chapter 436/The Deadly Sin of Flight

Chapter 436

Julie’s POV

The air was sucked entirely from my lungs, as though the opulent walls of this master suite were caving in to crush the remaining shards of my soul.

My pupils locked onto the breathtaking sheen of the teardrop emerald gleaming between his hands that silver piece crafted specifically at his command to match the exact shade of my eyes. It was the ultimate, sun-glaring proof of my own damned stupidity!

I took a step back, my knees trembling violently beneath me before my strength gave out completely, sending me collapsing onto the plush velvet carpet.

A faint, broken wail tore from my throat as I brought my trembling hands up to cover my tear-stained face, the entire world spinning around me in a dizzying blur.

(I did this!... I am the sole cause of all this destruction!)

A scalding fire surged through my veins as I began blaming myself with an all-consuming, internal rage that shredded my heart. Curse my recklessness! Curse my poisonous assumptions and my wretched stupidity! Four whole years... four long years I spent rotting at the bottom of hell, chasing illusions, dragging my despair behind me, and running away from the very man who was preparing everything to make me his queen just because I lacked the courage to confront him! Just because I never dared to ask a single question and surrendered entirely to a twisted mind!

But the rawest, most agonising pain tearing through my broken inside at this exact moment was the dark secret rotting in my hollow heart... my baby... Ethan!

I squeezed my eyes shut behind my hands until black spots danced in my vision, my stomach violently churning with a suffocating nausea. If only I had asked him that day... if only I hadn’t fled like a coward... my baby would be in my arms right now! My little boy would be growing up between us, safe and cherished, instead of having his brief existence end in death immediately after birth!

I killed Ethan with my own haste... I robbed him of his father’s protection and care!

Robert felt my sudden collapse and instantly dropped his massive frame onto his knees before me. He tossed the velvet box aside, his heavy palms clamping around my wrists, gently lifting them away from my face with a firm, desperate grip filled with reproach and anxiety.

His dark eyes searched my pale features in pure shock, his voice coming out as a low, raspy rumble from the deepest point of his chest:

"Julie!... What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why are you crying like your heart is tearing apart?!"

I opened my tear-filled eyes, gazing up at him through a blurred mist of utter heartbreak. His sharp face was inches away, his scorching breath brushing my cheek, his eyes searching the absolute deepest depths of my impaled soul.

Helplessness choked me, the words sticking like burning thorns in my throat.

How could I ever fix what I destroyed?! How could I dare open my mouth to tell him that I was carrying his child... that I ran away with him, only to lose him and have him die before I could even hold him in my arms?!

He had just said it moments ago without realizing... he said he didn’t like children in general! But even if he hated them, he was a man of absolute pride, obsession, and possessiveness... If he ever found out his child was stolen from him and died, he would undoubtedly believe it was caused by my flight and recklessness! He would blame me until the last day of his life! He would despise me and hate the very hour he met me!

I choked back a bitter, throat-slitting sob, weakly shoving his broad chest with my trembling palms as I struggled to drag air into my blocked windpipe:

"I... I can’t breathe, Robert!... I can’t!"

He lowered his massive body further to the floor, and without uttering a single word, his steel arms wrapped around my shivering frame with absolute finality. He yanked me into him in one swift motion, pressing my chest flat against his broad one, burying my head securely into the crook of his warm neck.

He locked his arms around me desperately, as if shielding me from the entire world, his scorching breath hitting the skin of my neck in steady thuds. His long fingers threaded through my messy hair, applying firm, gentle pressure to the back of my head, muttering in a low, raspy whisper that trickled like a soothing medicine into my ear:

"Calm down... I’m right here... Breathe, Julie. Nothing is worth all this destruction."

In that exact moment, slowly but surely, my hammering heart began to ease its lethal pace. The suffocating haze in my lungs thinned out, and my breath returned to its natural rhythm.

My God... how desperately I had missed this embrace! How many freezing nights had I spent wishing I could just melt into his arms like this, taking shelter in his strength against the hell of my failures!

How could I have ever doubted all this dark love? How could I deny the surge of absolute safety radiating from his body, running away in the past only to throw myself and my unborn child into total ruin?! How could I have been so foolish, so stupid, and so hopelessly naive to trust my twisted thoughts and destroy everything with my own hands?!

I squeezed his black dress shirt with my trembling fingers, slowly lifting my tear-soaked face from his neck.

I looked up with broken, weeping eyes, staring deep into his dark pupils that were scanning my pale face with sharp tenderness and insane possessiveness.

My trembling lips parted with difficulty, my words escaping in a choked whisper dripping with helplessness and desperate plea:

"Will... will you forgive me, Robert?"

His steel features hardened for a fraction of a second, the depth of his dark eyes intensifying as he took in my tear-stained face. He didn’t release his hold on my body for a single moment; instead, his broad palm cupped the back of my head, firmly bringing my forehead back to rest against his.

His hot breath washed over my trembling lips, his low, raspy voice dripping with four years of burning pain and a dark emotion that consumed everything in its path:

"Forgive you?! I swear on my pride, Julie... if leaving my life over those cursed assumptions of yours was a crime punishable by death, I would have killed you and lived beside your corpse for the past four years!"