Chapter 438/The Ruined Proposal’s Disappointment

Chapter 438

Julie’s POV

"He... he really isn’t worth getting angry over..." My voice cracked, stammering with a desperate plea for safety: "...I swear it."

Robert offered no response.

He simply broke eye contact, towering over me as he bent his large frame to retrieve the velvet ring box from the plush carpet. Rising back to his full height, he popped the lid open with a quiet, icy click.

His thick fingers pinched the glowing emerald ring.

Without a word, without a single muscle shifting on his hardened face, his broad palm shot out and clamped firmly around my left hand. He adjusted my ring finger with a precise, unyielding grip, then drove the band down my skin in one smooth, direct motion sealing the gesture like an inevitable, binding contract.

I froze, staring down at the deep green stone heavy on my hand. A disorienting wave of shock washed over me.

(This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen...)

I had envisioned a completely different moment poetic romance, a knelt knee, breathless promises whispered in warmth like the stories I read. But he had done it with a terrifyingly clinical coldness, treating our union not as a proposal, but as a non-negotiable decree.

I forced my shocked eyes up to meet his.

"What..." My voice faltered, entirely disoriented: "...what did you just do?!"

Robert stood completely immovable. His dark, unblinking eyes pinned me to the spot.

"What should have been done four years ago," he rumbled in a deep, dry tone.

My pupils dilated with rising panic.

"But... you didn’t even ask me!" A stunned, breathless outburst escaped my lips: "You didn’t ask if I agreed!"

He tilted his head slightly, leaning his towering frame down toward my face until his shadow engulfed me completely.

"And you don’t have the fucking right to refuse or ask, Julie."

I stood rooted to the spot, staring at the ruthless stillness carved into his face. There was zero room for negotiation in his icy eyes; he was acting with a heavy, inescapable possessiveness like a man reclaiming stolen property that had been missing for four years, fiercely resolved never to let the world rip it from his grasp again.

I lowered my gaze to my left hand, where the green emerald shimmered with a captivating brilliance under the dim room light. It felt heavy against my ring finger, warm and tailored so perfectly to my bone that it felt as though he had taken my measurement just last night, not four long years ago.

I cupped my right hand tightly over the cold emerald, squeezing my fingers until its sharp edges bit deep into my skin.

I snapped my burning eyes up to his steel features, where not a single muscle twitched. A raw, suffocating wave of defeat laced my voice:

"Robert... you truly think I’m just a doll you can issue orders to and manipulate however you damn well please!"

He covered the distance between us with a single, dominating stride of his towering frame, engulfing me completely in his broad shadow. Leaning down slightly, his scorching breath hit my cheek as he uttered in a dry, impatient rasp:

"Really, Julie?!"

He paused, his jaw tightening as he tilted his head:

"Are you honestly going to ignite a fight right now... just because I put a ring on your finger?!"

I snapped my head back in utter frustration, fury boiling in my veins as I faced his cursed, unyielding stone face. I forced my words out, my raised voice trembling with bitter resentment:

"Not like this, for God’s sake!... I just expected a romantic proposal!"

His dark brows knitted together in genuine, baffled disdain. He tilted his sharp face, answering in an unnaturally smooth tone completely devoid of any emotional warmth:

"I don’t do romance."

I squeezed my eyes shut against a wave of muffled rage, a searing chill spreading through my chest. Opening my eyes, I pinned him with a burning, reproachful glare:

"Four full years we spent apart in this hell... Do you honestly think this pathetic gesture is all I deserve after everything we’ve been through?!"

He exhaled a heavy, poisoned breath, his icy eyes narrowing to slits as he took in my emotional outburst.

"What exactly do you want?" he asked with blunt dryness.

A bitter, broken laugh escaped my throat. I locked my eyes onto his dark pupils, replying with raw vulnerability:

"What’s the damn point of telling you what I want?"

I took a step back, breaking away from the suffocating enclosure of his body. Throwing my trembling hands into the air, I put on a dramatic, mockingly emotional display, clutching my chest as my voice cracked with sarcastic warmth:

"I expected you to drop to one knee like this..."

I mimicked the gesture dramatically, staring back at him:

"...gazing up at me with warm eyes to whisper: Julie... I love you, will you marry me?!"

Robert stared at me in blank astonishment. His dark eyebrows shot up in pure disbelief, as though I had suddenly started speaking the bizarre language of an alien creature that had just landed before him.

He tilted his sharp head, uttering in a dry tone dripping with total disdain:

"What is this teenage nonsense, Julie?"

I threw my hands in the air with pure irritation, my voice shaking with indignation:

"This is what every decent man in this world does!"

He narrowed his icy pupils, a cold, heavy silence settling between us as he calmly scrutinized my fury.

"So..." he asked with flat finality, "...you don’t like what I did?"

I glared up at him, my reply cutting like a razor blade:

"No!"

In a single, domineering step, he crossed the space between us.

His heavy steel hand reached through the air toward my left wrist. He bent down until his hot breath brushed tantalizingly close to my cheek, whispering with a cool indifference that was enough to provoke demons:

"Fine... I want the ring back then."

My pupils dilated in pure, paralyzing shock!

My tongue tied instantly. Before his fingers could even brush against my ring finger, I snatched my hand back with desperate greed, pulling it tight against my chest to shield the ring between both palms.

"What?!" I gasped in sheer disbelief: "Are you serious, Robert?! You’re going to take the ring back just like that?!"

He lowered his heavy eyelids with arrogant composure, answering in a tone smoother than silk yet harder than granite:

"You don’t want it."

I gritted my teeth in utter helplessness, a burning sting rising in my throat as I met his cursed, immovable stance.

"You are a man impossible to reason with on any subject, for God’s sake!" I hissed bitterly.

Not a single muscle shifted on his face. Instead, he casually slipped his thumb into the pocket of his black trousers, his gaze dropping to my hands tightly guarded over my chest.

"Are you keeping it..." he asked with flat composure, "...or giving it back to me?"

I bit down hard on my lower lip, a suffocating frustration consuming my chest. Staring deep into his dark eyes, my voice cracked with angry heartbreak:

"You are a heartless man... completely void of feelings!"

I spun around in a frenzy of pure rage and bolted toward the exit of the master suite, my heart burning in sheer disbelief that this absurd battle was actually happening between us!

The moment my bare feet hit the runner carpet of the outer corridor, his heavy, decisive footsteps echoed right behind me.

"Where the fuck do you think you’re going?" his deep, commanding voice boomed across the hallway, cutting me off mid-stride.

I glanced over my shoulder, refusing to slow down my reckless march toward the marble staircase:

"To the car!"

In two massive strides, he closed the distance and surged past me.

Towering at the top of the stairs, his broad steel frame completely blocked my path.

"You’re staying right here," he commanded with absolute authority.

My heart skipped a beat. I snapped my head up, staring at him in utter disorientation:

"Excuse me?!"

He narrowed his eyes, adjusting his tone with unyielding firm composure as he crossed his heavy arms over his chest:

"Do you honestly think, for God’s sake, that I’m letting you go back to the club, Julie?"

My brows furrowed in confusion, suspicion bleeding into my voice:

"And are you going to stay at the club all by yourself?"

He tilted his head slightly, answering with flat indifference:

"What’s wrong with that?"

My jealousy erupted in a split second. The club flashed through my mind its women, the vultures hovering around, Sarah, Olivia...

I squeezed my hands into tight fists, a sharp, possessive demand escaping my lips before I could stop myself:

"I will never let you go back there!"

His harsh features stilled for a fraction of a second. Then, a faint, dangerously warm, and mockingly wicked curve played at the corner of his thin lips.

He lowered his large body toward me, bringing his dark eyes dangerously close to mine, his deep, velvet voice brushing against my lips in pure victory:

"Really?!"

His hot breath teased my mouth as his smile widened slightly:

"Playing the role of the protective fiancée already, are we, Julie?"