Broken Vows and Buried Twins novel Chapter 19

Hester threw off the blankets and swung her legs out of bed, marching straight for the door.

Julian reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Where do you think you're going now?"

Hester yanked her arm back in sheer disgust. "Don't touch me."

Julian frowned. "Calm down."

"I am perfectly calm." Hester tilted her chin up, staring dead into his eyes. "This is the calmest and most rational I have been in five years. Julian, listen to me very carefully. I am divorcing you. It is over!"

"I already explained the empty graves. I kept it a secret to protect you."

"To protect me?" Hester let out a venomous laugh. "Are you also going to tell me that hiding a secret second family was to protect me, too?"

"Those are two completely different things." Julian's brow furrowed tightly. "Just calm down. Acting like this isn't going to fix anything."

Hester stared at him in disbelief. Even now, after everything had come to light, the man standing before her—the husband she once loved with all her heart—was still acting incredibly self-righteous. In his eyes, the brutal death of her twins was just a tragic accident. Her five years of suffocating, suicidal grief was just a 'personal emotional issue' she needed to get over.

He might have felt guilty at one point, but what was a little guilt compared to the picture-perfect, happy family he had built with Melody and that boy?

Suddenly, Hester felt exhausted. It was all so utterly pointless. Her love, her hatred—none of it mattered anymore. She had simply been blind. She had chosen the wrong man.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, there was nothing left but dead, chilling apathy. "Julian, did you really think that no matter what you did, I would just blindly accept it?"

Julian froze, taken aback by the question. Before he could formulate an answer, Hester continued, "Did you really think I couldn't survive without you?"

Julian stared at her, his brows knit tightly together, but he said nothing.

A long leg kicked the door violently shut.

"Julian! Let me go!" Hester thrashed against him, but terrified for the baby in her womb, she didn't dare fight too violently.

His face like a thundercloud, Julian tossed Hester onto the mattress and instantly caged her in with his massive frame, pinning her down.

The breath knocked out of her lungs, Hester instinctively pressed her hands against his chest, glaring up at him in fury. "Julian, get off me!"

"You want kids so badly?" he growled. He braced his arms on either side of her, his handsome face an unreadable mask of cold authority, his heavy eyes locking onto hers. "Then we'll have another baby. And don't worry—Caden will never be a threat to our child."

A wave of pure nausea rolled through Hester's stomach. Without hesitating, she brought her hand up and slapped him across the face again.

Julian easily could have caught her wrist this time, but he didn't. He didn't dodge. He just took the hit.