Broken Vows and Buried Twins novel Chapter 54

The heavy bedroom door swung open. Hester stormed out into the hallway.

Julian chased after her, grabbing her arm tightly. "Hester, calm the hell down!"

Blinded by rage, she spun around and raised her hand to strike him again.

But the blow never landed. Julian caught her wrist mid-air. He gripped it like a steel vice. Physically, she was no match for his overwhelming strength. Their eyes locked in a fierce, silent battle, neither willing to yield an inch.

Hester's lips were pressed into a bloodless line, her chest rising and falling heavily with unadulterated fury. Her red-rimmed eyes blazed with a hatred so potent and raw it felt tangible.

The sheer venom in her glare sent an unfamiliar shockwave of panic crashing through Julian's chest. His brow furrowed deeply. "Can you just stop fighting me for one second and let me finish?"

"No, I can't! That is the boy you raised with Melody! While I spent five agonizing years grieving the loss of my own babies, entirely alone, you were out playing house with your mistress! How exactly am I supposed to just accept that?!"

Hester screamed the words with every ounce of strength she had left. Tears finally spilled over her lashes, her lips trembling uncontrollably. "Julian, you have every right not to love me. But you do not get to trample all over my dignity, and you absolutely do not get to force motherhood upon me! In this lifetime, I will only raise a child I gave birth to! And if I ever chose to adopt, it would be my choice—not a consolation prize shoved down my throat to cover up your disgusting lies!"

"Caden is a sweet kid, and he really likes you. Hester, don't you think you're crossing a line right now?"

"I don't owe Caden a damn thing!" Hester wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand, her voice suddenly turning to ice. "You ache for him, you pity him, you think he's perfectly well-behaved. Fine. You be the perfect father to him. I don't care anymore. But I will never claim him as mine! If I compromised my morals to accept him, I'd be no better than you."

Julian stood completely paralyzed.

"Julian, from the very second I handed you those divorce papers, I stopped expecting anything from you," Hester continued, her tone eerily calm and utterly devoid of warmth. "But somehow, you keep finding new, appalling ways to disappoint me."

She stared straight into his soul. "Honestly, I'm starting to doubt if I ever truly knew you at all. You're a total stranger to me now. You're not the man I loved, and I can say with absolute certainty that I will never love you again."

Her words echoed chillingly through the silent hallway. It was a brutal condemnation—a final verdict.

A condemnation of his betrayal.

As her breathing finally leveled out, Hester met Julian's gaze with chilling apathy. "I'm only going to say this one last time. If you want to introduce Caden to Bella, I won't stop you. Whether he calls you 'Dad' or 'Uncle' is none of my business. But if you expect me to play the dutiful wife for the next two weeks, you're going to obey two rules."

Julian just stared at her, a complicated storm brewing in his eyes.

Ignoring his silence, Hester forged ahead. "First, Melody is banned from stepping foot in this house for as long as I'm here. Second, drop the fantasy that I'm ever going to acknowledge Caden as my son. Not even for the sake of the act!"

Without waiting for a response, she turned and marched straight back down the sweeping staircase.

She didn't give a damn about Julian's reaction. She knew with absolute certainty that he would agree. When it came to Bella's health, Julian would swallow his pride and concede to anything!

...

When Hester reached the ground floor, she found Melody perched primly on the plush living room sofa, while Caden sat quietly on the rug, stacking a pile of wooden building blocks.