Chapter 418
My breath hitched painfully,
Mom didn’t look surprised. She just stood there, staring at him. “You wanted to kill me?” she asked quietly. “Then why didn’t you?”
“I almost did,” he said with a hollow chuckle, “But then you told me you were pregnant with Alyssa.”
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My stomach twisted violently.
“I thought she was mine,” he continued. “The timing matched. Everything rhymed. She looked like me. And I loved her like she was.”
“Julius…” Mom whispered.
“Don’t lie to me,” he snapped, his voice suddenly sharp as he aimed the gun more deliberately. “Who is Alyssa’s real father?”
The sound that left me wasn’t even human. It was a sharp, broken gasp that tore from my chest.
Mom closed her eyes.
“Answer me!” he screamed. “Is it me–or is it Jace?”
“She’s Jace’s,” Mom sobbed. “Jace is her father.”
The world tilted violently.
Julius staggered backward, his breathing uneven, his chest heaving. “So it’s true.”
Mom tries to reach for him. “Julius, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just… I just couldn’t stop loving Jace. I’d loved him all my life. It wasn’t easy for me to open my heart to you—”
“But it was easy for you to deceive me!” He screams. “It was easy for you to lie to me! For all these years, Flora! You were never truthful! Tell me, what is so bad about me? Am I not good enough?!”
Mom cried, shaking her head. “It’s not that, Julius. It was never about that!”
“Then what was it about?! And don’t you dare tell me that it was about who the heart loves because we both know you could have taught your heart to love me if you really wanted to!”
“I tried!” She cried! “I tried to love you! Heaven knows I did! But every time I tried, the more it pushed me to Jace. I’m sorry but I’ll never stop loving him!”
He flinched like someone had practically slapped him across the face. “Is that so?”
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Chapter 418
Mom held his gaze, eyes glassy with tears. “Yes, I’m sorry, Julius. But you never should have forced me to marry you.”
He nodded slowly. “I’m afraid you’re right. Now I realize my biggest mistake in life was falling in love with you.”
“I never asked you to fall in love with me. That’s all on you.”
I heard him suck in a breath. “Wow. So that’s what I get? After all my love?”
Mom stepped toward him, tears streaming down her face. “I never meant to hurt you-”
“You deceived me!” he roared. “For years!” Then his lips curved into a smile that made my blood run cold. “I’ll kill you,” he said softly. “Then her. Then I’ll go upstairs and finish the rest.”
“No!” Mom screamed, stepping in front of the stairs. “You’ll have to kill me first!”
“Gladly.”
“Drop the gun, Julius.”
Roman’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
He stood in the doorway, his posture rigid, his eyes sharp as they took in the guns, the tension, me. His gaze flicked to mine for a split second, and something dark and pained flashed there.
Shame burned through me.
He’d given me a gun to protect myself and somehow, I’d foolishly let a deranged, evil man get control of it. How could I have been so stupid and
careless?
“The police are on their way,” Roman said evenly.
“Perfect,” Julius sneered. “I’ll make sure they have more bodies to collect.”
I didn’t think. I just moved.
I crossed the distance between us and slammed into Julius with my side with everything I had. The impact knocked us both to the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of me. One of the guns skidded across the floor, sliding toward the stairs and coming to a stop near
Mom’s feet.
But Julius still had one.
“Savannah!” Roman screamed.
I lunged for it immediately, my hands scrambling over his as we struggled on the floor. He was strong–far stronger than I expected–and
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Chapter 414
sering tide, furring de hont plug to Reus d
Pain exploded in my abdomen as julius drove his ethow to my team.
Tried out, the agony sharp and blinding, my grip loosening as I recolled instinctively, clutching my belly at Hauses and a series of painful cramps surged through me. For a split second, the pain stole everything–my breath, my strength, my resistive
Then I saw Mom.
She stood frozen at the base of the stairs, her hands over her ears, her eyes squeezed shut.
I lunged again.
I grabbed the gun with both hands, my fingers brushing Julius’s on the trigger as I fought to twist it away, to point it anywhere bot at
her.
We were tangled on the floor, bodies straining, Julius’s finger was still tight on the trigger as he fought me inch by inch.
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