Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Julie’s Point of View
I felt a constriction in my chest, and terror began to seep into my body, inch by inch, replacing my very blood. He stood there, watching me as if my punishment was his mere presence.
He began to approach with small steps those steps that made me see the shadow of death calling my name.
He stood a meter away from me and spoke in a voice that resembled a hiss:
"Your little performance in my office, Julie... is this your new talent?"
He then continued,
"Or did your excitement get the better of you because you’ll be standing on stage tomorrow?"
I told him, trying to suppress the fear within me:
"I told you, I was just bored."
Yes, a pathetic excuse he couldn’t possibly believe, but it was the second time I used it. He ran his hand through his hair, brushing it back, and said in a tone dripping with sarcasm:
"Why didn’t you ask me for some dolls to entertain yourself? That’s how you break your boredom."
The scoundrel! Does he mock me and think I’m a little girl playing with toys? I answered him, softening my words as much as possible:
"I don’t like dolls... thank you for your generosity."
He placed his hand in his pocket and said in a mysterious tone:
"And how was your chat with Carlos Mendoza? Did he manage to entertain you?"
I looked at him, raising an eyebrow in defiance and narrowing my eyes, saying briefly:
"A little."
He smiled and said,
"I think you’re the difficult type, Julie."
I didn’t quite understand what he meant; his words were vague. But I answered based on what I grasped, saying defiantly:
"Of course."
He sighed slowly and said,
"You said my office is a snakes’ den, didn’t you?"
The blood froze in my veins, and I answered with difficulty:
"It was a metaphorical expression."
A smile played on his lips the kind that told me I don’t believe you and he said,
"Hmm... a metaphorical expression."
Then he added:
"And whoever enters a snakes’ den dies poisoned, Julie."
Yes, he had started throwing lethal words at me. I smiled defiantly and said how I wish I had been mute and never uttered it:
"Poison in your presence becomes an antidote, Mr. Robert."
After that sentence, a suffocating silence fell, as if the air had been sucked out of the room at once.
His sarcastic smile vanished, replaced by that terrifying coldness that precedes a storm.
Here we go; I let my volcanoes erupt. Damn me! Why can’t I hold my tongue? Why didn’t I stay the fearful Julie I was at the beginning?
I felt his hand reach out; he grabbed my jaw and lifted it upward until our eyes met, and said:
"I don’t care about buying your soul... all I care about is burning it."
Yes, he succeeds in burning me every time, and how skillful he is at it. But of course, I won’t admit it even if I turn to ash. I said to him, pulling my jaw from his grip:
"I didn’t know Mr. Robert would be so bothered just because I sat in his chair."
Then I added:
"Or perhaps because I crushed your prestige in front of your friend Mendoza, whom I told you were trying to tame me, but today I proved to him how much of a failure you are at it!"
Oh my God, what have I done? What did I say? What did my cursed mouth utter?!
I trembled as I spoke the last word; I hadn’t just talked back to him I had tied the noose around my own neck.
I didn’t have the courage to look at him; I couldn’t bear to see his face after those words.
The moment the word ’failure’ left my lips, a terrifying silence filled the room, so heavy that I could hear the grinding of his teeth as he clenched his jaw in suppressed rage.
I didn’t need to look at his face to know that I had awakened a beast that should have remained dormant; the very atmosphere around us shifted, turning icy and sharp.
His shadow loomed over me, and as his hot breath fanned my face, I realized with a shuddering heart that I hadn’t just crossed a line I had invited the storm itself.
I heard his deep voice saying:
"Do you think my kindness in giving you time is a failure? Shall I show you now that it is my indulgence that made you so confident, not your little rebellion?"
My heart began to race madly. Hundreds of possibilities leaped into my head, battling one another, but one possibility prevailed the one that proved true not just in my head, but in that cold hand that touched my neck.

Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: My father sold me to the Mafia King