My father sold me to the Mafia King novel Chapter 438

Chapter 438: 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. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"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?"

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify