You Faked Your Deaths to Punish Me?! That’s Illegal, Family! novel Chapter 17

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

This was the first time I’d ever disobeyed him.

I held onto his waist, refusing to let go. “If we’re leaving, we’re leaving together.”

“I’m not abandoning you.”

“Aww. How touching. Brother and sister, so devoted.”

Slow, mocking claps echoed around us. Then the guy’s eyes turned cold. Vicious.

“But this shit ends now.”

He kicked.

I didn’t see it coming. I hit the ground hard. Julian collapsed beside me.

They closed in. Slow. Deliberate.

The sound of metal pipes dragging across the dirt-sharp, rhythmic clangs.

“Alright, boys. Whoever hits the hardest gets a fat bonus.”

At his word, they lunged like rabid animals.

“Julian-”

Instinct kicked in. I threw myself over him, shielding his body with mine.

He can’t get hurt. He can’t.

I kept repeating it in my head like a prayer.

BANG.

A gunshot.

The metal pipe hit the ground with a loud clang.

The pain I braced for never came.

“FREEZE! HANDS UP!!”

Cops. The cops were here.

They formed a barrier around me and Julian. The guys who’d been so cocky a second ago scattered like rats.

Total chaos.

I grabbed onto an officer’s sleeve, begging them to get Julian to a hospital,

His legs had already been crushed in the crash. And now this-another round of brutal hits.

10:54

You Falcad Your Dansk

Chapter 7

If we waited any longer-

I couldn’t finish the thought. A cold wave of dread washed over me.

The moment they loaded Julian onto the stretcher and into the ambulance, the weight crushing my chest finally lifted.

Then everything went black.

When I woke up, it was the next afternoon.

The first thing I saw was Mrs. Sterling sitting by my bed.

“Anna. You’re awake.”

Her eyes were red and swollen. She grabbed my hand, her grip tight, desperate.

I nodded. “Where’s Julian? Is he okay?”

At the mention of his name, tears spilled down her face. “Julian… he’s still in surgery. They haven’t brought him out yet.”

Right then, a doctor walked in with an update. Julian was out.

Mrs. Sterling and I bolted out of the room at the same time.

The doctor tried to calm us down. “He’s stable. We saved his legs. Honestly, it’s a miracle. If you’d gotten here even a few minutes later, we might not have been able to. He’ll need time to recover. Also, his back took some serious damage from the impact.”

“But thankfully, his spine is intact.”

I let out a shaky breath.

If Julian had been permanently injured because of me-if he’d been paralyzed because he threw himself in front of that hammer-I don’t think I could’ve lived with myself.

Julian woke up two days later.

Mrs. Sterling tore into him the second his eyes opened. He didn’t even flinch. Just looked straight at me.

“You okay, little sister?”

I froze.

That was the first time-since I’d arrived at the Sterling mansion-that he’d ever called me that.

Even Mrs. Sterling looked shocked. “What did you just call her?”

“Little sister.”

Julian said it again.

Mrs. Sterling squeezed my shoulder,

I knew what that meant.

They accepted me.

Chapter 7

Not as some tool to keep Julian in line. Not as a means to an end.

But as a real person. A real part of this family.

“My sweet girl.”

Mrs. Sterling covered her mouth, one arm around me, the other hand resting on Julian’s head.

She gave him a stern look. “No more racing. You hear me? You’re going to sit your ass down and study with Anna.”

“Once you both graduate high school, I’m sending you abroad.”

She’d said this at least three times before.

Every time, Julian brushed her off. But this time? He nodded.

“Okay. Together with my sister.”

He looked at me.

Mrs. Sterling gripped my hand tightly. The warmth from her palm spread through me, steady and real.

In that moment, I believed it. I had a family.

I told the police about the sabotage-how those guys tampered with Julian’s car.

After investigating, they confirmed it.

Combined with the assault charges, the whole crew got sentenced. Different terms, but all of them locked up.

Julian held my hand, his gaze steady and serious. “I’m going to protect you. I swear.”

“And don’t ever pull that shit again-charging in alone like some kind of hero. Got it?”

He meant every word.

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