Chapter 287:

Julie’s POV

I pressed my chapped lips together with all the resolve I could muster, taking deep, rapid breaths that labored up from my tight chest. I was trying desperately to calm the violent pounding of my heart which almost tore through my ribs, fearing I would completely collapse before this woman. A shiver of killing fear had invaded me, paralyzing my limbs at the mere, hideous thought the thought of Robert finding me, stripping my nails from touching my son, or tearing him from my arms the moment he entered the world.

Amidst this absolute bewilderment and the silence that draped over the corridor, Steve let out a long, heavy sigh. His massive frame stiffened completely as he raised his head, answering her in a dry tone that cut all doubt with certainty: "Yes, Olivia... this child in her belly is Robert’s son."

Olivia’s features went pale in a matter of seconds, as if every drop of blood had fled her face. She was so utterly stunned that she took a staggering step backward, her lower lip trembling as she muttered in a tone overflowing with shock and pure amazement: "Impossible... this cannot be true... this is impossible!"

I tightened my grip on my swollen belly with both hands, like someone protecting a precious treasure from the wind. Looking at her with wide eyes glistening with tears of terror, I said in a pleading, trembling, and hoarse voice: "Olivia... please, tell me the truth... how did you find my place? Who pointed you to this apartment?"

Steve stepped forward quickly, placing his wide, warm palm on my shaking shoulder, squeezing gently in an effort to do everything he could to reassure me and piece my scattered self back together: "Calm down and don’t worry, Julie. Robert is not in the picture here... I think Olivia followed me on my way back from the warehouse."

I turned to him in shocking bewilderment, furrowing my brows in disbelief as I shifted my gaze between his face and hers. A lump formed in my throat, my mouth going completely dry, and I said in a disapproving tone: "Followed you?! And what do you have to do with Olivia in the first place? How do you even know her for her to follow you?"

Steve cast his gaze down toward the floor for a moment, signs of embarrassment and guilt clear on his features. He said in a low, barely audible voice: "Well, Julie... Olivia and I... we’ve been together for a while."

My eyes widened even more, and I felt my head spin. Never, not even in my wildest, craziest fantasies, did it ever cross my mind that my kind, loyal brother could be involved with a woman like Olivia! My brother and Olivia in a secret relationship? This was beyond my capacity to comprehend! I whispered with trembling, cold lips: "You... you and Olivia are together?!"

He nodded in helplessness and regret, his shoulders slumping: "Yes, that is the truth."

In that moment, Olivia shifted her sharp, blade-like gazes toward Steve, her features contorting with anger and jealousy. She asked in a sharp, stern tone as she stepped forward: "And now you tell me... what is this hidden relationship connecting you to Julie? Why are you hiding her here?"

Steve replied with unwavering firmness, his frame towering as he squeezed my shoulder to declare his protection over me before her: "Julie is my sister... my sister of blood and flesh."

Olivia gasped audibly, taking another step back as if a powerful, invisible slap had hit her face and scattered her pride. She muttered in shock: "What are you saying?! Your sister?! Julie is your sister?!"

Steve let out a sharp exhale, crossing his wide arms over his chest in a dry, cold tone: "Yes, my younger sister... Now, tell me clearly, why did you follow me here, Olivia?"

Olivia tried desperately to regain her lost composure, crossing her own arms over her chest in a fierce attempt to defend herself. She said in a tone full of reproach and biting blame: "You disappeared suddenly from my life! You stopped calling or asking entirely, as if I were thin air! I followed your ghost to know what happened to you and where you vanished, but I swear I never expected, not for a single second, to find Julie hiding out in your apartment... and pregnant, too!"

Then she turned her entire body toward me, her toxic gaze staring directly at my protruding belly. She said with biting sarcasm, a malicious smirk forming on her lips: "Stop the acting and the lies, Julie... there is no way Robert is the father of this child of yours... Robert is a smart man, and he always takes his strict precautions in bed!"

Steve’s features instantly sharpened, his eyes igniting with rage. He took a threatening step toward her with clenched fists and veins bulging in his neck: "Watch your boundaries, Olivia! What is this filthy talk coming out of your mouth?! Are you calling my sister a liar right in front of my eyes?!"

Olivia fired back sharply and without fear, pointing her index finger at my face in defiance: "I am not lying! He has been fucking Sarah at the club for years, so why has she never gotten pregnant by him?! While your precious sister, from just two months she spent with him, is now carrying a child of his in her belly?! Isn’t that strange?!"

I looked at Steve in absolute shock, feeling my heart break with indignation. I screamed: "Steve! Please tell me, why are you with this woman of all people? She doesn’t even see you... she loves Robert and is head over heels for him!"

Steve froze in his tracks as if a lightning bolt had struck his head. He turned slowly toward Olivia with stiff features and darkened eyes, looking directly into the depths of her eyes, asking in a low, terrifyingly controlled anger: "Is that true? You love Robert?!"

Olivia’s features flushed with confusion, and panic became evident in her eyes as they darted around the space. Then she screamed in my face with spite and hatred: "Julie! Shut your filthy mouth and be quiet!"

But Steve clenched his jaw so tightly that his teeth almost shattered, asking her again in a roaring voice that shook the room: "Answer me, Olivia! Do you love your boss, Robert?!"

Olivia lifted her head high with a fake pride, trying to compensate for her weak position, and said in a sharp, dry tone: "From the very first day we met, I told you clearly, Steve, that I love someone else and my heart belongs to him. This isn’t something new for you to be surprised by now!"

Steve lowered his head slowly, replying in a broken, low voice full of disappointment and a bitterness that tore my heart for him: "I know that... but I never knew that this person was your boss... the man who destroyed my sister’s life."

I sighed with deep exhaustion, holding my head with both hands as I felt dizziness setting in, trying to end this futile argument that was draining my energy. I said in a weak voice: "Enough... please, enough arguing now... Since Robert didn’t find my place himself, and Olivia came here only because she was looking for Steve, that means my hiding place hasn’t been exposed yet... I am still safe."

Olivia turned to me, looking into my eyes with a malicious, cold glance full of malicious pleasure. She said in a clear, explicit tone of threat that left no room for doubt: "Who said that? I am going to him right now to tell him everything!"

I fired back at her with a forced stability, my body resisting collapse despite the trembling running through my limbs: "You have no interest in telling him, Olivia. Think with that small mind of yours... if you tell him, he will bring me back to the club and into his life immediately. And you were doing everything you could to get rid of me and my presence by his side, weren’t you? My staying here serves your interest."

Olivia knitted her brows in annoyance, looking at me with inquiry and narrowed eyes: "If that’s the case... then why did you run away from him?"

I averted my gaze from her with coldness and self-respect, bracing my hand against the wall: "That is a personal matter and none of your business at all... I have never forgotten your harsh, terrible treatment of me at the club, and I never will."

Steve turned to me quickly and anxiously, his eyes widening in a fresh shock as he looked at my pale face: "What are you saying, Julie? Was she treating you badly? Did she hurt you?"

I shook my head in extreme weakness, feeling the pain in my back multiply, my hand supporting the lower part of my aching spine: "This isn’t the right time to dig up the scattered past, Steve... leave me alone now. I just want to go sit on the sofa because I feel a strange fatigue invading my body."

I turned and tried to move my heavy feet, which could no longer carry me. The moment I took the first step toward the living room, I suddenly felt a sharp, horrific, and sudden cramp ripping through my lower belly and my entrails, as if a knife had been plunged inside me. My body bent forward automatically from the intensity of the shocking pain, and a bitter, agonized scream erupted from me, echoing through the apartment: "Ahhh!"

Steve’s features contorted in terror. He lunged toward me with his massive body like an arrow, grabbing my arm tightly so I wouldn’t fall to the floor, yelling in genuine panic: "Julie! Julie, sweetheart, what’s wrong?! What is happening to you?!"

I lowered my head, breathing with extreme difficulty, exhaustion coating my face in a cold sweat. Clutching my belly, I said: "Don’t be afraid... just... it seems like a mild cramp from the tension."

But as I tried to take the second step, I suddenly felt a warm, abundant gush of fluid instantly drenching my legs and pouring onto the floor. I froze completely in my tracks, looking at Steve with eyes wide from pure shock and unadulterated terror. I said in a cracked, trembling voice: "Steve... I think... I think my water broke... I am going into labor right now, Steve!"