My father sold me to the Mafia King-Chapter 54 - 55/vibration control

Chapter 55

Robert’s Point of View

I stood there, leaning my back against the wall with cold indifference, watching the play unfold on the polished marble.

The room was charged with a tension that threatened to tear the walls apart; a silent battle where no blood was shed, but souls were bought and sold.

I fixed my gaze on Julie; she was exerting a superhuman effort just to remain standing, though the trembling of her knees betrayed an imminent collapse.

Her clenched fingers pressed hard against her father’s arm, and her wide eyes were locked on his face, searching for a lifeline or perhaps for a remnant of a human being.

As for "Stewart," his struggle was laid bare before me.

I saw the veins in his neck bulge, and his green eyes darting between his daughter’s shuddering body and the void represented by the figure I had uttered.

His breath came in gasps, heavy, reeking of greed and fear.

A dead silence prevailed, broken only by the sound of him swallowing hard. Then, with a pathetic slowness, Stewart began to pry his arm away from Julie’s small grip.

His voice came out shattered, fragmented, as if he were exhaling the last breaths of his dignity:

"I... I choose..."

He paused for a second, casting a fleeting, escapist glance at his daughter’s pale face,

before averting his gaze to the floor and muttering the words that served as a coup de grâce:

"I choose... the money."

At that moment, I wasn’t looking at him; my eyes were pinned to Julie’s face.

I watched how the last spark in her eyes extinguished, and how her hands went limp, falling to her sides like dead branches.

Julie didn’t surrender despite the bullet her father had fired.

She lunged toward him again, clutching his arm convulsively as she panted.

Her voice came out trembling, carrying a desperate attempt at bargaining:

"Papa... I didn’t tell you, I only have one year left to graduate... I can work at a major company owned by my professor’s friend..."

She stopped, swallowing hard as she looked into his frozen eyes, then continued with a muffled scream:

"I will make money... I will give you my entire salary, I will work day and night... just take me home with you!"

Stewart fixed his gaze on her, but his features didn’t flinch; her words were crashing against a stone wall.

He moved his lips to say with a coldness that killed everything:

"I’m sorry, Julie."

In that instant, her facial features contracted painfully.

Her eyes widened in terrifying disbelief before her scream erupted in his face a scream that shook the room’s walls:

"You can’t be a father! You can’t be human! You are heartless... merciless!"

He turned his gaze away from her and swung his body around to exit the door with quick steps, as if fleeing a murder scene.

She remained frozen in place, watching him vanish into the hallway, leaving behind a desolate void.

Victory did not wash over me, nor did the happiness I had planned for visit me.

All I felt was a sudden tightening in my chest a lump that constricted my breath as I watched her collapse.

Her body shook violently, like a frail shrub thrashing in the midst of fierce winds.

I stepped toward her and uttered words whose poison I felt burning my throat before it reached her:

"Your father doesn’t want you... your destiny is to be my precious commodity."

She raised her withered eyes toward me; she was drowning in tears, yet she took small, unstable steps in my direction.

She reached out her small hands and gripped the collar of my shirt, pulling with hysterical force.

I felt the heat of her touch piercing the walls of ice I had built around my heart for years.

"I want to scream in your face... to shatter your bones... to disfigure your face... to kill you..."

she said with a faltering voice, her eyes pouring anger and pain into mine.

She suddenly went still, her grip on my shirt gradually loosening, then she whispered bitterly:

"But I know... that you aren’t the guilty one."

She withdrew her hands slowly, and as her fingertips pulled away, I felt as if my breath was being pulled with them.

Why don’t I feel pride? Why does silence weigh so heavily on my chest? She looked at me one last time,

and in a faint, scorched voice one that carried no rebellion but the ashes of a finished soul she said:

"Leave."

It wasn’t a command; it was a plea for solitude.

I turned without uttering a word, stepped out of the room, and closed the door quietly behind me, leaving her with her wreckage... and with another wreckage beginning to take shape inside me.

Stewart was standing in the middle of the hallway.

As soon as he saw me, he stepped toward me with hurried strides. He asked in a desperate tone:

"When will I get the money?"

In the blink of an eye, my hand was wrapped around his throat.

I shoved him hard until his back hit the marble wall, pressing my fingers into his windpipe with all my might.

His eyes began to bulge, and his face reddened as he tried to draw a single breath, while I stared into his pupils, wishing his life would end in my hands at that very moment.

"I’ll send it to you, you bastard," I said in a low, angry hiss. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

I suddenly pulled my hand away, and he fell to the floor all at once.

He collapsed onto the marble, panting loudly and erratically as he held his neck with trembling hands.

I stood over him, clenching my teeth so hard I felt pain in my jaw, then barked at him in a sharp tone:

"Get out of my sight now... or I’ll kill you."

I headed toward my room with wide, fast steps.

I stripped off my clothes and tossed them aside, then stood under the shower and turned the cold water to its maximum.

The spray hit my skin like needles, but the burning gnawing at my chest did not subside.

I balled my fist tightly and delivered a violent blow to the bathroom glass; the sound of shattering echoed as shards scattered across the floor.

I looked at my hand; beads of blood had begun to seep from between my knuckles, quickly running down to mix with the shower water and stain the floor a pale pink.

I shut off the faucet with a sharp motion and stepped out of the bathroom.

I didn’t care to dry my body; I carelessly wrapped my hand in a small towel, then threw myself naked onto the bed.

My body was shivering, and I felt a massive weight settling in my limbs as if I were suffering from a sudden fever.

I closed my eyes, hearing my racing heartbeat.

I shut my eyes tightly, trying to banish the night’s images from my head, but the silence fed the noise in my chest.

I tossed and turned many times in vain; every time I neared sleep, I felt the heat of Julie’s touch on my shirt burning my skin again.

I cast a glance at the wall clock; the hands pointed to 2:00 AM.

I sighed in frustration and rose from the bed with a sudden movement.

I pulled on a pair of trousers and a shirt, putting them on in a hurry without regard for their neatness, then left the room.

The hallways were completely silent, lit by dim lamps casting long shadows on the marble walls.

I did not hesitate in my steps; my feet led me directly through the long corridor until I stood before her door.

I turned the doorknob and entered.

Julie was sitting on the bed, her small knuckles white as she gripped an open pair of scissors.

As soon as her eyes fell on me, her body tensed, and she squeezed the blades of the scissors tighter until the edges dug into the palm of her hand.

Her voice came out fragmented and trembling as she raised them toward me:

"I will kill myself... and you will not have my body."