My father sold me to the Mafia King

Chapter 355

Julie’s point of view

The string of my thoughts was severed when Jake finally materialized with slow steps, fighting with every ounce of pride and self-control he possessed to make his gait balanced, straight, and steady before his friend.

He was wearing long, dark, loose-fitting trousers and an incredibly long, thick woolen sweater that heavily enveloped his entire body and neck, completely concealing every single inch of his skin.

I observed him with hidden, mocking glances; he was truly skilled and professional at hiding the throbbing bruises and the red welts beneath those heavy winter garments.

Fortunately, and to my own good judgment, I had maintained my composure and nerves, refraining from striking him with the belt across his highly provocative facial features.

Mike stood up from the sofa casually, walking with quick, cheerful steps toward a frowning Jake. In a routine gesture, he playfully shoved his shoulder and struck his arm forcefully with his palm as a standard greeting between them. In that fatal, split second, Jake’s entire face convulsed, his features turning completely pale.

His massive torso shuddered with a crushing pain that violently shook his entire being. His lips parted against his stubborn will, releasing a muffled, sharp, and rasped groan of agony as the impact cruelly collided with one of the burning, swollen bruises beneath the wool.

I couldn’t control myself or restrain the little monster inside me; a loud, mocking laugh erupted from between my lips, filling the spaces of the living room at the sight of his miserable, humiliating state as he writhed from a simple, light touch.

Jake snapped his head toward me with frantic speed, spearing me with a resentful glare that overflowed with a malice threatening the absolute tortures of hell a look that would have literally incinerated me on the spot if looks could kill.

Mike’s brows knit in deep confusion and surprise. He looked at Jake’s contorted face and asked with casual bewilderment:

”What on earth is wrong with you, Jake?! Why are you groaning and writhing in this painful manner from a simple, light greeting? Have you developed the fragility of women?”

Jake swallowed his saliva with immense strain and effort, adjusting the edges of his woolen sweater with fingers that trembled from the underlying pain. He stated in a dry, thick tone that he exerted massive effort to fake and fabricate:

”It’s nothing, for heaven’s sake... don’t worry about it. I fell and stumbled heavily over the wooden stairs yesterday, and my entire body is bruised. It just hurts a little from the movement.”

Mike curled his mouth in mockery and disbelief, deliberately striking him lightly on his back once more with a cruelty that set Jake’s nerves on fire:

”Ah... and where the hell were your eyes, you idiot, to fall and stumble in such a disgraceful manner like a child?”

Jake ground his teeth in pure malice and an overflowing hatred toward his friend, and toward me specifically. He moved with a rushed urgency toward the exit door to save his skin from my mocking, ridiculing stares, snapping sharply:

”Let’s just leave, Mike, without any extra chatter... let’s move, quickly!”

Mike turned his head toward me as he opened the threshold of the door, waving his hand with a calm, promising smile as he stated:

”Goodbye, Julie... I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I lifted my palm with a light, dignified grace:

”Goodbye, Mike.”

The two exited together, and the outer door shut forcefully behind them, allowing the dead silence and tranquility to once again blanket the entire space. I turned my body with immense relief, heading immediately with rapid steps toward the bathroom.

I turned on the hot water tap, surrendering to its warmth and the rising steam to wash over my body.

I emerged after a long duration, pulled the electric hair dryer, and began to dry the strands of my long brown hair with absolute slowness before the large mirror while my mind replayed Jake’s violent convulsions.

I then slipped into comfortable, loose cotton clothes, arranged my room, and wiped away the traces of the little crime I had committed, returning every single item back to its proper place.

I moved toward the kitchen with a vicious hunger, a true gnawing that was practically tearing through my empty stomach due to the breakfast I had completely missed; all the time and effort had been entirely spent on my battle and bloody madness with a bound Jake.

I sat on the wooden stool before the table and began to consume my food.

Suddenly... right in the dead center of my quiet chewing and the stillness of the kitchen, the suffocating silence of the house was shattered by calm, steady knocks.

My hand holding the fork froze in midair, my brows knitting together in extreme suspicion and astonishment. My heartbeats retreated with heavy apprehension, and I whispered to myself in pure disapproval and anxiety:

*Did Jake return this quickly?!*

I stood up from the stool with a heavy slowness and irritation, walking with quick, complaining steps through the hallway. I extended my palm, unlocked the door, and pulled it open... but, at that exact, fatal second and crushing moment, my movements were entirely paralyzed. My feet froze to the wooden floor as if I had been transformed in the blink of an eye into a dry, rigid statue of solid ice that was utterly incapable of movement.

My pupils dilated in a horrific expansion that was filled with absolute shock, lethal bewilderment, and sheer disbelief. My face turned completely pale, the blood entirely draining from my cheeks.

My mind could not have expected or imagined in any way, shape, or form in this life... that this cursed person, this living nightmare in the flesh, would be the one standing behind the door right now!

The blood literally froze inside my veins, and the tips of my fingers turned into the sickening coldness of death. Deep within me, my heart began to thumping and pounding with a hysterical violence, as if the drums of destruction were beating inside my chest to suffocate my breath and strip me of the ability to scream or retreat a single inch.

His head lifted with an agonizing, nerve-wracking slowness. He fixed the gaze of his jet-black eyes dark as the night directly onto me, eyes that bled pure, unadulterated evil... the exact same dark, malicious, and threat-filled look I had grown so terribly accustomed to.

His lips shifted with a sickening slowness to curl the features of his mouth into a smirk. His voice emerged entirely faint, perfectly mimicking the hiss of a venomous serpent preparing to unleash its full load of poison into the body of its helpless victim. He spoke as he tilted his head to the side:

”Aren’t you going to invite me inside, Julie?”