Chapter 326:

Jake’s POV

The breath was cut off in my throat and the blood froze in my veins with a shock that shattered my entity. Julie was cast upon the cold floor, entirely naked, her long brown hair soaked with water and streaming around her, extended with a terrifying relaxation like a lifeless corpse from which the soul had vanished, her skin as pale and white as snow.

I headed toward her with momentum and knelt violently on the floor upon my knees without feeling the hardness of the ground. My two trembling palms extended to touch her cold cheeks. I tilted my torso over her and watched her still face, beginning to speak with rapid breaths and a raspy voice filled with startle: "Julie... do you hear me?"

But she did not answer me, and not a single eyelid of hers fluttered. My dread doubled and my chest constricted with force. I bent lower and passed my arms swiftly beneath her lower back and her knees, and carried her between my hands with momentum, pressing her relaxed body toward my chest. I took her with supreme speed and accelerating steps out of the bathroom toward her room.

I extended her body with caution over the bed, and with a swift, flashing movement, I pulled the thick cotton cover and covered her entirely naked body with it to protect it from the coldness. I bent over her again, gripped her covered shoulders tightly, and began to shake her with violence and frustration to make her wake up, shouting with a spasm: "You fool... wake up!"

When I received no response, I turned my head hysterically around the aspects of the room searching for something to rescue her. I headed with wide, disturbed strides toward the small table in her room, snatched a perfume bottle with trembling fingers, pressed its head, and sprayed it heavily onto the palm of my hand.

Then I returned swiftly and sat on the edge of her mattress, placing my hand close to her nose with urgency so she would inhale the pungent scent and wake from this terrifying coma.

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Julie’s POV

I was sitting with total relaxation and a comfort I hadn’t known for an age upon a wooden swing, swaying and rocking very slowly in the center of a garden gorgeous in beauty and captivating to hearts, filled with ripe greenery while colored butterflies fluttered in its aspects like a fabric of light.

It was as if I truly resided inside the belly of a fictional story of intense magic, warmth, and calm.

I turned my head very slowly and with confidence toward my right side. The moment my gazes fell upon the wooden swing adjacent to me, my eyes widened with sweeping, overwhelming joy, and my lip shook and trembled with emotion and tears.

I saw my beloved son, Ethan, sitting there with his small body, swinging in the air with a descriptionless lightness, fun, and vitality. He was very beautiful, an angel with his innocent, cheerful features and his eyes that gleamed with life, waving his small, bare feet in the air while laughing from the depths of his heart with a voice as pure as crystal. The sounds of his sweet, childish laughter rose to fill the corners of the place with absolute delight.

Then he tilted his small head backward toward the top and said with sweeping excitement and happy panting: "More, Papa... push me more!"

My eyebrows knitted in surprise blended with a strong, violent pulse that shook the walls of my heart, so I looked backward to see who was standing behind us.

My limbs stiffened for seconds under the impact of shock and astonishment mixed with burning nostalgia when I saw Robert standing with his towering height and massive build behind us.

He was not in his usual strict, harsh, and cold appearance of the crime world, nor was he wearing a black formal suit as usual; rather, his broad athletic body was comfortable and relaxed in simple athletic pants and a light cotton shirt, and his massive palms were pushing our swing alternately with lightness and extreme gentleness that simulated his rare tenderness with me.

His eyes met mine in a long look, so his difficult, masculine countenance relaxed, and a warm, enchanting smile filled with overwhelming tenderness sketched upon his lips. He said in a calm tone while patting with lightness and friendliness on the back of our swing: "I cannot push you more than this, Ethan... you will fall, and I cannot bear to see a scratch on you."

A sweet, pure smile sketched upon my lips, extending in that warm moment while I rocked in the air, swinging with lightness. There was nothing in this entire world that I wanted, wished for, or hoped for more than what I was seeing and touching before me of this piece of earthly paradise.

Suddenly, and without introductions, a strange, raspy, and annoying voice began to pierce the calm and isolation of the pure place, calling me with a strange urgency and repetition: "Julie...! Julie...!"

My smile stopped and vanished rapidly, and I turned my head with panic and anxiety around the aspects of the garden to see the source of this intrusive voice, but there was no one behind the dense trees.

Then his voice became clearer, sharper, and more nervous as it echoed in the cavities of my ear with violence and harshness: "Julie...!" In one terrifying second, everything beautiful, green, and pure around me turned into a dark, absolute blackness, and Robert and Ethan vanished from before me like departing smoke.

I opened my eyes with extreme heaviness and exhaustion, sharp pain squeezing my head harshly like hammers. I felt the bright yellow light stinging my eyelids with pain while I began to see with blurriness two sharp, piercing blue eyes staring at me with a clear anxiety and fear that confused me.

The cursed Jake was bending with his torso over me, saying in a tensed, panting, and disturbed tone: "Julie... do you hear me? By the curse’s sake, wake up!"