Chapter 377/Forgetting is a Literal Mercy
Chapter 377:
Julie’s POV
Stella gave her head a light toss as she gathered the scattered brushes, placing them back into the train case with practiced order. "Fine... I’ll drop the topic so your ass doesn’t get completely bent out of shape," she murmured, flipping a latch. "But you told me yourself during our very first meeting that your late parents tragically died in a horrific car accident."
My spine and pulse locked up for a fraction of a microsecond at the sudden mention of that woven lie. It was the exact blueprint and scenario that my brother Steve had meticulously constructed for the locals to permanently scrub our history, identities, and flight from the grid the moment we came to live in this remote area. Forcing my features to remain as unreadable as flat stone, I delivered a dry, clipped response to keep the boundary solid.
"Yes, Stella... that’s correct. It was a long time ago."
She tilted her head smoothly toward her shoulder, her calculating eyes scanning my face. "Do you actually miss them?"
I swallowed thoroughly to banish the rising tension, my voice dropping into a flat, gray ash. "Yes... of course I do."
Stella curled her lips in deep thought, her bright eyes never leaving mine. "To be completely frank, sometimes the way you act makes me feel like you didn’t even like them... because you simply never bring them up, and you don’t mention them in a single one of our long conversations. It’s like they’re complete nobodies to you."
I closed my eyes for a single second as a sharp blade of pain sliced through my mind, desperately fighting back the grotesque, animalistic images of my monstrous father selling my naked flesh to Robert like livestock. I snapped my eyes open, firing a razor-sharp, freezing glare to shut this goddamn door forever.
"I strictly... do not want to resurrect the past. I refuse to dig through old graves and trigger that agonizing bleeding all over again. Forgetting is a literal mercy."
Stella didn’t back off her stubborn crusade for a single second. Instead, she dragged her chair an inch closer until she was practically glued to my side. "What were their actual names, Julie?"
My brows knitted together in deep irritation as I glared back at her. "Why are you asking about their names right now, of all times?"
She gave a careless, slightly erratic shrug of her shoulders, twisting her lips into a playful smile. "Jesus, it’s nothing... just pure curiosity."
I went silent for a beat. "My father was Stuart... and my mother was Meredith."
She gave a slow nod, repeating the names under her breath as she leisurely pulled the long zipper of her massive bag shut. Then, she raised her piercing eyes back to mine, flashing a sudden, intense fascination.
"Tell me more about New York... about the madness of the city and what it’s like to actually live there. I have literally never stepped foot outside this region my entire life, seriously. I only see it on TV."
I drew a massive breath that filled my chest, leaning my exhausted back against the rigid wooden chair. The chaotic streets of New York flashed behind my eyelids the raw noise, the exclusive clubs, the immense luxury, and the bloody, sickening tragedies. A faint, deeply cynical smile touched my lips.
"Fine... the city is an absolute, towering beast of a place, to the point where it completely drains you. There is an endless amount of noise, luxury, and traffic. But on the dark side... there are a hell of a lot of sickening secrets and buried crimes hidden right behind the walls of those luxury skyscrapers."
She jumped on the detail instantly. "And what exact street did you live on and hang out around in New York, Julie?"
I leaned my head back slightly as the clear layout of my old neighborhood flooded my memory with a twisted sense of nostalgia. "I lived in Queens... There was a park near us called Travers Park. It was actually beautiful and quiet."
Stella’s eyes dilated with sheer, unbridled excitement. She locked her palms together, letting out a loud, reckless squeal. "Oh my god, Julie! That is incredible! We seriously need to fly out there together sometime, do some massive shopping, and check out your old park! It would be so incredibly fun and a total change of scenery!"
My entire frame turned into absolute stone, the faint smile vanishing from my lips as pure, unadulterated terror took its place. I delivered a rigid, ice-cold strike to kill the fantasy.
"I can never go back there or step foot in that city ever again, Stella. Put that through your goddamn head."
Her thin brows knitted together in sudden worry and shock. She leaned in, her voice dripping with invasive curiosity. "Why? Is there a legal issue, a warrant, or some kind of real danger permanently blocking your ass from entering New York?"
I aggressively whipped my green eyes away from her, staring into the empty space of the living room. My chest tightened with a suffocating lump as Max’s lethal warning echoed in my skull. I forced a freezing, detached composure.
"Nothing like that. I strictly don’t want to dig up the past. You know about my parents’ deaths, and I refuse to trigger those memories under any circumstance. New York is dead to me."
Stella’s features instantly crumpled into a panicked, apologetic look at my freezing response. She lightly tapped my shoulder, dropping her voice to a soft murmur. "I am so incredibly sorry, seriously, Julie... I didn’t mean to stir up your grief or upset you with my endless questions."
I gave a slow, rigid nod, trying to keep up appearances. "It’s fine, Stella... It’s normal. I’ve chosen to forget."
With a swift, playful wave of her hand, Stella violently cleared the heavy, suffocating energy from the room. She stood up to her full height, admiring her makeup work on my face with pure ecstasy before loudly clapping her palms together.
"Alright... we are completely done, and it is absolute perfection! Julie... you look so incredibly hot and stunning right now, it could literally melt a stone!"
I picked up the hand mirror, thoroughly inspecting my reflection. The heavy makeup boldly defined my green eyes and sculpted my cheekbones with a provocative, razor-sharp edge I wasn’t used to. I tilted my head, my brows furrowing in deep discomfort.
"Thanks for the hard work, Stella... but to be completely honest, this feels like way too much. It’s incredibly loud and provocative for a casual dinner between two friends."
She twisted her mouth in flat, playful defiance. "Hell no! It is stunning, sexy, and completely appropriate. All it needs is the final touch. Now... look at the absolute masterpiece I brought inside for you!"
She spun around with lightning speed, ripping open the zipper of her massive bag with wild enthusiasm. From the depths of the case, she pulled out a piece of silk fabric so violently crimson it looked like fresh deer blood. She held it up triumphantly, revealing an aggressively short, skin-tight dress with razor-thin spaghetti straps that left nothing to the imagination. Her eyes flashed with slick, conspiratorial malice.
"You are wearing this exact piece tonight on your date with Mike!"
My eyes nearly popped out of my head in absolute, burning shock. Wrapped tightly in my towel, I violently scrambled backward, throwing up my hands in an absolute, rigid rejection. "Stella! Absolutely the fuck not! There is a zero percent chance in hell I am putting on that naked, scandalous rag! Have you completely lost your goddamn mind?!"