Chapter 449/Tell Me, Julie... Isn’t This a Prank?!"
Chapter 449
Julie’s point of view
Our bodies locked up like statues. Her words acted as a merciless mirror reflecting all our buried heartbreaks. Every single syllable she uttered was a naked, crushing truth. If we were ready to forgive Mirdreth despite every ounce of cruelty she had inflicted upon us, how could we deny Violet, who stood before us now with such terrifying, unwavering composure?!
I swallowed hard, my fingers trembling violently against my side. "Did you know what was happening to us?"
She shook her head softly, her expression softening into something distant. "No... I came back recently to reclaim you, and that’s when I found out."
She stated these catastrophic facts with disturbing fluidity, as though the truth were the lightest thing in the world. Clearly, I didn’t inherit my honesty from her considering what a professional liar I am, I must have inherited that trait straight from my father.
Steve crossed his arms tightly over his chest, asking suspiciously, "Where is Mirdreth?"
A sly, dark smirk curled her painted lips. "I punished her."
"How?" I asked flatly, my heart pounding against my ribs.
She turned her gaze back to me, her eyes gleaming with a dark, vengeful passion. "I made her regret treating you with such brutality... As for Stewart..."
She paused, tilting her head back as she let out a soft, poisonous laugh filled with pure malice. "Haha... he got exactly what he deserved."
A sudden shiver ran down our spines. I stepped closer to Steve, whispering in a raspy, hesitant breath, "What did you do to him?"
Violet looked us dead in the eye and uttered a single word that shattered any remaining doubt. "Killed him."
My eyes dilated in horrific shock. I gasped, stumbling back into Steve’s side. "Are you in the mafia?!"
She smiled with cold arrogance, resting one hand on her hip as she tilted her head daintily. "Kind of..."
Desperate to piece my shattering mind back together, I gripped Steve’s arm, pushing further. "Are you really our mother?! And why did Mirdreth take us in the first place?!"
Violet walked back to the sofa and leaned against the plush cushions, laying out the details with detached coldness. "Because Mirdreth was married while I wasn’t. And because she had to undergo a hysterectomy, my mother suggested I give Steve to my sister to raise..."
She redirected her fiery glare onto me, her voice dropping an octave. "And when I fell pregnant with you, my mother planned to give you to Mirdreth as well."
Steve pulled away from my grip, dragging both hands down his face as he roared in bitter agony, "And you just gave us away that easily?!"
She gave us a brutally honest answer that ripped our hearts to shreds, not even attempting to cushion the blow. "Yes... but I didn’t expect her to treat you that way. Had I known, I wouldn’t have handed you over so easily."
I squeezed my hands into tight fists until my nails bit into my palms, asking in a quiet, fragile whisper, "Is my father alive?"
Violet looked at me and nodded plainly. "Yes."
Steve bent forward, placing his hands on his knees as he stared her down, demanding the final truth. "Who is our father?!"
Her eyes flicked between the two of us with an unreadable, sinister glint. She paused for effect, then dropped the ultimate bomb. "Each of you has a different father!"
My jaw hung open in absolute horror. "What?!"
She confirmed with stone-cold indifference, sweeping a glance across our pale faces. "Yes... and neither of your fathers knows you even exist!"
My throat burned as I gasped out, clutching at my neck, "They don’t know we exist?!"
She nodded smoothly, completely unbothered by the chaos she was causing. "Not at all."
Steve straightened up, leaning his large frame toward her, his eyes wide with a desperate, low plea. "And my father... is he alive too?"
She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her shoulder, speaking in a completely casual tone as if reviewing a grocery list. "I heard he came close to dying recently from two bullet wounds... but he miraculously survived."
My lips trembled with dread as suspicion seized me. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Are our fathers criminals?!"
A cunning smile spread across her face. She tilted her head smartly, throwing the question straight back into my lap. "Is your fiancé a criminal?"
I swallowed my bitter lump of air in absolute silence, my chest constricting tightly. She had expertly shut me down, placing Robert right in the exact same category without breaking a sweat!
Gathering the last scraps of my courage, I wiped my damp palms against my jeans and asked eagerly, "Can we find out who they are?"
She replied with total ease, waving her hand effortlessly through the air. "Of course... If you want, I can introduce you to them."
Steve threw his arms up, shouting in sheer disbelief, "Just like that?!"
She shot him a confident glance, reaffirming without hesitation, "Of course... Everything is simple."
I dragged my trembling palms over my face, pressing against my burning eyelids as I shook my head in complete rejection of the surreal nightmare I was living through. "I still can’t believe what I’m hearing is real... that I’m not dreaming!"
Steve slumped against the broad arm of the sofa in utter helplessness. He covered his mouth, letting out a burning, sarcastic laugh. "And I’m still waiting for cameramen to step out from behind these walls to tell us we’re on a hidden camera prank show!"
I whipped around to face him, my patience entirely exhausted as I shoved his shoulder, yelling, "Steve! How many times are you going to say the word ’prank’ for God’s sake?!"
Steve snapped up from his leaning position, his arms flying into the air as he began counting aggressively on his fingers. His booming voice echoed off the high ceilings, filled with pure madness and disbelief.
"Is it not a prank to find out our mother isn’t our mother, and her twin sister is our real mother who showed up out of thin air?!" He bent his thumb down violently. "That our real mother is insanely, mind-bogglingly rich?!"
He snapped his index finger down. "That she punished her sister and murdered the man we thought was our father our whole lives?!" Another finger went down. "That each of us has a different father, and neither father even knows we exist?!"
He dropped his hand, stepping right up into my face as his eyes widened wildly. "Tell me, Julie... if this isn’t a prank... then what the hell is it?!"