Chapter 282 Breaking Point
Chapter 282 Breaking Point
A sardonic twist tugged at Quinn’s lips before her lashes drifted shut.
“I’m moving out,” she said softly. “The hundred million I borrowed sits in Marley’s private account. I’ll send you the details and transfer the interest to your account. As for Marley, you can turn her over to the police; I’ll file every record of our dealings.”
The evenness of her tone terrified Julius.
“You don’t have to move. I’ll leave. Stay here as long as you like. This is your place. Obviously I’m the one who should go.”
“Quinnie, please, don’t move out,” he begged.
Instinct told him that if she moved out, she would sever their bond forever.
“I’m moving out,” she repeated, her resolve unshaken. “And-”
She raised her head and held his gaze. “Let’s end this.”
His pupils tightened. “End? You mean… break up?”
“Yes. Break up,” she said with a bitter smile.
She had once dreamed of growing old with him, of returning from the border–whether or not she found Rowan–and marrying Julius.
Now, she understood that the future she had dreamed of had never been possible.
“I won’t accept it,” Julius said through clenched teeth. “I know you’re furious because I hid the truth. I’ll stay away until your anger fades, then we’ll talk.”
“Whether my anger fades or not, I can’t go on with you,” Quinn said. “A relationship takes two, but ending it takes only one.”
“Only because of this one lie?” Julius murmured.
“One lie is enough. You know the love I asked for–complete trust. For me, that single betrayal felt like the sky caving in. How am I supposed to believe you again?”
Julius closed the distance in a single stride and crushed Quinn against his chest. “I will never hide anything from you again. Just this once–please, forgive me.”
The embrace was once her favorite refuge, yet now, the moment his arms wrapped around her, she pictured how his men had dragged Rowan from the front of the car and tossed him aside without mercy.
“Julius, I know you had no duty to save my brother, yet I cannot stop blaming you. If you had told me from the start you had met him instead of letting me learn it now, perhaps everything would feel different. How can I forgive you after this?”
With those words, she pushed him away, walked back into the bedroom, dragged out a suitcase, and began packing her personal things one by one.
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Chapter 282 Breaking Point
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Julius followed her inside. “If I had told you at the beginning, would you really have forgiven me–would you have felt no anger at all?”
Quinn kept silent; even she did not know the answer. But at least I would not be this furious.
When Marley revealed the truth earlier that day, it had felt like a blade hacking into Quinn’s flesh–pain and betrayal so vivid she doubted she would ever forget.
“Don’t leave me,” Julius pleaded, his voice rough, almost begging. “Quinnie, I love you too much. That’s why I was afraid to confess that I had seen your brother and done nothing. I feared you would stop loving me, refuse to stay with me.”
He loved her so fiercely that the prospect of losing her terrified him.
She was upright and brilliant, and her brother meant the world to her. Julius could not gamble on a confession that might make her walk away before love had taken root.
So he clung to the hope that the secret would hold until she loved him too much to leave, until he located Rowan, until certainty gave him the courage to come clean.
Quinn turned her head, ordering herself not to look at him, because the more she looked, the more it hurt.
“My mind is made up,” she said, placing each piece of clothing into the suitcase.
Julius lunged forward again and seized her wrist. “You promised me that no matter what I did—as long as it wasn’t a crime–you would forgive me.”
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