I Heard His Heart But Lost Mine Chapter 05

I Heard His Heart But Lost Mine Chapter 05

“Julian, I’m bleeding… there’s so much blood, please — I need a hospital! It hurts… God, it hurts so much…”

Dread tore through me. I threw myself at the door, but there was nothing but solid wood and a lock, and I couldn’t break through.

Julian’s voice came through the door — cold enough to slice me open.

“Ten years, Audrey. Ten years, and I never knew you were this good at faking it. Chloe’s the one who’s really hurt here. I barely touched you, and now you’re screaming about blood? Your period isn’t even due for another week!”

I was sobbing so hard I could barely speak.

“Exactly — it’s not due for a week. So why am I bleeding, Julian? Why?”

After six years of trying, I couldn’t bring myself to say the word out loud. A miscarriage.

“Julian, I’m begging you. Please open the door. I’m really bleeding!”

Before Julian could answer, Chloe’s voice floated in from down the hall, thick with crocodile tears.

“Mrs. Sterling, you really can lie right through your teeth, can’t you? Anything to pretend you didn’t push me. Julian barely touched you, and now you’re bleeding out?”

“Or maybe you just want a trip to the hospital so you can run — disappear before Julian can find you. Skip out on the four million you owe him for that bracelet.”

Chloe’s voice faded. Julian’s breathing went heavy on the other side of the door.

[She wants to run. She’s trying to run from me.]

[She’d lie to my face just to get away. Does she really want to leave me that badly?]

[No. No, I can’t. I’ll do anything — lock her up forever if I have to — I’m not losing her.]

When he spoke again, his voice was final.

“You’re staying right here until you get your head straight. I’m taking Chloe to the ER to get her arm checked out.”

I screamed. I begged. I pounded the door until my knuckles bled and my hands went numb. Nothing. He was gone.

Somewhere beyond the walls, a door slammed shut. The house went silent.

The pain in my abdomen kept building until it swallowed everything. Then the dark took me.

When I came to, the pain was gone.

The only thing left was the blood on the floor — proof that something had been there, and now it wasn’t.

I pulled myself up, legs hollow, and heard the lock turn.

Julian opened the door.

Light flooded in. I flinched against it.

Something hopeful flickered behind Julian’s eyes.

“Well? It’s been a day. Have you cooled off yet?”

“Yes.”

My voice barely carried. I’d never been this calm in my life. The kind of calm that only comes when there’s nothing left to hope for.

Julian smiled.

“Knew that would work. Come on, come out.”

I gripped the doorframe and stepped out. Sunlight washed over me.

That’s when he saw it — the blood soaking through the fabric of my skirt, vivid and dark in the daylight.

He froze.

And then his eyes filled with something I’d never seen before — horror.