Chapter 130 130

Chapter 130 130
Julian’s POV

All the blood I had was rushing to my head while I was still standing. It was one thing for me to think I was doing all of these to protect her; it was another thing if she did not know that.

Seeing her this hurt was not part of my bingo card. I thought….. I thought she was strong enough to handle it. I thought that she would not be this affected and that she would brush me off like I did not mean anything to her at all.

But seeing her this way made me know that I thought wrong and I might have made the wrong call.

I could have just killed Arnold, and this whole thing would be over. I could have…….

Fuck.

I pushed my hands through my hair and grabbed it a little. I felt disoriented. It was as if I was going crazy and I was still standing. If there was one thing I knew about her, I knew that she was one of the badass people I knew with a spine in her back.

And I’ve broken it.

The one that takes the cake right now was the fact that I heard that she was getting engaged to London.

Engaged?

Married? To that piece of shit?

Not under my watch.

I might be many things. I might have fucked up a couple of things under my watch. But I knew that she would not be marrying or getting engaged to him. I would make sure that is happening.

But one thing that I can’t fathom right now is why that even came up in the first place. When I looked into her parents earlier when I met them, they did not have any affiliations with the Ashfords. They were not even in the same business circle. So, what the hell was going on?

My train of thought suddenly upended when I heard a sound of distress from Kimberly. She left here less than a minute ago. What could have happened?

I hurriedly left where I was and traced where she had gone using her scent. She had stepped outside to the opening, and she was in the gazebo that was at the far end of the block. It was hidden away from plain sight, but it was there. People don’t really go there.

I walked towards the place guarded and hoped that nothing had gone wrong with her. As soon as I stepped closer, I caught a whiff of her blood, and I felt myself stiffen.

“What’s going on? What happened?” I asked, and she jumped and turned to face me in a fight.

I should not have snuck up on her like that. Maybe.

“What the hell? What are you even doing here?!” She sounded angry and resigned at the same time. She must have thought that there was no point in doing this whole thing with me.

My gaze fell to her legs, and I saw that it was scraped. I did not know why she chose to wear a skirt today. But then, she did. And the point where she was scraped was bleeding a little badly.

I swore under my breath as I knelt in front of her.

“Why are you doing this?” She jerked her leg away, giving me a stink eye.

“Put your leg in one place.” I gritted out through my teeth, trying to ignore the fact that her blood was right in front of me. The smell was getting to my head, and there was nothing I could do about it. I don’t even deserve her attention at this point, not to talk of covering her blood.

I pulled out a clean handkerchief from my pocket and attempted to wrap it around the wound when she slapped my hand away. I raised my head to look at her. She almost wavered from her resolve. I didn’t know what made her feel like that, and I don’t even know the expression that I had on my face, but I did not intend for her to feel scared or anything like that.

“You can go around with an open wound,” I said tightly, and I wrapped the wound as fast as I could to stop seeing it.

“That’s still none of your business.” She snapped again. And maybe I deserve it. Not even maybe. I knew it. She moved away

“How did it happen?” I asked.

“Leave Julian. You can’t continue invading my space. We are not anything.” She said, staring into space. I knew she had scraped her knee. I just wanted her to tell me.

Something then surged inside of me. I wanted to apologize.

It was like a sudden rise of realization that I needed to apologize to her. Maybe that would make her feel better again. Or….

“You’re not getting engaged to London.” Was what I heard myself saying instead of that, and I wanted to beat myself up so badly that it would hurt.

She turned her head to face me, and then she started laughing.

“You crack me up so bad.” She said and turned away, dismissing me like I did not exist. “Leave here.”

I should say something to that. My ego should feel bruised that she spoke to me in that manner. But right now, I felt nothing. Nothing at all in my blank head and black heart.

“I….”

“Don’t say anything again.” She whispered. And I knew that was my cue to leave.

I did not know how I got back to the class. But when I did, I exchanged seats with one of the girls sitting at the back, and she actually agreed without asking for anything. I read her mind to see if she had any ulterior motives for not asking for anything, but I could not get my hands on any, so I let it go.

I should start by not letting her feel uncomfortable if I wanted to fix this. Today had to be one of the worst classes that I have had to sit through. I could literally feel the way she was bleeding discomfort. And I knew it was my fault.

And to the main issue, Arnold would be hearing from me again.