16

We were there, sitting on that couch in silence for a few seconds before he started talking. At that moment I didn't know if I really wanted to know everything, if that by chance could keep us apart. But it was important to know, I needed to hear him and he needed to talk too. Julian took a long breath and began:

"Have you heard of arranged marriages?" He asked me and I nodded. "That's how it all started, it was two families, the Vicenzo's and the Roman's. Listen to me carefully, now I'm going to tell you a story."

"I'm listening…" I replied quietly and gave him a steady look, he had to know I was willing to listen to him.

"On the 19th of February 1980 in Billericay, UK, two babies were born, a boy into the Vicenzo family and a girl into the Roman family. That boy was me and the girl was Brenda Roman. Our parents in agreement years before We were born ordained a wedding for both of us. As we were totally manipulated by them, we turned eighteen and got married in a huge and unnecessary ceremony. At first, Brenda was very sweet and delicate, but also very strange, she never wanted me to Our marriage was just a show. Two months later she turned up pregnant, obviously the child wasn't mine. She was an unfaithful wife, and I wasn't a flower, if you know what I mean." He spoke and paused.

"I don't want details of your teenage adventures." I joked, but the reality was that I felt a twinge of jealousy. "Continue." I said anxiously.

"Brenda didn't want to remain married to me, she wanted to divorce and marry her 'lover', Antonio Barriere." I almost choked on my own saliva. Barriere?

"Barriere?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. Your dear friend's last name, I'm aware of that. But I can't say that he and his family have anything to do with it." He said. "Yet."

"Julian..."

"Let me finish." He said and continued. "Brenda's parents didn't accept the idea of divorce very well, I didn't give a damn, because I didn't want to be married to her either. Our parents wrapped us up in this until her babies were born. They were twins, two boys. I stayed by her side the whole time, playing my role as a husband and a human being as well. The most serious problems started when girls started to appear dead near our house, in a neighboring forest. We were all very worried and took protective measures for our families One day, one night when I had gone out drinking, I got home and Brenda was in bed with her lover.I stayed silent and didn't say anything, when they finished what they were doing , Antônio came out of the room and found me in the bedroom. room with one of Brenda's babies in her arms, the child was crying incessantly, so I had to pick him up and calm him down. " He paused as if remembering the scene .

"It's fine with me if you want to take a break." I said and held her hand tightly.

"I can go on." He swallowed hard and continued. "That night I was very drunk, so I put the boy in Brenda's arms and went after that bastard. I had nothing against him, my problem was not that he was the lover of the woman who was my wife by title, the big problem it was him teasing me while I was drunk and unaware of what I was doing. I went on top of him and left him almost disfigured from so much beating. The only thing that made me stop was Brenda hitting me with a brick on the head , I didn't pass out but I stopped. After that day, Brenda hated me and Antonio was always threatening revenge. But I continued living my life, I didn't care about anything else."

"Are you well?" I asked staring at him and he nodded.

"Five days later, I received a message where he invited me to talk in the forest. I certainly went, I didn't want to be a coward. When I got there, I was faced with the worst scene of my entire life, three guys on top of my younger sister raping and humiliating her who cried and sobbed for them to stop." Julian closed his eyes and squeezed them shut trying to hold back the pain I knew he was feeling as he told me this. So I sat on his lap and hugged him.

"You don't need to go on now, I know it's painful for you to remember that." I spoke but he didn't seem to hear me, with his arms around my body he continued.

"I lost all my reason when I took a piece of wood and beat them all until they were ground to the ground. I had a serious problem, I still have it. At the time of my rage I would go blind and transform, I could face more than ten men alone. I hit all of them with the wood, so they could never do that to any other girl again. I took my sister carefully and took her to the doctor, our family wanted to cover up the case so as not to tarnish Isadora's honor Weeks later, Brenda slapped me home, furious that her lover could no longer fulfill his role as a man, which she liked best. I burst out laughing, which made her even more furious." before continuing:

"She threatened me and said that I would regret having done that, I yelled at her and cursed her for defending a rapist. what he had done before. On the weekend I went to work in the next town, I was a car dealer, when I got home at night, Brenda was desperate saying that one of the babies was missing. Brenda assumed it was the son damn why did he look for her and she didn't want him. I quickly went to Antônio Barriere's house and there he was with the baby, he held the boy out and said that if I approached he would throw the child on the floor. I didn't know that Brenda had gone after me, so when I was going to jump on him and try to take the baby, she appeared, I told her to go away but she said no. I pushed her to the ground and went over to Antônio, he pulled out a gun and shot. But the shot wasn't me or Brenda, it was the baby, the baby. little innocent child."

I listened to everything attentively, still hugging him, feeling his heartbeat next to mine.

"On the day of the boy's burial, our families gathered at my house, I was just waiting for an opportunity to kill Antônio, he had been arrested but his influential family as always released him and freed him from all guilt, I was willing to lose my freedom to kill that son of a bitch! In the middle of the night I went out drunk again looking for the bastard to end my agony and guilt, but I couldn't find him, so I did something to harm that damn family , I started a fire in their house. But to my despair, when I returned to my house, it was the one on fire, I heard the screams of my family and Brenda along with the baby's cry. I only managed to save the child, I tried to go back and get the others, but I couldn't. I couldn't save my family..." Julian started to shed some tears and I just squeezed him tighter in my hug.

"I ended up passing out from the smoke, when I woke up I was in a hospital with my hands in handcuffs. They told me I was being arrested for the murder of my entire family. They used the fire I actually set at the Barriere house as proof of that I had done all that, they also blamed the rapes and deaths of some girls that had been happening on me. I don't know how they managed to incriminate me for all that, I just know that that family was and still is very dangerous, they are filthy rich and very powerful. So for all that I was diagnosed as a psychopath with serious mental and psychological disorders. I was locked up in that asylum for twenty years, even then they lied saying it was ten years ago."

"To this day I don't know where Brenda's son ended up with Antônio, surely the Barriere family must have the servant, after all he was the son of the accursed man. of someone labeled crazy? But in years I engineered my escape in search of revenge, to escape I had to commit a crime, I killed a nurse and ran away in the middle of the night.It's been three months since I've been free from that place, no one would miss me, just for a single detail, the Barriere family had to know everything that happened to me, so they decided to take it to the media including my photo now. All to screw me like they did before."

"My family's money was all for me, so I bought that house near the Barriere mansion, to investigate more about them and find out if they are the same ones that destroyed my life. I have more houses around the country and I've tried to enjoy them a little since get out, so I can start my revenge.Until I found you at that damn bus stop, I soiled you on purpose, because until then I still consider myself a bad and heartless person, considering what I want to do with those motherfuckers. I just wanted to have fun at your expense, but when you came to me, I couldn't resist the light I saw in you, in your eyes. Your purity, your beauty, so beautiful and sweet, I got lost in you... I became obsessed."

His words warmed my heart, but he was also broken, now I understood what suffering was, what that man shouldn't have gone through in that place? My heart ached for him, I ached for his suffering, his voice was full of pain and hurt from the moment he started telling me the whole story. I just wanted to rip that pain out of his chest, I didn't care if he had killed a man to escape, what he went through was inhuman.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you, that night when I went to your house, I had been drinking and getting into a fight with five men, they were all unconscious on the floor and I was in that state you saw. That was the only night I've ever been able to sleep peacefully in my life.And I know you're curious to know who called me earlier , it was a private investigator I hired to help me try to prove my innocence, he told me he saw two strange cars pulling up at different times different in front of his house, what he suspected was that they would have seen me going in there the other day." He explained and I felt my heart race with fear.

"Julian, my God, what they did to you was inhuman. You didn't deserve any of this, you are not and never were a monster, for me you are a victim of injustice. I believe in you, I trust you and I know you don't he's going to hurt me. You can count on me for whatever you need to find out about the Barriere!" I spoke.

"I wanted to push you away, keep you away from my shadows, I wanted you to see me as a monster, I stayed in that place for so long that sometimes even I believed I had done that." He said softly and took a strand of my hair and sniffed it. "I'm afraid of spoiling you." He whispered and kissed me lightly on the lips.

"You won't spoil me. But I can help you fix that heart." I whispered and kissed him passionately.