<h4>Chapter 189: _ The Confrontation</h4>


    The words were synonymous with a whisper, but they might as well have been a gunshot to my chest. My head snapped up so fast, I almost tripped.


    Had she... spoken? For a brief, insane second, I thought I had imagined it.


    Then she spoke again from behind the door. "What’s done is done."


    A sharp, bitterugh escaped me before I could stop it.


    What’s done is done? No. No, absolutely not.


    I pushed up to my feet in one swift motion, the sudden movement making my head spin. My heart pounded in my ears, fueled by pure frustration and desperation.


    She thought this was over? She thought I would just walk away?


    "María José." My voice was rough, raw from emotion. "You’re finally talking to me, and that’s what you have to say?"


    I ran a hand through my hair, tugging at the roots in exasperation. <strong>Dios mío, give me patience.</strong>


    "No," I said firmly, shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me. "No, you don’t get to just say that and expect me to leave."


    Another second of silence passed before she asked rhetorically: <strong>"Why not?"</strong>


    Why not?


    <strong>Was she serious?</strong>


    I let out a humorlessugh, pacing a short line in front of her door. My muscles were coiled so tightly I felt like I might snap in half.


    "Because you haven’t even heard me out yet. You can tell me to leave after, fine. You can curse me out, p me, throw things at me, I don’t care. <strong>But you are going to listen to me first.</strong>"


    She said nothing. My pulse <strong>hammered</strong> in my throat. Still, she said nothing. I exhaled, pressing my palm t against the door.


    "Please."


    For a moment, the <strong>world stood still</strong>.


    Then, the sound of something shifting on the other side before another pause followed.


    I could hear her sharp inhale. My stomach <strong>tensed</strong>. My breath <strong>halted </strong>as I waited... waited for her.


    Then, just when I thought she might finally open the door, <strong>"There’s nothing to talk about." </strong>She said.


    I nearly threw my head back and howled in frustration. Instead, I clenched my fists and forced my voice to stay calm.


    "María José." I exhaled through gritted teeth. "I don’t know how else to say this, but I <strong>did not do what they said I did.</strong>"


    I pressed harder. "I don’t even remember doing any of those things. <strong>Because I didn’t.</strong> I was asleep for two days at my cousin’s ce. <strong>Two days.</strong> Someone wanted this to happen. Someone wanted to ruin us."


    Still, she said nothing. My chest burned.


    I <strong>needed</strong> her to believe me. I needed her to see that I wasn’t lying.


    I leaned against the door, lowering my voice. "I made my choice a long time ago, María José. <strong>It was never Rosa.</strong> It was never anyone else. <strong>I chose you.</strong>"


    However, she was silent still. Hence, I sniffed, trying to wipe the tears off my face when her soft voice came chiming.


    "Axel. A-Are you crying?"


    I couldn’t hold it back anymore.


    I lowered my head, trying to wipe my face as if that would make it better. But the moment I did, I felt my chest tighten, my heart breaking all over again. She was asking about it. She could hear it. She could tell.


    I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t.


    But then the door creaked. Just a bit.


    And when I finally saw her face... really saw her face, my heart nearly stopped.


    There it was. That monstrous scar Luis Miguel had been talking about.


    It started from the bridge of her nose, slicing across the whole of her cheek, dragging a jagged line that marred the once-perfect symmetry of her face. The skin was pale, the wound raw, and my stomach churned at the sight of it. My jaw cked, and I staggered back, unable to tear my eyes away.


    Her beauty... <i>her beauty</i>—was gone. I couldn’t believe it. The scar was a cruel, twisted thing, so sharp and so permanent. It made her face look... almost unrecognizable.


    If only her wolf was awakened. I knew she had one regardless of whatever everyone else said, but if only it was awakened. That scar would disappear before an hour ran out.


    The sight of it made my heart ache.


    And it wasn’t just the scar... it was the way it changed everything about her. Her eyes, which used to sparkle with life, now looked... drained. Empty. Like she had been robbed of something precious, something irreceable.


    Her <strong>beauty</strong>, the thing that had always captivated me from the first moment I saw her—was gone. And the rage I felt in that moment... it wasn’t just rage. It was <strong>pure fury</strong>.


    I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear apart the world around me for doing this to her. I wanted to find whoever did this and make them pay for ruining the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.


    I took a step forward, my fists clenched tight at my sides. "Rosa..." I said, my voice so low it was almost a growl. "I heard it was Rosa. Your damn sister who did this to you."


    Honestly, It hurt me to see the kind of woman Rosa had grown up to be. Ever since my confrontation with Don Diego, I knew she was selfish, but I never thought she was cruel.


    So cruel to do something so horrible to her little sister. Someone to whom she was supposed to be a mother figure.


    I could see the pain sh across her face—just for a split second. Then it was gone, reced by something harder, something I couldn’t quite read.


    "Yeah, Axel. It was Rosa, your lover who did this to me. Now, will you take a picture and go give her a review of her handiwork?" She spat and I hadn’t been more surprised my whole life.


    Did... Did María José just speak to me like that? My María José? The same one I knew? She had grown some balls, hadn’t she?