Her Rebirth.

Kai POV

Those years... were the most excruciating of my life.

I wasn’t a person in the Blackwood household. Not really. I was... a contingency plan. A body that breathed so it could be harvested when needed. Spare parts for the son they actually loved.

They called it "treatment" for Ace. But to me, it was pain, pure and simple. I’d be called into those sterile rooms without explanation. Blood draws turned into marrow extractions. Needles dug into my skin, and sometimes, I’d wake up groggy and hurting, a piece of me missing and taken, because Ace needed it.

No one told me what was being done to me. No one asked if I was afraid. They just did it, like I was a thing, something to be used, not someone to be protected.

At first, I tried to hold onto hope. I thought if I endured long enough, if I was obedient enough, they’d eventually see me or rather, there would be someone to save me. Maybe even care but hope dies quickly when you’re bleeding on cold metal tables and the people walking past you don’t even look you in the eyes.

And so I stopped feeling. I forgot how to cry, how to laugh. Pain stopped being sharp. It became a constant hum in the background of my life, like static. My emotions faded, one by one, until only one remained: rage.

I was angry, angry at them. At him. At myself. But I held it in, shoved it deep down, because I knew if I let it out, if I cracked even a little, I might never come back from it. Besides, even if I let it out, what could I do? I was, after all, the useless son of the Blackwood family. I had no say, neither did I wield any power.

And then Ace recovered.

He stopped being the sickly child that needed transfusions and injections to keep him standing. His color returned. His lungs worked. And suddenly... I was obsolete. My "purpose" was fulfilled and they didn’t need me anymore.

So they shipped me off. Said it was for "education." But let’s be honest, I was a burden they didn’t want to see.

But leaving that house was the beginning of something else. Something darker. I couldn’t feel, couldn’t connect, and there was a gnawing violence in me that wouldn’t go away. So I found a place to put it. I found an underground boxing ring and became a fighter there.

It was brutal, bloody and unforgiving. But for once, the pain was mine to choose. Every punch I threw, every rib I cracked, it was me taking back control.

And I was good. No... I was unstoppable. They called me the Scorpion. I became a name, a legend in the ring. And that’s when Song Yue found me.

He owned the ring, or at least the syndicate behind it, the Song family. They used it not only as a money-making machine but also as a means to recruit talents. One day he called me in. I thought it would be about a fight or a job but the moment I stepped into his office, he just stared at me. Not in disdain, nor in recognition of my name. But something else.

"You look like her," he said.

I didn’t understand at first. But then he told me about Song An. His daughter. My mother.

A DNA test confirmed it. I was his grandson. His heir.

He looked like he’d won the lottery but when he asked me about her, when he looked me in the eyes and said, "How is my daughter?" I told him the truth.

"She died when I was five."

The light in his eyes died right there. I’ll never forget that look.

After that, things changed. I was no longer the bastard child hidden away. I became Song Kai , the right-hand man of Song Yue, my grandfather.

But the truth is... by then, it was too late to go back. I wasn’t the boy who had once clung to his mother’s sweet words or still looked for hope in this bleak world. I was the thing they had made. I became emotionless, calculating, violent when necessary.

I became a sociopath or at least that’s what the psychiatrist had said. He diagnosed me with Antisocial Personality Disorder, more specifically, sociopathy formed as a result of childhood trauma. I was told that I would not be able to feel emotions the way humans normally felt them.

And yet, somehow...

Here I am, looking at you.

Feeling.

And it terrifies me.

Or is my love for you not normal?

My little butterfly.

---

The atmosphere in the jet had become quiet and solemn after Kai told his story. And it was okay that way. Kai lay on Amelia’s lap while she gently stroked him, maybe it was her way of comforting him. Whatever it was, he felt happy, and a part of him wished that maybe they could stay like this forever.

But the heavens wouldn’t be so kind as to accept his request.

The soft chime of the intercom signaled their descent, and moments later, the jet touched down with a gentle thud. The spell broke.

Kai let out a quiet grunt as he reluctantly lifted his head from her lap, blinking at the sudden change in light. Amelia chuckled teasingly.

"You sound like a grumpy cat," she whispered, her fingers still lingering in his hair.

He gave her a lazy smile, then sat up, slipping his hand into hers. "Shall we?"

She nodded, her fingers curling around his.

Together, they stepped out of the jet and were immediately met with a scene straight out of a gangster film. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Flanking both sides of the tarmac was a long line of men in black, standing in perfect formation. Each one was built like a wall, with cold expressions, bulging muscles, and bodies inked with tattoos that spoke of violence and loyalty. Scars decorated their skin like medals of honor. And in unison, they bowed their heads slightly and spoke in one deep, thunderous voice:

"Welcome, Young Master. Welcome, Young Madam."