Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

"Mr. Black has a mental condition and can’t be aggravated. But these people came uninvited and..." Ewan sighed. He pointed at the surveillance cameras. "We have surveillance cameras here, so you can check the footage.

"We tried to stop the dogs from attacking as soon as it happened, but you should be aware that it isn’t easy to get a dog to let go of something once they have their teeth in it."

The cops looked at Dexter before turning to Charles and Nadia. "Hurry up and take her to the hospital while we get to the bottom of this. It’d be a different story if you guys were really the ones who had trespassed on private property."

Dexter continued to hide behind me as he glowered at Charles and Nadia. He sounded scared, but his words were brutal as he said, "Don’t forget that you’ve already severed ties with Sofia. If you break in here and aggravate me again... I might just kill you."

Once Charles, Nadia, and the cops were gone, he asked me in a small voice, "Sophia, were you scared?"

I shook my head. I was only worried about the dogs. "Wasn’t the dog in the lead yours? Will anything happen to it?"

"It’s smart. It should be at home by now," Dexter said happily.

I asked, "What’s its name?"

He lowered his head without saying anything.

"It doesn’t have a name?"

"Baxter..." he muttered.

"Huh? Its name is similar to yours?" I felt like laughing.

He huffed without saying anything else.

"Mr. Black, Mrs. Black, Ann’s been taken to the hospital. She’s not in any mortal danger, but her face is likely disfigured. The matter’s starting to gain traction online." Ewan came over.

"Dexter, were you behind what happened to Sofia’s grandmother?" I asked.

He didn’t deny it. Instead, he changed the subject. "Sophia, I don’t want to go to work... Come with me."

I pushed his handsome face away. He was pretending to be pitiful, but it wouldn’t work on me. Go there yourself. I have other things to do."

"I don’t want to..." Dexter didn’t seem to dare to let me out of his sight. Maybe he was afraid that something would happen to me.

"Fine, fine. I’ll go to work with you first." I could only appease him.

Before leaving the Black family, we went to check on Ignatius, who couldn’t even speak anymore. If I were to be honest, he would probably be better off dead than paralyzed like that. It was too bad that he had to stay like this and act as a cover–up,

I didn’t believe for a second that he was capable of being kind enough to feed the stray dogs. Those strays obviously belonged to Dexter.

Ignatius glared at Dexter; his eyes were almost popping out of its sockets. He could only grunt and groan without making any sense. It was an anxiety–inducing sight.

Dexter stared at him with a smile. For a second, I couldn’t help but think that he was scary.

"Take care of yourself, Grandpa. You have to live a long, long life." He walked over to

Ignatius.

Ignatius’ veins protruded, but he couldn’t say a word.

I left the room to see Ewan standing outside and waiting for us. "How long have you worked for Mr. Black Senior, Mr. Bart?"

He answered honestly, "Ten years."

"Don’t you have any loyalty to him after working for him for so long?" After Ignatius had fallen sick, all of the Black family’s household staff had undergone a huge change.

At first, I suspected that Ewan was secretly some big shot. But then, I saw how respected he was toward Dexter. Later, I suspected that Ewan was using Dexter’s position as the Black family’s heir and his mental disability to give himself free rein.

"You’re still young, so you don’t know how evil people can be." Ewan didn’t really answer my question. He seemed to be changing the topic, but there was an underlying meaning to his words that I didn’t really get.

"My father died in an accident at a construction site when I was a teenager, and my sister was only five at the time. My mother abandoned us and fled after taking the compensation for my father’s death.

"From then on, my sister and I only had each other. I studied and worked at the same time. I had to pick up trash just to make a living. Thankfully, there were kind people in our lives who helped us out of the slums."

Ewan walked beside me as we headed to the courtyard. He looked at the weeds poking out from the ground and pulled them out with a smile. "My sister was beautiful. Everyone said she was lucky that she could marry James."

At the time, Ewan’s sister had indeed married above her station by marrying James.

I looked at him in surprise. James had indeed had a wife, but I never expected her to be Ewan’s sister.

"If I wasn’t working as Mr. Black’s assistant, James would have never met my sister." Ewan sneered. "He married her, but it was likely only because he wanted me to take his side–he thought

"Mr. Black Senior had high hopes for me. It was too bad that he was a scumbag, though."

His gaze landed on my belly. "When my sister was six months pregnant, her looks and figure took a turn for the worse because of her hormones. James didn’t like that she was no longer pretty, so he had affairs left, right, and center."

"He became entranced with a popular starlet and insisted on divorcing my sister despite Mr. Black’s objections. She was already six months pregnant–how could they get divorced?"

Ewan’s sister had been pregnant at the time. If she’d refused to get divorced, James wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

Take a guess at the brilliant idea that the starlet placed in James’ mind." Ewan smiled faintly.

The look on his face made a chill run down my spine.

"She said... the whips used to train horses at the stables hurt like hell but wouldn’t leave obvious marks. She told James to whip my sister until she agreed to get a divorce. She also told him that domestic abuse was a private matter.

"If my sister died because she insisted on remaining married, it would be her own fault."

I took a deep breath. The level of cruelty humans were capable of was truly eye–opening.

"And so, James returned home that night after having a bit too much to drink. He whipped my sister, killing her and her baby..."

Ewan’s tone was calm. It was as if he’d already let the matter go. But I knew he hadn’t and wouldn’t. He hated the Black family, James, and Ignatius.

I couldn’t help but think that he’d played a huge role in making the Black family end up like it was today. He wasn’t a simpleton.

"James lied and said that my sister fell from the stairs, and Mr. Black Senior forked out a huge sum of money to cover up the truth. If it weren’t for the nanny being on good terms with me and risking her life to give me the video she’d recorded, I would’ve thought that my sister was just unfortunate..."

Ewan opened the car door. "I’m sorry, Mrs. Black. I shouldn’t have told you these things."

"What happened after that?" I asked meaningfully.

He faltered, then said with a smile, "After that, I brought Mr. Black back from the asylum. Our situations were similar, so we understood each other. His eyes reminded me of my sister’s, so I transferred all my guilt for her onto him. I tried to make things up to her through him."

He was saying that he’d later met Dexter, but I couldn’t help thinking that there was a

hidden meaning in his words.

"Later, James got what he deserved. He’d had too much fun in his youth, so he’d lost the ability to have children. He’d even injured his spine and ended up in a wheelchair..." I said.

And now, Ignatius is a vegetable. I guess it’s what they deserve."

"Death isn’t a punishment for the most evil of people. Keeping them barely alive... Now,that is a punishment," Ewan said pointedly.

For some reason, a pain suddenly prickled my heart. Death wasn’t a punishment; keeping someone barely alive was.

Before my death, I’d been stuffed and put on display in that glass cabinet. The murderer had gone to such lengths to keep me alive. Had he been punishing me?

Suddenly, my head started hurting. I leaned against the car door, trying to get past it. It only became slightly better when Dexter came to me and held me.

What was it that I’d forgotten?