Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

"Dexter, give me an apple."

Joel couldn’t bear to watch further, so he decided to ask Dexter to toss him food.

But Dexter had no time to respond to Joel.

Dexter took a bite out of every piece of food, making sure that it wasn’t poisonous before giving them to me.

"He’s lovestruck..."

Joel rolled his eyes, then threw something at Eason, who was drinking milk with bread.

"You, give me some food."

Eason glanced at Joel, then gave him a piece of bread.

Joel said, "Since you intended to save me earlier, I’ll pull you up first."

Eason grimaced at Joel. He wondered if high schoolers nowadays were all like Joel.

"You should worry about escaping. You have the college entrance exams to sit for." Hearing that, Joel’s expression darkened. He snorted.

When they were almost done eating, Joel put the rope down for Eason to climb up.

Since Eason had received professional training, he easily climbed up the rope. Zion quickly followed suit.

After the two went up, we told them to pull Quinn up first.

"Sophia, go up."

Dexter wanted me to go up first.

I didn’t reject that idea. I wrapped the rope around my wrist and started climbing up.

"Not bad," Eason teased.

I turned around to look at Dexter, but it seemed like he was about to fight Damien.

"Are you guys coming?" I asked.

"The control panel for the 12th floor is on the 13th floor, which means we’ve only temporarily escaped the mastermind’s control. Once they discover us, we won’t be able to leave." Dexter understood what I meant, so he tossed the rope to Damien.

When Damien got pulled up, I offered a helping hand as a companion. Everyone else pulled him too. It wasn’t me pulling him up on my own...

But Damien insisted on provoking Dexter by grabbing my hand and refusing to let go.

I thought that both of them were childish. I shook Damien off and looked at Dexter, who seemed woeful.

"Come on up."

Dexter cooly climbed upward. But

just as his hand reached the edge of the ceiling, he stuck his head out and said woefully, "Sophia, my wound hurts..."

He was reminding me that he was injured too.

So, I smiled and stretched my hand toward him.

He obediently put his hand in mine and allowed me to pull him up.

Eason and Joel wanted to help, but Dexter ignored them.

The truth was Dexter had come up with his own strength, yet he still wanted to pretend to be weak by leaning against me. Then, he looked at Damien provocatively.

I knew all his childish tricks, but I didn’t expose him.

Downstairs, Juliet panicked. She shouted, "Damien..."

She was afraid that nobody would rescue her.

But she was right... Violette retracted the rope.

Violette rolled her eyes and said, "She’s the worst. She can rot alone."

"Damien..."

Juliet was pale. She looked at Damien nervously. He was the only person who could decide if she got a chance at survival.

Behind Juliet was Taylor, whose head hung low as he stood there feeling hopeless.

He escaped the 14th floor in exchange for everyone else’s lives. He was certain... that they would not save him.

"Pull him up," said Zion, pointing at Taylor.

Zion wasn’t a saint, but he simply couldn’t stand idly by. All lives were equal before his eyes, after all.

Taylor was surprised. He looked up at Zion.

Then, he looked down and softly said, "I’m sorry..."

He apologized.

But sometimes, an apology would mean nothing to the actual hurt that was caused.

If everyone had died on the 14th floor, Taylor would’ve been a selfish murderer.

Violette reluctantly put the rope down. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Juliet, who had a strong will to live, hurriedly grabbed the rope first. She looked at Damien nervously.

"Damien... You know I can’t die."

"Juliet works for Peter. He knows of the secret behind the Godmaker Project," Damien said. He glanced at me, waiting for my approval.

"Even if she dies today, I’m confident that we can still discover the truth," I said plainly.

"Yeah, we can figure it out," Dexter agreed.

With her voice trembling, Juliet said fearfully, "Sofia Miller... don’t cross the line."

"I’m crossing the line?"

I laughed, looking down at Juliet.

"Back when you baited Sophia Milford out, causing her to die at the hands of the killer, did you ever think that you were crossing the line?" Juliet’s expression became increasingly grim; she looked at Damien nervously, asking for help.

Violette scoffed.

"It’s karma. Did you imagine this day to come when you made Sophia die?"

Violette grudgingly continued, "Taylor Barlowe, hurry on up. Otherwise, you can die with her."

Taylor came forward, but Juliet was still holding the rope.

Since he was desperate to live, I expected Taylor to push Juliet away so that he could climb up, but he didn’t.

He looked at us with a conflicted expression.

Perhaps luck was not the only thing that helped Taylor get this far...

I wondered if the mastermind saw hope in him.

Suddenly, a robotic voice began to announce, "Beep! Automatic self-destruct device activated on 12th floor..."

Everyone tensed up immediately.

As the timer ended, cracks appeared across the floor, and the 12th floor began to collapse.

"Hurry and come up!" Zion and Eason shouted panickedly.

Amidst the panic, Taylor still let Juliet go up first.

"Taylor!" Zion shouted.

Taylor fell into the wreckage. He started to bleed from his mouth as the rubble fell on him.

Teary-eyed, he looked at us and said in a choked-up voice, "I really just... wanted to live... I’m sorry, I’m really sorry... I just wanted to live..." He simply wanted to live.

"Grab this!"

After Juliet was pulled up, Zion tossed the rope down. Taylor reached out as he cried. He caught the rope when the floor collapsed completely.

"When I was born, my biological mother abandoned me... She was a university student and had a premarital pregnancy...

"I heard from the director that she may have given birth to me in the washroom of a shopping mall or some small polyclinic. She abandoned me in the washroom later.

"It was quite a big issue then. A couple who couldn’t conceive adopted me, and they treated me well at first. Up until when I was ten years old, I still believed that they

were my biological parents.

"But when I turned ten, they conceived a pair of twins. They couldn’t afford to raise three children...

"So, they put me in the orphanage.

They said that they weren’t

abandoning me. They claimed they

did it because of the financial burden and promised to bring me home when things improved..."

Taylor was injured. After he got up, he narrated his past as his trembling body leaned against the wall.

His chest was heaving abnormally. I could tell that his ribs must’ve been broken.

If he did not receive treatment soon, the broken ribs may pierce through his lungs... and he might die.

"I waited for them at the orphanage. One day... Two days... Three days... I waited. I just wanted to live. I wanted to wait until my parents came to pick me up..."

"But no, they even moved. They went somewhere where I couldn’t find them... They didn’t want me anymore."

"The orphanage was a much scarier place than expected. Children who lacked discipline from their parents were like sprouts with bad roots, growing without restraints."

"I had received ten years of

education, so knew what was right

and wrong I knew that I couldn’t

be a part of them, but I didn’t dare to

defy them. They would beat me up... If I wasn’t on their side, they would exclude and marginalize me..."

Taylor’s chest began to heave harder.