Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

I ignored Nancy and stared up at "Sophia" on the balcony.

She was like a hollow shell, her eyes empty and listless. However, her gaze was fixated on Dexter.

Dexter stood below. He couldn’t help but be attracted to the woman who looked exactly like the woman he loved...

"Dexter..." She called out his name after a prolonged period of time.

I saw Dexter’s body visibly tense up as he tightened his fists.

Nancy seemed to be very confident. After all, this was a one-to-one clone of Sophia Milford born from the same embryo.

It was only natural that Dexter was attracted to her.

"Simmy..." "Sophia’s" gaze then fell on Joel. Her eyes looked barren as she blankly called out Simeon’s name.

Joel furrowed his eyebrows. He stood in place, staring intensely at the woman.

Eason, on the other hand, was getting goosebumps all over. He scooted nervously toward Joel and asked, " Who is she talking to? Where is she looking at? She looks a bit creepy to me."

"Why is she calling out Simeon’s name? Did you feel a cold breeze just now?"

Eason was making his fear of Simeon increasingly obvious.

I didn’t know what happened between them. Even his new name was established in order to deter Simeon. "She’s talking to me," Joel said coldly.

Eason took a good look at Joel and looked relieved. "That scared the wits out of me. Now that you mention it, you do look quite similar to that lunatic, Simeon."

Joel furrowed his eyebrows and didn’t say anything else.

"The two lunatics in our class are idiots... All they do is try to prank me. They weren’t even self-aware when someone ended up taking their lives." Eason sounded like he was still mad.

He then continued, "If ghosts do exist, they should go after those responsible for their deaths..."

"Aren’t those people already dead?" Joel asked with the suspected intention of trying to scare Eason.

Eason’s body stiffened. His head violently shot up and he looked at Joel.

"Yeah... All the people who hurt Simeon and got him killed are all dead... The people who died in the series of killings were all those who hurt him in the past..."

He was right they were all dead. All that was left was Juliet, who hurt Sophia and Taylor. She was barely alive.

A game of death at the abandoned building had gotten rid of all those people.

"She’s almost completely identical to Sophia," Joel looked at Dexter and said again.

"But Sophia’s body was displayed in the glass case to remind people that she was dead," he explained. " If anyone were to appear in the future, it wouldn’t be her. She’s the one and only... She’s irreplaceable."

If Joel were to guess, Sophia died in the display case in front of everyone to prove that she was dead.

The way he saw it, she’d already known the society might send a replacement.

My head was hurting quite a bit. Certain memories, especially memories regarding my murder, were completely impossible to recall.

I’d remember fragments from time to time, but I could never put them together to form a complete picture. Sometimes, I even started to wonder if I was actually Sophia Milford....

"From a certain point of view, she is and isn’t Sophia at the same time," Dexter glanced at the woman standing above as he spoke. "Her genes, appearance, and even her memories... might be Sophia’s, but she’s just the result of an experiment..."

The "Sophia" on the floor above suddenly laughed. "Everyone is the result of an experiment. How are you so sure that the Sophia who died is actually her?"

Her originally hollow stare turned piercing cold as she opened her mouth to speak.

It was evident that she was void of emotion. She resembled how I appeared in the past from my memories -numb to everything and everyone.

The way she looked at Dexter wasn’t gentle or loving. In fact, it didn’t even contain any form of emotion... Other than the fact that her body was untouched, leaving a "Sophia" like this behind for Dexter was of no use.

"She’s your Sophia. We switched her after the accident. If you insist on investigating further, this is the last warning Genome Society is offering you only because you’re Andy’s son," Nancy said, walking toward Dexter.

She continued, "I can tell you without a doubt that she’s Sophia Milford."

Dexter frowned as he looked at her.

"The one who died was not the real Sophia. She wasn’t the one that you met when you were younger either. The so-called memory loss and confusion are things that happen to the clones after they die.

"So far, the data hasn’t been able to explain or control this." Nancy turned to glance at me before continuing. "So, Dexter, you can only choose to take Sophia or Sofia behind you.

"You understand what the society is capable of... This is not a discussion. You have no means to go against the society right now."

Nancy had presented him with a choice. He could either take Sophia upstairs or me.

I looked at Dexter as he turned to look at me. Neither of us said anything. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

A moment later, he pointed at the woman on the second floor. "I want to take Sophia with me."

His finger was pointed to the woman upstairs, but his gaze stayed on me.

My eyes welled up with tears, but I stood still without a single word.

Nancy shot me a glance and appeared extremely confident. This was the outcome she predicted.

"As your biological mother, I have the right to send you for a psychiatric evaluation."

I stared at her for a prolonged period of time before scoffing.

Eason and Zion looked at each other in confusion. "What’s going on? What did you agree to, Sofia?"

I didn’t say a word or offer an explanation.

Nancy told me that Genome Society would let Dexter off the hook if I surrendered myself.

If it were up to me, I wanted Dexter to spend the rest of his life in peace.

There was no fault in him for choosing the woman upstairs either.

Genome Society wanted to take back the failed experiments, and I was the most valuable one out of all of them. Hence.... they wanted to take me away.

Going with Nancy was the quickest way I could come in contact with the higher-ups in the organization. "One for one... He chose Sophia," I tried to sound nonchalant, but I couldn’t stop my voice from choking.

Joel stared at Dexter for a long time before asking, "Are you sure?"

Dexter shoved Joel’s arm away. "She’s Sophia..."

"What about her, then?" Joel pointed toward me.

"She’s just Sofia who has parts of Sophia’s memories." Dexter’s voice was hoarse, and he didn’t look into my eyes.

I averted my gaze and laughed bitterly.

"As it turns out, all you ever wanted from the start was just the cold, unfeeling Sophia Milford..."

He lowered his head and said again, "I’m sorry..."

"You don’t need to apologize to me." I shrugged nonchalantly. "Even if you hadn’t made your decision, I’d end up doing it for you. I just want you to live well".

I just wanted him to live well... This used to be what Dexter had hoped for Sophia.

Now, my wishes aligned with his.

I just wish he’d live well and stay alive, safe and sound.

As Sophia descended the stairs, she shot me a cold glance, as if able to detect that we carried the same DNA.

"You’re nothing but a defective product..." She laughed condescendingly.

In a voice that was only soft enough for us to hear, she called me defective as she walked by.

"You end up possessing flaws and weaknesses the minute you develop feelings. When Genome Society ran tests on us again and again, we were only able to deceive everyone else if we first fooled ourselves."

"Tell me, Sofia... Did you really develop feelings? Or is this all just pretend?" She leaned in and asked in a hushed voice.

I didn’t reply and only stared at her in silence.

She let out an icy laugh and approached Dexter.

"Are you really willing to let her go?" she asked.

Dexter took her hand. "I’m sorry it took so long for me to find you..."

"It doesn’t matter to me. As long as you can keep me hidden, it doesn’t matter if it’s you or anyone else,’ Sophia" said emotionlessly.

Dexter’s fingers stiffened for a moment before he took her away.

Joel furrowed his brows and wanted to say something, but he didn’t manage to get any words out in the end.

Zion didn’t understand what was going on. He turned to look at me. "Come with me for now, Sofia."

I took a step forward before Nancy reached an arm out to stop me.

She flashed me a smile and swiftly lowered her arm. "I’ll be waiting to hear from you."

She was confident that I’d return to look for her soon. Because now that Dexter had taken "Sophia" with him, there was no way he’d keep me around any longer.