Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

"Suicide? Ha! If she had the heart to die, she wouldn’t have caused Sophia’s death!" Violette yelled uncontrollably.

Her hatred toward Juliet was intense, perhaps because I had become her scapegoat.

"Calm down for now. Go and see what’s going on first," Zion intercepted the emotionally unstable Violette and handed her over to Keenan. "Take care of her."

Keenan nodded and held onto her.

"You’re a doctor too. You know more than anyone that you shouldn’t let emotions cloud your judgment at any time."

Without saying anything, Violette just stood there with red teary eyes.

Zion glanced at his watch and sorted things out at the scene before rushing to catch up with Damien.

He said, "Mr. Coleman, I’ll go with you to check out the situation. Based on the current investigation, your wife, Juliet, is also one of the girls who left the orphanage back then. So, the murderer will continue to target her."

Damien’s steps froze for a moment. With a low voice, he said, "She’s not my wife..."

Zion was baffled by Damien’s odd behavior, but he didn’t say much. I followed behind the two and got into the car too.

"The girls who left the orphanage back then have grown up and are now scattered throughout the city. There are no significant patterns to the list and order of deaths. It’s as if the murderer is seeking revenge."

Zion looked at Damien and continued, "If your wife isn’t afraid of dying, I wonder if she can cooperate with us to catch the murderer as soon as possible?"

Originally, he didn’t want to suggest this, but Juliet and Damien were the ones who had pushed me into becoming bait.

I smiled at Zion and teased, "As if he’d agree to that. He treasures Juliet so much. How could he possibly let her be bait to lure out the murderer?"

"I said... she’s not my wife," said Damien, who seemed to be very bothered by the title. "Besides... something has already happened to Sophia. I can’t possibly let Juliet take any more risks."

I laughed. See, he’d never agree.

"Risk? Mr. Coleman, what were you thinking when you asked Sophia to become bait, then? Or is it that in your eyes, Juliet’s life is worth something but not Sophia’s?" Zion countered.

Clearly caught off guard, Damien sat there stiffly.

I could only feel a bone-piercing chill run through my entire body. Yes, my worthless life could never compare to Juliet’s precious one.

"Juliet is in poor health, and her emotions have always been unstable. You heard it too just now, that she attempted suicide!" Damien fumed, glaring at Zion. "You’re a police officer. How could you say such things?"

Zion remained silent, but it seemed Damien’s response had confirmed his suspicions.

"Damien, Sophia wasn’t from the orphanage, and her body still hasn’t been found. My team and I think there’s a high probability that she’s still alive. If we don’t find her soon, she’ll die for sure," said Zion after a long silence,

He hoped that Damien could persuade Juliet to help the police and ultimately me. He was already being quite tactful with his words.

The fastest way to find the murderer now was to use Juliet as bait to lure them out, but Damien hesitated.

I had already accumulated enough disappointment in him. Now, I found myself able to face it with some resignation. I knew that I had no place in his heart, and his choice was within my expectations. My feelings for him that had been buried deep in my heart during my youth rapidly took root and grew into a towering tree. But they were later crushed and destroyed. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

My love for him ended in the year 18th birthday.

Damien’s car stopped in front of the hotel. Guests at the wedding reception hadn’t left, including Juliet’s parents, who obviously looked upset.

"Damien..."

Juliet’s mother, Jacquelyn Case, was an elegant woman–especially since she came from a well– off family. It was just that they had gone bankrupt in recent years. That was why they needed Damien’s help.

"Mrs. Turner," Damien greeted as he lowered his head, seemingly feeling guilty..

I stood not far away, watching the family and feeling a sense of irony.

"Why are you still calling her ’Mrs. Turner’? You should call her ’Mom’ by now," said Juliet’s father, Roger Turner.

He sighed and continued, "Damien, we’ve seen how you treasure Juliet. But regardless of the reason why the reception turned out like this... embarrassing Juliet in front of all her relatives wasn’t right. You should go talk to her properly."

Damien was silent before he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

He just nodded and replied, "Okay."

He seemed to be a heavy smoker, probably due to the long hours spent investigating cases.

I was there next to him. I subconsciously coughed because I couldn’t stand the smell of smoke. It became a conditioned reflex for me to avoid whenever I saw someone smoking.

However, after coughing twice, I suddenly realized that I was already dead... Why should a soul... be afraid of second–hand smoke?

I snickered and turned to face Zion.

"You see, Juliet’s suicide is just an act. If she really wanted to die, she should be in the hospital now and not resting in a hotel room."

Zion couldn’t hear my words, but he seemed to share my thoughts.

He also chuckled sarcastically and said to himself, "Is it really suicide or just an act to get Damien to come back?"

I glanced at Zion with a smile, glad to find someone on the same page as me.

"Mr. Coleman, I would like to see Ms. Turner," said Zion to Damien after Juliet’s parents left.

Damien frowned and answered, "Let’s do it another day. I don’t think we should agitate her further. Mr. and Mrs. Turner said she broke down just now and only just fell asleep."

Oh, how considerate he was being.

"Delaying this by another day... means giving Sophia another push toward her death," said Zion, his brows knitting together.

"Damien, tell me, do you really want Sophia to be found?"

Was Sophia’s life or Juliet’s emotions more important?

Damien clenched his hands tightly and remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "I’ll go upstairs and talk to her. But just to be clear, this has nothing to do with her, so she has no obligation."

He was still protecting Juliet.

"Nothing to do with her?" I exclaimed and couldn’t help laughing at his words again.

"How could you say that it has nothing to do with her? It was her who lured me there. She was the one who tricked me into the hands of the murderer!" I shouted at Damien, but he couldn’t hear me at all.

He never wanted to hear what I said when I was alive, let alone now that I was dead.

"Sophia... It’s sad that you’ve fallen in love with such a man," muttered Zion to himself after Damien left.

Yes, falling in love with such a person was truly pathetic of me. Everyone could see how pitiful I was. Loving him was my greatest regret, but as time passed, my heart had become numb. It wouldn’t hurt as much as before.

Who said love wouldn’t fade? It would, once there was enough disappointment accumulated. Love would disappear once the person had tasted enough despair.

It’d be their own fault if the person continued to love the other blindly even after all that misery.

I loved Damien, and I lost my life because of that. What else was there to love him for?

Damien went to Juliet’s room and soon came out.

He shook his head at Zion and said, "Sorry, Juliet’s emotions are very unstable now..."

"Damien, let me talk to her. This is a matter of life and death. Every moment delayed..." said Zion anxiously.

Nonetheless, he knew he had no authority to rush things. From any legal perspective, Juliet had no obligation to cooperate, but he knew that she was definitely related to my incident.

"I’m sorry, I can’t let you further upset her," said Damien, insisting on protecting Juliet.

Zion furrowed his brows and said, "Do you know that Juliet called Sophia three hours before she went missing?

Originally, Zion didn’t want to mention this. After all, this was an ongoing investigation, and he couldn’t speculate arbitrarily.

Damien frowned and looked at the officer, asking, "Officer Landon, what do you mean?"

Zion explained, "There was a call from an unknown number three hours before Sophia went missing. Because Sophia hadn’t saved the number, we didn’t pay much attention to it during the investigation."

"But yesterday, I had someone look into the number, and the number belonged to Juliet’s best friend. My colleague asked her about it, and she said she never called Sophia. But Juliet did borrow her phone that day. So, the caller might have been Juliet."

"According to your words, Juliet might have called her, and you can’t confirm that!"

Damien was desperately hiding something, or perhaps he was afraid of something.

I burst into laughter after seeing his evasive behavior. "It was her."

"I’ve instructed the IT department to recover the call recordings from Sophia’s phone. It’s in the process, but when the recordings are ready, the truth will come to light," said Zion lightly.

"I’m actually glad that Sophia was quick to react," he added.

I took a deep breath. After knowing that Juliet had called me, I immediately decided to record the conversation. I didn’t trust her and wanted to gather evidence, proving that I had always been repaying Damien’s favors.

I just didn’t expect that one day, it would become crucial evidence in my death investigation.

With furrowed brows, Damien looked at Zion and answered, "Then you shouldn’t have made wild guesses before you have the evidence!"

"You know deep down whether I’m making speculations or not. Sophia appeared at Sunset Alley on the 15th, but none of you were aware of it. Don’t you find it strange and suspicious?"