Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

"Don’t tell me this is another beautiful yet tragic love story?" Zion scratched his head.

I said, "A wealthy scion and Cinderella fell in love, yet they were broken up by his family. Cinderella went missing, and the wealthy scion went to study abroad. When he came back, he couldn’t find her, and upon investigation, he realized that she had been abducted by human traffickers into Genome Society."

"In order to protect his loved one, the wealthy scion started to compete with his brother for the control of their family business. He then used his identity as the CEO of the Black Group to donate money and resources to Genome Society, all just to ensure his loved one’s well-being."

"Over time, he uncovered the truth behind Genome Society and learned that she had been killed. Despaired, he withdrew his sponsorship and joined the Rebels in planning for the fall of Genome Society as a form of revenge," I speculated, looking at Dexter.

To anyone, it would have looked just like a love story. Just like how it was with Daisy and Miguel—a clone subject and a sickly CEO.

"If Daisy is a first-generation experimental subject, then Nancy and Daisy-as second-generation experimental subjects-should be at least 18 years apart in age. But Daisy seems to be aging a lot." In my mind, Daisy was Nancy’s best friend and Damien’s "mother". I naturally assumed that she was around the same age as Nancy and Miguel-or that their age gap wouldn’t be too big.

I never expected Daisy to actually be younger. However, she looked much older than Nancy.

Was it because she wasn’t maintaining herself well? Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

"Daisy is probably a first-generation clone subject. The technology wasn’t as refined and advanced back then, so the clone subject’s physical age should be the same as the age of the experimental subject," Dexter explained.

It was just like how Dolly the Sheep’s bodily function was rapidly aging because her clone was based on an adult sheep.

"That’s probably the reason why Genome Society prefers to use young people as experimental subjects," Dexter said, looking at Zion. "But I don’t think Andy is a lovestruck fool."

He couldn’t help but feel some animosity whenever he mentioned Andy.

He refused to admit that he was his father-perhaps even finding it hard to accept the fact too.

Dexter continued, "The fact that Andy agreed to have Genome Society send him a genome-edited baby meant he implicitly approved this technology.

"Besides, his investment wasn’t entirely philanthropic he has equity stakes in the genome-editing laboratory. He would have a share of whatever Genome Society earned from this technology in the future, " he said indifferently.

It meant that Andy was in cahoots with Genome Society and had mutual interests before he betrayed and left them.

"There’s a possibility for anything to happen to anyone. Perhaps your father really had his own reasons. Just like what you’ve said, he had to fight fire with fire to obtain Genome Society’s trust."

I really couldn’t think of why Andy would do that otherwise. What exactly was his relationship with Sarah? "Don’t use a romantic mindset to figure out a businessman." Dexter tapped my head.

I remained silent. Indeed, my theory might be too one-sided.

Dexter said, "It’s said that Andy chose to marry his wife and had a child for his family interest. But if you think about it, the Black Group was already at the pinnacle of the Huma business world.

"No crisis happened after Andy took over. Instead, it grew stronger with the help of Genome Society’s network. There was no reason for him to compromise with Ignatius if he really loved Sarah."

Other than his feelings toward Sophia, Dexter did not believe in the existence of faithful love in this world. I parted my lips, unable to refute.

If Andy really loved Sarah, there should be no reason for him to get married and have children. He even accepted a genome-edited baby later on.

"Before I turned eight, everyone in the Black family, including Andy, thought I was a defect. That was because I hadn’t developed cognitive abilities yet back then. I was like an autistic child with extremely low IQ test scores, as if I was immersed in my own world," Dexter said hoarsely.

That was his painful past and also the reason he was discarded by the Blacks as if he were trash.

"Andy always had a reputation for being kind-hearted in the Huma business circle, and he was constantly engaging in charitable work. Yet, he discarded his blood-related son..." Zion frowned.

He continued, "Even if this was a genome-edited child from Genome Society, that was still his child. It’s not like the Blacks couldn’t spare money to raise a child."

Zion felt angry too, yet the reality was such.

Andy wasn’t incapable of resisting Ignatius, yet he chose to impliedly approve of Ignatius’ actions. Thinking that Dexter was a defect, Ignatius cast him into an orphanage and left him to fend for himself.

Back then, genome-editing technology was indeed unrefined. Dexter was considered one of the experimental subjects.

I reached for his hand, now knowing why he refused to forgive Andy until now. To him, the Blacks were also people he could do without.

To Dexter, everything was unimportant except for Sophia.

"We would have to investigate Andy to discover the truth, but he’s been dead for many years, and the evidence he left was minimal. We could only change our approach and look into the remaining missing persons." I sighed.

It seemed like we would need more time to solve the case now.

We found the second missing person following the order of disappearance.

Her family was still crying. We found out after asking that they only just found out that their daughter was dead.

She was a beautiful prospective college student named Yvette Craig. She went missing while planning to study overseas after her college entrance exam.

Her family had always thought that she was studying overseas.

"How could her disappearance be kept so tightly under wraps?" I asked curiously. Even if she was studying overseas, it had been over 20 years. Was no one suspicious of anything?

Yvette’s mother said, "My daughter was somewhat rebellious. I divorced her father, and she lived alone after that. She said that she no longer wanted to keep in touch with any of us after she studied abroad."

"At first, I thought she was harboring grudges against us. I tried contacting her, but I could never reach her. I’ve always kept in touch with one of her friends. Her friend said that she was doing fine, but she refused to see or have anything to do with us."

The white-haired elderly woman was crying as she spoke. The misfortune of her family had caused no one to be aware of Yvette’s disappearance.

"Some time ago, we received a letter telling us that Yvette had gone missing over 20 years ago. I immediately tried contacting her friend whom I used to keep in touch with, but I could no longer reach

him," the lady said, agitated.

I looked at Zion. "Are we able to look into the friend who has been in contact with the family?" He nodded. "We’re looking into it now, but we’ll need some time since it’s an international number."