Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

Dexter stood there helplessly while suppressing himself. He wanted to take action yet was afraid I might get hurt. My misunderstanding from earlier today when he hurt that pervert on the train must’ve frightened him, making him think I might get upset again if he acted too drastically.

Dexter seemed really, really afraid that I might choose Damien over him.

"Sophia..." Dexter called out nervously, wanting me to choose him.

I gazed at him, feeling overwhelmed.

When Damien saw how I didn’t struggle, he said coldly, "You’re lucky you resemble Sophia Miller."

I gritted my teeth, wanting to punch him in the face.

Raising my head, I headbutted Damien in the face before turning around and hitting him. I had really wanted to punch him for a long time.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to in my previous life; it was just that I didn’t dare to. Damien often threatened the lives of those around me. That was what he did best.

I couldn’t cross Damien then. And with the addition of the debt I owed him, I had no choice but to swallow it all down.

But now... I’d already died because of him, so screw that debt.

Dexter was stunned. He swallowed nervously as he looked at me.

"What are you standing there for?" I called out to Dexter. "Come over here and beat him up with me!"

Dexter ran over excitedly and was about to toss a punch at Damien when Zion grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Come with me for a bit, Dexter."

Dexter glared at Zion and turned back to me.

"Let’s go together," I said, ignoring Damien who was still clasping his injured nose. I then went up to hold Dexter’s hand.

Dexter was shocked. "Don’t... choose him... Sophia..."

"He’s not even a choice for me," I consoled Dexter, though I still felt confused inside.

Dexter’s emotional state was unstable, so I had to continuously console him. But this was just pity on my end, I had to leave the Black family sooner or later.

I couldn’t stay by Dexter’s side for the rest of my life, after all...

What should I do if he was too dependent on me?

Dexter seemed to be in a really good mood. He was eagerly helping Zion analyze the case. "Serial number. Every child in the orphanage had a serial number. It was a... sequence of who would die first. But the director’s family wasn’t in the sequence."

It was clear that Dexter hadn’t expected the murderer to suddenly stop killing the people from the orphanage and turn to the director’s family members instead.

I gazed at Dexter. He seemed to really understand the murderer...

"When I asked you to cooperate in the investigation previously, you always refused to say a word. What’s gotten into you today?" Zion asked Dexter curiously.

Dexter lowered his head and looked at me for a long time. "Sophia...."

"Hm?" I didn’t know why he was looking at me all of a sudden.

"I only listen to Sophia," Dexter said. He meant that he’d only come along and cooperate because I asked him to.

If I hadn’t asked Dexter to come along and left him back at the Black residence, he wouldn’t have cooperated.

I didn’t know what to say.

"Is the next victim the director?" I asked. Would it be that woman?

"No..." Dexter shook his head. "Alive. Worse than death."

My heart sank.

Her husband and daughter had died. Coupled with all the orphanage children who died one after another, that kind of fear arising from all those deaths would drive one mad.

Leaving her alive was the best punishment for her.

What did the director actually do to the murderer all those years ago?

"Did Simeon... really die all those years ago in the orphanage fire?" I had already suspected Simeon didn’t actually die during that fire.

"The face of the man I saw at home was so badly burned I couldn’t tell what he looked like before. If Simeon’s still alive, he’d have a motive to kill, wouldn’t he?"

The police would surely face difficulties trying to look into someone who had faked their own death.

"We’ve long suspected this." Zion lit a cigarette. He seemed exhausted.

"We’ve considered every single possibility you could think of and looked into each one. Simeon Kent is really deceased. My mentor was the one who investigated the fire all those years ago."

"Dexter was the only person left alive. There was only one other body found at the scene, and it was burned to a crisp."

My mouth fell open in shock.

If Simeon really was dead, that meant he wasn’t the murderer.

So who was?

I glanced at Dexter, noticing how strange his expression was.

He kept on mumbling. "Simeon’s dead... Simeon’s dead..."

"Are you certain that body was Simeon’s?" Based on the murderer’s level of intelligence, the only two people I suspected to be the killer were Simeon and Dexter.

So if Simeon was dead... Was Dexter...

I looked at Dexter nervously. Though he had no window of opportunity to commit a crime throughout our time spent together, it was still...

"I told Dexter to come here because I wanted him to be honest with me." Zion took a long drag from his cigarette as he looked at Dexter. "What connection do you have with the murderer? Why did you go to the police station and confess to killing people?"

Zion’s gaze was intense. "I’m asking you this now and not bringing you to the station right away because I trust you, so you’d better tell me the truth."

Dexter looked away silently.

I had asked him these questions in the past too, but I only got vague answers in response.

"Dexter... We can’t let anyone else die." I looked nervously at Dexter, wanting to coax him to speak up.

"I couldn’t find Sophia... All clues pointed to the orphanage... I wanted to save Sophia, but I couldn’t find her." Dexter suddenly looked panicked, as if he was blaming himself.

"I lost..." Dexter cried, tearing at his hair hysterically. "I lost his game."

"What do you mean? What game?" Zion looked cautiously at Dexter.

"Someone put a letter in the room I was in the day Sophia went missing. The murderer said he wanted to play a game with me, for me to find Sophia... He would give Sophia back to me if I correctly calculated where she was within the specified time."

That psycho wanted Dexter to accurately pinpoint someone’s location?

"Psycho..." I hissed.

"He lied to me. I had already calculated the correct coordinates... " Dexter’s voice was trembling. "But when I went to that cabin, I didn’t manage to find Sophia. I didn’t know there was a basement."

Dexter was blaming himself. He was tearing his hair out as he crouched in a ball on the floor.

He had clearly calculated the right location and went over in time. But he couldn’t find Sophia.

"I lost. It’s my fault," Dexter said, his emotions unstable. "She died because of me."

I held his hands, stopping him from further hurting himself. "Don’t be scared."

"I tried so hard to find the murderer, but I only found a second letter telling me to go to the place the police suspected to be the crime scene and pretend to be the killer. He said he’d give Sophia back to me if I confessed to the crime."

That psycho did return Sophia to Dexter...

"No wonder. Someone had intentionally led the police to discover the basement that day," Zion said with furrowed brows.

The moment Dexter confessed to the crime, my body was found.

"The basement wasn’t freshly dug. Dexter didn’t even know it was there, which means... only a few people knew about it..." I murmured before looking up at Zion. "I’m sure the orphanage director knew what the basement was used for."

I had a feeling the murderer didn’t put my body there by random chance. There had to be some dark secret surrounding the basement.

"If the murderer is neither Dexter nor Simeon... Then who else could it be?" I said.

Based on the murderer’s modus operandi, he was definitely some kind of genius.

Dexter stayed silent. He had perfectly explained why he’d been at the crime scene. But was what he said really the truth?

Could we really trust Dexter?

"Officer Landon, they’ve tricked us! The hospital just called to inform us that Juliet is missing!"