Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

The boy ran over to hug my leg when he saw how dazed I was.

He held on tight, refusing to let go.

"Why don’t I take you back, little boy?" The female police officer coaxed.

The boy shook his head as he sobbed and continued holding onto my leg.

I helplessly looked at Dexter. And at the same time, I felt incredibly shocked.

These two boys–the teen who’d been instructed to kill Juliet, and the little boy in front of me–definitely knew who I was.

"He likes you. You can take him back." Dexter walked up to me and blocked me from Zion’s view.

I felt guilty and was concerned Zion might see through me.

"If the boy likes you so much, you can take him home first if you want to," Zion also relented.

I heaved a sigh of relief and held the boy’s hand. "Do you want to go back home with me?"

The boy obediently nodded.

Then, I crouched down and asked him, "What’s your name?"

He gazed at me with wide eyes for a moment before saying, "My name’s Jean."

I smiled. "What a good boy you are, Jean."

Jean held onto my hand as we walked, not letting go even once.

After Zion and the female officer left, I called Ewan to have him come fetch us.

"Sofia..." Jean hid behind me once the police left. He was fearfully gazing at Dexter.

He seemed scared of him.

Meanwhile, Dexter stared back coldly at Jean.

"You don’t like him?" I cautiously asked Dexter.

Dexter looked away. Then, in an effort to show how kind he was, he innocently said, "No, I took care of those stray dogs, didn’t I?"

But based on how Dexter compared Jean to stray dogs, I could still tell that he didn’t like Jean.

Jean didn’t like Dexter either, and he kept cautiously watching him.

"Mr. Black, Mrs. Black," Ewan greeted when he arrived and gestured for us to enter the car.

I was about to get into the car with Jean when I noticed Dexter standing where he was, unmoving.

His head was down as he stood there, seemingly unhappy.

"Get in the car," I said in confusion.

Then, Dexter suddenly extended a hand out to me. "You said you wouldn’t lose me again. How dare I hold someone else’s hand."

I felt exasperated, but Dexter’s condition was different. So, I had no choice but to coax him, "Come on, let’s get into the car."

Dexter held onto the hand I extended to him. Then, he turned around and challenged Jean, saying, "Let go of her hand. She’s mine."

Jean trembled fearfully as he hid behind me. Yet, he refused to back down. "No way. Sofia is mine."

This time, I was certain that this boy knew who Sofia Miller was.

I was afraid Sofia’s secrets would be exposed, so I quickly led both of them into the car.

"Sofia, can you tell the police to let my brother go? He was just trying to get money for my sickness," Jean tentatively said.

I looked down, unsure of what to say.

As the car drove on, I whispered, "Jean... How did we come to know each other?"

"Sofia?" Jean looked at me before whispering back, "Do we have to pretend we don’t know each other now too?"

My heart lurched.

Well shit.

Not only did Jean know Sofia, but she had even made the boy pretend to not know who she was in front of other people.

Now, I was even more certain that Sofia Miller was connected to the serial killer.

When we reached home, Mr. Moore had someone prepare a scrumptious breakfast for us. And by the time we finished our meal, the sky had turned bright.

From the way Jean wolfed down his food, one could tell that he’d been starving for a long time.

Meanwhile, Dexter silently ate his own food and glanced at me from time to time.

"Sofia... Can I take away what we can’t finish?" Jean pointed at the unfinished food on the table, not wanting to leave yet.

I nodded and had Angel help pack up the food for Jean.

I wanted to know what other secrets he was keeping. I needed to uncover all of them.

After breakfast, I coaxed Dexter to finish his food and go to sleep.

After Dexter fell asleep, I secretly trailed behind Jean as he left the Black residence.

I saw him run into an alleyway and a long way further.

However, my legs were getting sore as I followed him.

Finally, we reached an abandoned factory where several other children about the same age as Jean were residing.

Most of them seemed to have been born crippled–some had only one arm while others were mute or blind.

"I brought you guys food," Jean said to the other children. He acted like an adult.

I was stunned.

Why didn’t these children go to an orphanage? Their orphan intake had improved in the last couple of years.

"Where did you get all this food, Jean?" a little girl happily asked.

Jean said proudly, "Sophia gave them to me. But you can’t tell anyone else. You have to pretend to not know her when you see her too, understand?"

I hid in the doorway, feeling both anxious and saddened.

These children seemed to really respect Sofia.

What was her connection to them?

"When will Grandma Rosie leave the hospital? Will she get better?" a boy quietly asked.

"She’ll get better," Jean said sadly, sitting to one side. "Grandma Rosie will definitely get better with Sofia around."

I listened to the children in shock.

Grandma Rosie? Was that Sofia’s grandmother? The woman Brandon was using to threaten people with?

I suddenly recalled that I hadn’t once visited Sofia’s grandmother ever since I was reincarnated.

But it wasn’t that I didn’t want to–I just didn’t dare to.

Our closest loved ones were often the ones who could identify the minute changes in ourselves.

So, Sofia’s grandmother was bound to realize that I wasn’t actually Sofia no matter what lie I came up with. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

But maybe I really had to pay her a visit now.

These children, Sofia, Sofia’s grandmother, and Jean’s brother were all connected to the serial killer.

Everything seemed to align now, and anyone in this alignment had the possibility of being the killer themselves.

No one could escape suspicion.

I left the alleyway and was about to head straight for the hospital when a black car came to a stop beside me.

As the car window rolled down, I saw Damien sitting in the backseat.

Was he following me?

Had he actually lost his mind?

"What are you trying to do, Damien Coleman?" I questioned.

First, he forced me to see him at his office yesterday. And now, he was stalking me.

Did he have too much time on his hands?

Damien seemed to have expected that I wouldn’t go see him at his office no matter how much he threatened me.

So, he calmly said, "Get in the car."

But I turned to leave.

"If Zion finds out that you’ve been supporting these children in secret all this while, don’t you think the police will take you in for investigation?"

"Won’t you become the prime suspect for the person who told these children to kill Juliet?" Damien asked darkly. He seemed confident that I would do as he said.

I halted and turned to look at Damien.

He must’ve done his investigation if he could say all this with such certainty.

"I have no idea what you’re saying," I tried lying my way out as my hands balled into fists.

"After your adopted parents passed away when you were 10, your grandmother, Rose, raised you in the countryside all by herself. She brought you to the city to help you track down your birth parents and took care of you using whatever scraps she could scavenge."

"Your grandmother has helped most of these children before." Damien tossed out a pile of evidence from the window.

I picked up the photos.

They all depicted Sofia and the children together.

"The Miller family found you when you were 18. But then, you started stealing things from home and selling them in order to support these children, am I right?" Damien coldly gazed at me.

He continued, "It wasn’t a big deal for the Miller family to lose things here and there, but your sister, Ann, caught you stealing and threatened you with it. She even reported you to the police and humiliated you."

"And ever since then, you became the infamous ugly-duckling-turned-swan who embarrassed her family and made them loathe having a daughter like you."

Then, Damien said, "Two months ago, a scrawny little kid took advantage of a woman’s sympathy and fooled her into going into an alleyway. After that, the woman disappeared, but her body was found a little while after."