Chapter 1105
[ 602 words ]
Celine was dragged through a maze of underground corridors. By the time she gathered her bearings, she was standing in front of a medical observation room. Through the large glass window, she could clearly see the man on the bed.
He lay perfectly still, facing her. He was emaciated to the point of being skeletal, his face and scalp covered in angry scars. He looked like he had been tortured for years; he was barely clinging to life.
“His name is Silas Blackwood. Your father,” Gino supplied helpfully. “Though his health is failing. He could expire at any moment.”
Celine whipped her head around to stare at him, pure shock registering in her eyes. Was he saying… the broken, pathetic man on that bed was her father?
She had no concrete memories of his face, but she faintly recalled a father who loved to laugh and spoiled them rotten. Whenever they got into trouble, he would patiently talk them through it. It couldn’t possibly be this ghost of a man.
“He’s flatlined several times, but we always bring him back,” Gino recited in a bored, clinical drone. “You’re incredibly lucky you get to see him.”
At a signal from Gino, a doctor inside the room roused Silas. He slowly opened his eyes, and as he focused on the girl beyond the glass, his pupils dilated in utter disbelief.
Was he hallucinating? Was the girl standing out there his daughter?
He mentally calculated the years. It had to be Five. Ever since he was separated from his children, he replayed their faces in his mind every single day, terrified he would forget them.
Overcome with emotion, Silas began to hyperventilate, his heart monitor beeping erratically.
It was his sudden movement that made Celine realize something was off. She had seen his photo before. Not from the past, but recently.
It hit her. Cybernetic Shadows had sent Warren a photo a few days ago, asking if he had any intel on the man. So the person Juniper had been frantically searching for… was their father?
And then she remembered-Juniper, acting as Dr. Nocturne, had traveled to Sanctum Holdings to treat a dying patient. That patient had been their father!
Juniper had saved their father’s life without even knowing it!
Celine gasped, a sharp pain radiating through her chest. She swayed, nearly collapsing. It was tragic Juniper hadn’t recognized him. Had Jimmie, Harold, or Melvin? No they hadn’t known either.
“Dad…” Celine steadied herself and pressed her hands against the glass, crying out, “Open the door! Let me in!”
“No,” Gino denied coldly. “The Boss has strictly forbidden anyone from making contact with Dr. Blackwood Infact, you probably don’t know this? but in Sixteen years, your mother and father have only seen each other exactly once.”
What? Celine stared at him, her lips trembling. To lock two people who loved each other in the same facility separated by a few walls, always out of reach… for sixteen years. Over five thousand days and nights of torture.
“You animals!” Celine raised her hand, trying to slap Gino. “You’re all sick animals!”
How could they justify such cruelty? What had her parents ever done to deserve this?!
Gino barely blinked before the guards restrained her.
“Time’s up. The Boss is waiting.”
Celine was hauled to the main hall. Corvus sat imposingly in the seat of honor, staring down at her with cold, predatory eyes.
“Well?” Corvus took a sip of tea, asking nonchalantly, “Are you happy?”
“Ecstatic!” Celine shoved the guards away and smoothed down her wrinkled clothes. She shot him a glacial sneer. “What, do you want me to thank your ancestors for the privilege?”
Gino blinked. She really was Theia’s daughter. That razor-sharp tongue was a perfect match.
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