Leah's POV
"The enhancement project had started even before I was born. But not until I took charge of it did it make substantial progress. Lester is my first lab toy. He somehow managed to survive our tests, so now he was following you everywhere you go. Do you remember the shadows lurking behind you from time to time in your life? That was Lester. He was trying to kill you for revenge, but his brother Darren managed to stop him every time he was trying to attack you."
What? Darren was trying to protect me all this time from his brother.
I closed my eyes and saw Darren's piercing blue eyes in my mind.
I heard his trembling voice in my memory -
"I've done everything for you, Leah. But sometimes, I can't help but feel that nothing that I've done is good enough for you."
I wanted to cry, but I knew the liquids dropping from my eyes were nothing but my own blood.
"My second lab toy is Finn. His mother was a whore and she was strangled to death by me before Finn was born. I had to open her up to get him out, so he wouldn't die along with his mother. I had done a lot of experiments on him before he turned three years old. But one day, he managed to escape. Frank Skakel found him and raised him as his adopted child. But actually, that old man was doing reverse engineering by doing experiments on Finn. But that poor child Finn didn't know what he was going through. He looked up to Diego Skakel as his own brother. However, after Frank's village was raided by the Rock Growlers, he abandoned Finn and ran away with his own sons. Finn got tortured by the soldiers and then sold to the slave markets. When Sak Doyle bought him, he had been so traumatized that he couldn't remember anything in his past. That's why Sak lied to him by pretending to be his brother. That's why Finn had been following Sak's order ever since. He was afraid of being abandoned again. What a sad story. Do you know what he had been through when you enjoyed his service for you, Leah?"
The next thing I knew was that my throat was being choked by a pair of powerful hands.
I opened my eyes and saw death in Leo's eyes.
"Leah, I've been waiting for today for a really long time. So I'm going to do this softly and slowly, so I can enjoy every single moment of killing you."
"...W... Why?" I opened my mouth, trying to gasp more air.
"Why?" Leo's eyes became mad. "You're asking me why after all that has been said?!"
Then, he lifted me up in the air and said, "You took my father away from me. He's my father! Mine! All that I've done in my life is to get his approval, but no matter how hard I've tried, he still wouldn't want to look at me because of your existence! You have to die, Leah. Like all whores. You have to be strangled to death!"
"Ja... Jalin!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Leo had a sadistic smile on his face and said, "Yeah, scream help from Jalin. Scream louder. He's just outside the door."
The door behind me opened and Jalin stepped into the room.
I stretched out my arms, trying to reach him. But he just closed the door and stood there.
"I'm sorry, Leah," Jalin said in his signature nonchalant voice. "This isn't what I want."
"What...?!" I couldn't believe what I had seen.
Jalin betrayed me?!
He would just stand there and watch me being strangled to death by my own brother?!
"I love you, Leah. By love, I mean, really love," Jalin said in a low, steady voice. "When you decided to get married to Lucas Farrow, I almost killed myself. Do you know what kind of torture I have been through in the past five years? Lucian was such an idiot. He should never ever allow you to get married to that bastard. Anyway, you're mine now. Leo will make you sleep. And when you wake up, you'll be enhanced and all your memory of this life will be erased. And you will become my wife. We'll live happily ever after."
In the silence that followed, I found myself grappling with a torrent of emotions—confusion, betrayal, disbelief. With my legs dangling in the air, I couldn't help myself but hear questions echoed in my mind, each one a dagger piercing my soul.
How could I have been blind to the sinister depths hidden within Jalin's soul?
How could a man who had held me close in a loving embrace become a fiend capable of such cruelty?
This wasn't love.
This was insanity disguised in the name of love!
As I struggled, I heard the conversation between Jaline and Leo.
Jalin said, "Lucian will be notified in a short moment. By the end of today, everyone in the Kingdom will know that Alpha Mick Toussaint of the Rock Growlers Pack had murdered the Lycan King's daughter. His Majesty will be cross and send Royal Army to destroy the whole Mediland."
Leo smirked and continued, "The Resistant Army will be destroyed as well, altogether with the enhancement technology that they stole from me. His Majesty's enhancement project will be permanently concealed."
Jalin's voice sounded impatient -
"I don't care about your stupid project. All I want is Leah. Now finish what you've started already. We have to get this done before the end of the day."
"You've betrayed me once, Jalin. That's why I don't know if I should trust you again or not." Leo's voice was full of doubts.
Jalin's voice was cool, "I'm afraid you don't have any choice, Master Leonard. Everything of what we've done has been recorded. And the records have been hidden in a safe place. If there's anything unexpected happening, all of the records will be released to His Majesty the Lycan King. And I guess that won't look good on you. Think about it. All these years, you've been trying very hard to win his trust. Are you really going to ruin it?"
"We need to tie some loose ends. For instance, the Swanson boys and Finn," Leo said.
Jalin's voice was as cold as steel -
"Darren is deported to the airport right now, escorted by the Royal Army. And he won't make it to the airport. As for that dumb male stripper, Troy will finish him, altogether with his fake brother Sak Doyle. Trust me, Master Leonard. This isn't the first time for me to carry out a similar kind of operation..."
Their voices started fading until I couldn't hear anything anymore.
Am I going to survive?
How am I going to save myself before saving everyone else?
Will my story end before it all starts?
[The end]