Chapter 1105

"Mom, it hasn't been easy for you either, has it?" Celine took a deep breath, her voice hoarse. "I know things were completely out of your control."

Parents would do anything to protect their children. The fact that they had managed to keep all of them alive in such nightmarish circumstances was a miracle in itself. That was more than enough.

"What about Dad?" Celine asked eagerly. "Is he here too?"

"Yes." Theia offered a bitter smile, squeezing Celine's hand gently. "Are you tired? Let's sit down for a minute."

"Okay." Celine obediently sat in a chair, taking in her bleak surroundings. All the puzzle pieces were finally falling into place.

After a brief silence, Celine moistened her dry lips, looking up with a pale face. "Mom, he was the one who caused the shipwreck all those years ago, wasn't he? You and Dad have been trapped here ever since?"

"Yes." Theia's eyes clouded with sorrow. "Five, how did he get his hands on you?"

Back then, she and Silas had risked everything to get the truth to Seven, hoping the older siblings would stay far away from this mess. It seemed they had failed.

"I'm not sure." Aware that the old bastard was watching them through the cameras, Celine completely avoided mentioning her siblings. "He wanted to partner with me on some project, but I turned him down. The next thing I knew, I woke up here." She tightened her grip on Theia's hand, her throat dry. "Mom, who is he?"

"A monster," Theia said, her disgust for Corvus absolute. "He wanted your father and me to help him do terrible things, and we refused."

"So, he engineered all of this..." Celine was sharp; she connected the dots immediately. "He told me he was my uncle. Is that true?"

"No." Theia glared directly at the camera, her voice ringing with defiance. "He doesn't deserve to be your uncle, and I certainly don't have a brother like him."

Celine pursed her lips. This was complicated, clearly too much to unravel right now.

"How have you been all these years?" Theia asked. She knew Corvus was watching, waiting for Celine to spill the whereabouts of the others. She would never let hing find out they were still alive. If he got his hands on them... her nerves pulled taut at the horrific thought.

"I've been good," Celine answered softly, her eyes red. "Everything is fine." They were all fine.

"That's all that matters," Theia smiled through her tears. "Corvus is obsessively researching human genetics. Your father possesses a very rare genetic makeup, practically a mutation. Corvus used us as lab rats to make his grand plan a reality..."

Except for Juniper, the other six children had been artificially cultivated using their harvested genetic material in a specialized fab environment. That was why the six of them were all born so close together. When Theta and Silas discovered Corvus intended to use the babies as test subjects, they orchestrated a desperate escape to steal them back. Afterwards, they changed their names, lived on the run, and endured years of relentless pursuit.

"You're one of his targets, too," Theia confessed gently, not wanting to hide the truth. "Are you scared, Celine?"

Corvus was a psychopath capable of unimaginable atrocities. Celine would suffer horribly in his hands.

Celine's knuckles turned white, her

lips trembling. Test subjects? So that was why she had been taken. No wonder her mother had stopped her from mentioning the others. Thank god she hadn't let it slip that they had reunited. If someone had to die... trading her life to keep the rest of them safe was a price she was willing to pay.