Ava bit her lower lip.
The man’s words were not only unsettling. It was like he was talking about... a different woman in Ava’s life.
"If you were in my shoes— "
"Of course, I would think that I was somehow chosen because of some special reason," Kenji smiled. "Hah... you look like you don’t believe my words."
True. She would never believe him without concrete proof. How could Gabriella adopt Phil and her just to let Trillium experiment on them? No. Gabriella wasn’t like that. She was kind and—
"Gabriella died because she liked you," Kenji said. "She tried to protect you from the experiments and she succeeded. At the cost of her own life."
"Stop spouting lies." Ava hissed. This bastard was lucky that she had a handcuff on. If she hadn’t, she would have ripped the man’s tongue and burned it. "Mother would— "
"Lucille... " Kenji uttered. Almost immediately, the door opened and a woman wearing a black pantsuit walked inside. She had a laptop in her hands. "Put it in front of Miss Woods."
The woman complied saying nothing.
"Play it."
On the screen was Gabriella. Her mother looked younger.
"Taken when she chose you and Phil from the hundreds of orphans. As you can see... she’s not the only one there. She and a few other witches who worked for us chose the ones who were already connected with shifters or witches. For instance, Phil has a blood of a shifter. We traced him back to weretigers. Of course, the DNA is already too diluted, too unpure. While you... you are from a human who was killed by shifters. It is believed that your mother is a witch. We did all the DNA and background checks. And all they had to do was choose."
When Ava didn’t say a thing, Kenji continued.
"It might sound unbelievable, but we needed them to blend in. These are not agents who ran around solving crimes in the supernatural world. We told them to infiltrate covens and supply us with information. Of course, having kids is like the perfect excuse, the perfect way to blend in."
"You —" Ava had to clench her fist tightly until she felt the pain from her nails against her palms. She needed the pain to stop herself from exploding. "Did you edit this? Gabriella would— "
"We asked her to work closely with Amore, but she showed some signs of being crazy. She showed guilt and asked us not to include you in the experiments. Of course, that was not possible. Your DNA is already a part of our system. So, she made sure that you would become as... ignorant as you are now. No covens, no witchcraft school. She raised you like a damn human who couldn’t even control her magick."
Ava blinked. Her chest felt like it was being crushed from the inside. Her hands trembled, her lips quivered. She didn’t want to believe the man. Hell, she knew Gabriella had been genuine towards her. She could feel Gabriella’s thoughts!
"You see... Gabriella liked you so much that she struck a deal with us."
"What deal?" Ava asked.
"I cannot tell you that."
"So, why did you recruit me?"
"I didn’t. At least, I didn’t want to. Gabriella assured me that you don’t have knowledge about the supernatural world and that has been proven... time and time again."
Realization hit her like a large boulder. "Marylis..."
"BINGO!"
"You — You planted Marylis on Phil’s side?"
"Did you really think we were going to let someone like Mr. Woods go after a failed experiment? Trillium had a special arrangement with your adopted mother, Miss Woods. I hope you understand my point now."
"Gabriella’s death wasn’t an accident," Ava said. It was intentional. Trillium wanted to get rid of her.
He gave a nonchalant shrug. "You can believe whatever it is that you want to believe."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
Mr. Kenji Moore’s lips lifted into a lackluster smile. "I want to know who post the video."
"What?"
"Someone is working with you. Someone is working against us. In return for telling you the truth, I want you to tell me about the video. Are there more? I want to know who is it that is trying to fight... against us."
Ava’s throat felt dry — so dry it hurt.
The words that the man said still echoed inside her head. Again, no matter how much she thought about it, everything actually made sense.
Gabriella didn’t encourage her to join a coven or join a witchcraft school. She... never actually taught Ava anything special about magick either. And this started... this began when Ava told Gabriella about her dreams — about dream walking.
"The rest of Trillium doesn’t know about the experiments," Ava stated. In response, the man just smirked at her.
"We are doing this for the future of our kind."
"Bullshit. Experimenting with people? Hybrids that would act like mindless killers? You are doing this because you want power!"
"Well... I can’t really say that you are wrong."
"I am working alone," Ava said.
The man smiled. "I don’t have time to play around with you, Miss Woods... so... Lucille?"
The woman walked inside the room again. This time, four other men were with her.
"Take her to the interrogation room."
Panic settled in her gut.
"What are you doing?" Ava asked.
"Technology has done magical things, Miss Woods. The technology that Gabriella helped us build." Kenji smiled. "Oh, please... stop glaring at me. You knew. The moment you walked inside this facility... you are never walking out of this place."
The sad thing was that a part of Ava knew he was right. She clenched her jaw as she focused. The overwhelming panic inside her was making it difficult for her to respond to his words.
"By the way... I am very sorry about Gabriella and your brother. Just think of their deaths as... something that needed to happen to achieve a much bigger goal for all of us." Kenji added. "Take her."
Two men immediately escorted her outside.
"Sir, I think we have a problem." Lucille’s words immediately attracted Ava’s attention.
"What is it this time?"
"The Lycans..." Lucille looked at Ava. "The Prince brought his people to the correction facility."
"His people?"
"Other Lycans."
Almost immediately, Kenji got up. "Lycans showed up?"
"Yes, sir."
"Tsk." Kenji glared at Ava. "Detain her. Don’t touch her... for now."
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