?


    The police had secured the entrance of the entireboratory under Huma University with cordon lines.


    I had followed Zion''s car here. Ashton and Xan had climbed into the back of his trunk while he drove away.


    I got out of the car, wanting to head in, but I was stopped by the police. "Eason! Ashton and Xan just went inside!" I shouted when I saw Eason.


    He looked at me warily from the entrance. "What are you doing here?"


    His eyes were rimmed red, a clear sign that he had been crying.


    Perhaps he was overwhelmed with grief after detecting Steven''s DNA in the human tissues, or he might be furious that Joel had helped Carol escape.Text property ? N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org.


    "I Steven...dead?" I asked softly. I felt as if tiny needles were prickling my heart.


    Eason fell silent. After a while, he said, "Stephany''s body is rtively intact, and she was confirmed dead. Steven wouldn''t have hesitated to give up his life to protect his wife. Now with her dead, do you really think Steven could still be alive?''


    His question rendered me silent.


    "He mentioned that he had to die,'' Eason said bitterly.


    Indeed, he had to die. He uncovered the secrets to reincarnation and gics, and he also held the key to immortality. He was actually the most valuable asset to Genome Society.


    The reason they were watching "Stephanie" so closely was actually to control Steven.


    That was why Steven would say that he had to die. How else would "Stephanie" be able to live a normal life? "Is he a fool..." I muttered.


    I should have beenughing at his foolishness.


    "How ironic. Everyone thought he was a fool to go such lengths for a woman, yet he''s actually a genius." Even Eason found it ironic.


    I remained silent for the longest time. I then said, "Ashton and Xan slipped in following Zion. Please find them and get them home safely. Thank you."


    For some reason, I dared not enter the ce. My mind kept repeating the memories before my reincarnation. I was brought underground. Steven said in a hoarse and low voice, "If there really is a next life, Stephie, it''s your turn to look for me and love me more, okay?"


    He looked so hurt pleading for "Stephanie" to love him more.


    But what exactly was love? Wasn''t it the cheapest thing? Wouldn''t love be just a weakness?


    I turned around and got into the car. I realized that my fingers had turned white from my tight grip.


    When did I start having such unnecessary feelings and emotions?


    I could actually feel a suffocating sense of despair and a painful sting of grief-and even some indescribable, maddening feelings.


    What exactly were all these? Fuck, they should get out of my head.


    I shouldn''t harbor these unnecessary feelings. They were all useless to me and would only affect my judgments and decisions.


    Just as I was trying to regte my breathing, someone opened the door to the passenger seat and climbed in.


    It was a face that was both unfamiliar and strangely familiar.


    It was the experimental subject who managed to escape theb capsule with the newborn experimental


    subject back when Nancy had confined me in theboratory.


    He nced at me and shed me a smile. ''Long time no see.'' He, too, had immediately recognized that I wasn''t Una but Stephanie.