Chapter 330: A Nightmare Unveiled
Quinn’s face twisted in pain. “You said Dora got infected after she was born… but that’s not true. I was already infected while I was pregnant with her. I just didn’t know it.”
She went on, her voice heavy, “That bastard Timothy used me for his experiments. He wanted to break through genetic barriers. I had no idea. He was the one doing all my checkups, and I trusted him completely.”
“After Dora was born, I started feeling unwell. But even then, I didn’t suspect anything. Then Dora started having issues too, and still—I didn’t doubt him.”
A flicker of deep trauma crossed her face. The memories clearly haunted her. “Back then, I just blamed myself. For being sick. For dragging Dora into it. Until one day… I accidentally saw Timothy mixing something into Dora’s milk. That’s when I realized he was using both of us. We were his test subjects. He’s insane. He wanted to break human genetic limits. He wanted to merge human DNA with that of animals.”
She swallowed hard. “After I found out, we had a huge fight. I tried to call the police, but he locked me up. After that, I was trapped. Every time I had to go out, he went with me. And Dora was in his hands—I didn’t dare act recklessly. I didn’t know where she’d been taken, and I was in constant agony. I wanted to kill him, I really did. But I knew if he died, Dora would die too. So I held it in.”
She kept pouring her heart out. “That went on for more than two years. Then finally, when he let his guard down, I found out where Dora was—and when I had the chance, I ran. I took her and escaped. I had no ID, nothing. I hid in a mountain village. It was months before I figured out a way to get back. That’s what I’ve been hiding from you.”
Her voice broke as she said, “Those three years… they were a nightmare. I don’t want to talk about them. I just want to pretend they never happened.”
When she finished, Quinn broke down completely, sobbing uncontrollably. Jonathan hadn’t expected the truth to be anything like this. His face went cold.
They truly hadn’t been in touch for years. She only messaged him once a year, during the holidays. He had assumed she was still upset over how he’d opposed her relationship with Timothy. He had no idea what hell she’d been living through.
Seeing Quinn now, wracked with pain, Jonathan gently patted her shoulder. She collapsed into his arms, crying.
At 9 p.m., Sierra finished work on time—but Jonathan wasn’t there. She saw his message only as she clocked out: he couldn’t pick her up. He didn’t even know if he’d make it home. Something had happened with Quinn. He was at the hospital.
Sierra immediately hailed a cab to the hospital. By the time she arrived, Quinn had just been sedated and was finally asleep. Jonathan sat nearby with Dora in his arms. Dora had also fallen asleep.
“What happened?” Sierra asked quietly as she entered.
Jonathan gently laid Dora on the couch and gestured for Sierra to follow him outside. Once there, he explained, “She finally told me everything today. It broke her. Physically too. Those years… they were hell for her.”
He kept it short, briefly recounting what Quinn and Dora had gone through. Sierra listened, stunned. They’d been turned into test subjects by the man closest to them?
Suddenly, everything made sense. Why Dora had autism. Why she and Quinn were distant.
“No idea. He’s vanished,” Jonathan said darkly. He’d sent people to investigate, but Timothy seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Jonathan’s face was clouded with anger and frustration. Sierra understood completely. If someone had done that to her own family, she wouldn’t have been able to forgive it either.
“I’ll take Dora home,” Sierra said softly. “You stay and watch over Quinn.”
Now she realized Quinn had been holding everything in. The smiles had all been forced. She must’ve been drowning in pain this whole time, never letting it show. Letting it all out like this was bound to cause a breakdown. All the emotions she’d suppressed for so long had come crashing back.
“Thank you,” Jonathan said quietly.