Chapter 8.1
From the POV of a Hidden Character
The sound of the piano filled the small room, each note flowing flawlessly beneath my fingers.
Anyone who heard it could never remain indifferent.
Except for my father.
A geneticist could not be impressed by art.
A geneticist could not be impressed by effort.
A geneticist could never be forced to value something he had already deemed worthless.
He had never given me the chance to feel important.
No matter what I did.
No matter how carefully I listened to him.
No matter how desperately I tried to become like him.
My father had never seen me as his child.
I was part of an experiment.
Part of a revolution I had never been given the right to refuse.
My love for my father—and my desperate need to be accepted by him—would never allow me to disappoint him.
I had trained since childhood.
My abilities were meant to come first.
Because I, as a person, did not truly exist.
A weapon.
A tool.
A loyal servant.
I inhaled slowly.
My life was an investment in his victory.
“You understood everything, didn’t you?”
The sound of the piano cut off as my father’s voice interrupted the melody.
Quiet relief slipped through me.
Unnoticed.
I truly loved music.
But I hated performing for him.
“I understood everything, Father.”
A smile settled onto my lips.
I believed that if it looked sincere enough...
eventually, I would become sincere too.
If I looked invincible, fearless, powerful—
then perhaps I would become that as well.
“I’m taking a risk by sending you to Istmond,” my father said.
I watched his thin, long-limbed figure sink onto the leather couch inside my adoptive parents’ house.
We looked nothing alike.
Perhaps I resembled my mother.
The woman I had never seen.
Not in photographs.
And certainly not in person.
My father’s gray eyes met mine.
“You do not have the right to fail.”
I nodded.
I had never had the right to anything.
No part of me did.
Not even my magic.
Even my magic had been forced into existence instead of being allowed to awaken naturally.
“I’m certain everything will go well.”
What a shame he didn’t believe in me for even a second.
His eyes made that painfully clear.
In his eyes, I was insignificant.
And it hurt to know I had devoted every second of my life to him—
yet it was still not enough.
I silently tucked a loose blond strand behind my ear and exhaled.
In only a few minutes, I would have to leave this house.
This family.
Even after twenty-five years living side by side, we remained strangers.
Then again...
how could anyone ever see a monster as human?
No one had ever needed me.