Tasting 249

249–The Whistler’s Daughter

Nash:

My heart sank at his confession. I turned to Silas, watching him. silently examine the whistler,

“The beings that killed that girl were not my monsters. My creatures don’t arrive so silently. They are

very showy; they make an impact. when they come and go,” he smirked again.

This time, his words shook me to my core.

“Then who could have killed that girl?” I grabbed him by the collar and demanded.

“Hmmm! That’s a good question. Maybe someone wanted to use me and my monsters to hide their

crime,” he snickered, not saying it outright but grinning at Ryker. I recalled Nora’s file, and my heart.

clenched.

If she spoke to anyone about it, they would accuse us brothers. Her file seemed very convincing. It

could get us in trouble and even leave my father in worry.

“If it wasn’t you and your monsters, then who set you free?” Silas. questioned, and the man lowered

his head again. I bet he was enjoying watching us suffer and worry about the murders.

“Who set you free?” Yuki pressed, his mind filled with questions. The man seemed more inclined to

answer him than Silas.

“Who set me free?” the man pretended to be confused before he smiled.

11-24

240–The Whistler’s Daughter

and added, “A blood of mine.”

It didn’t make sense, so we all started to gather around him, giving him. a clear idea of what would

happen if he didn’t give us the right answer.

“Listen!” Silas stepped up, looming over him and grasping his chair, pulling his head back to make

eye contact. I knew once Silas took over, he would get the answers from this man no matter what.

My brother would never tolerate being ignored. His pride would drive him to kill this man before

anyone else did.

“If you don’t tell us now, we won’t care that we need you to study and stop those monsters. We’ll just

torture you and kill you outright. So, tell us, who freed you that night?” I noticed the man locking

eyes with Silas. But what he didn’t realize was that Silas was also injecting him. with his serum at

that moment.

The man couldn’t look away, and in that brief moment of weakness, he finally spoke, “My daughter.

My daughter planned my escape.”

We all exchanged glances and swallowed hard. Silas knew he had to keep asking questions, even

though he was just as shocked as the rest of us. “Who? Who is your daughter?”

The man opened his mouth and then mumbled, “The one who is your family now. My sweet

daughter who thinks living with handsome and powerful brothers would ensure her safety. My naïve

daughter who has forgotten about her own father and brother because she didn’t like the way we

used to train her. She wanted a life of luxury and brothers. surrounding her. My sweet little monster

daughter—Nora–”

The moment he said that, he shook his head and gasped.

“No—ra!”

240–The Whistler’s Daughter

He finally snapped into awareness, gasping for air. I couldn’t breathe in that moment. I knew that the

first time he spoke, he was still under hypnosis, but the second time, he had almost woken himself

up..

Silas stepped back in shock while Ryker dropped the watch he had been holding after beating up

the whistler.

My father took small steps away from everyone. This couldn’t be true. There was no way it was

possible.

I turned to look at Ryker, who had a strange look of guilt in his eyes. He was avoiding our gaze. Did

he know? Was there something he was hiding from us?

“Everything I said was a lie,” the whistler suddenly changed his tone, “It’s so easy to fool you all.”

He was laughing, but there was an underlying worry in his voice. He was lying now. Unfortunately,

he had already said her name in front of the council member. My father’s tear–filled eyes broke my

heart.

However, we brothers knew exactly who he was talking about.

Nora!

My eyes darted to Yuki, anxious about his reaction. He seemed to have zoned out momentarily

before he turned to my father, looked him straight in the eye, and asked, “Wasn’t Nora also accused

of seducing her stepbrothers?”

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