Don't Mess with the Girl with Candy novel Chapter 997

Hearing that achingly familiar voice, Silas slowly turns his head. When his eyes lock onto the wife he hasn't seen in over a decade, his pupils dilate in disbelief.

*Theia? Am I dreaming?*

"Silas!" Theia breaks free from the guards' loose grip and throws herself at the bedside, wrapping her arms tightly around him.

"Thei..." Silas tries to hold her, but his arms are completely drained of strength. His voice is a broken rasp, his vocal cords severely damaged from years of a comatose state.

"It's okay, I'm okay," Theia quickly hushes him, terrified he'll strain himself. Seeing him so emaciated breaks her heart. He must have suffered unimaginable torment.

Silas looks at her with overwhelming tenderness, forcing a reassuring smile onto his scarred, bruised face. He can't speak, but she understands perfectly. He's telling her not to be afraid.

Sixteen years ago, Corvus's mercenaries had hunted them down onto a passenger ship, desperate to capture them and their seven children. In the ensuing chaos, the mercenaries fired relentlessly, piercing the ship's hull and causing a catastrophic shipwreck.

After making sure their children were safely secured in lifeboats, she was swept into the raging sea. When she finally regained consciousness, she and Silas were already chained in Wraithfall Mountain. Corvus had used Silas's life as leverage, forcing her to resume her terrifying research on the Gene Modification Project.

She agreed, but genetic modification isn't a simple puzzle to solve. Over the past sixteen years, she had ensured absolutely zero progress was made.

She knows exactly the kind of devastation genetic cloning and manipulation would inflict on humanity. That's precisely why she and Silas had fled the Albia Country research lab with their children all those years ago.

What she hadn't anticipated was how far Corvus—a man who betrayed the Sommers family, betrayed medicine, and betrayed every shred of basic morality—would go. He was completely unhinged. To finish his research, he was now actively hunting down her own children to use as lab rats.

"The doctor assured me he'll fully recover after three months of rest," Corvus's chilling voice cuts through the reunion. "Though I can't guarantee there won't be... unexpected complications along the way."

A stranger might not recognize her, but Theia instantly spots the face of her fifth child.

Theia's eyes turn lethal. Snatching a surgical scalpel off a nearby tray, she lunges wildly at Corvus. "If you lay a finger on her, I will tear you apart!"

Instantly, Corvus's guards slam her down, pinning her against the floor.

"Theia, calm down. Isn't this a joyful occasion?" Corvus stands perfectly still, a mocking half-smile on his face. "As long as you two cooperate and give me the breakthrough I need, I obviously won't have to capture the rest of your children."

A threat. A blatant, sickening threat. If they don't produce the gene modification formula, he will vivisect her pregnant daughter.

Theia's heart physically aches.