Book 2 : She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement

Chapter 16

Chapter 656: The Truth!

Nora narrowed her eyes and looked at Old Maddy intently.

There was silence in the ward.

Lily had left the room when the two started talking, and was standing guard outside the door. The white-walled ward seemed completely silent. Apart from tranquility, there was only the smell of pungent disinfectant in the air.

But be it Old Maddy or Nora, both of them were very used to such a smell.

The former had stayed there for a very long time by then and had already become accustomed to the smell, while the latter had pretty much grown up being bathed in the smell.

When she was in poor health as a child, she was often hospitalized. Her bedroom at home would also be sanitized with disinfectants.

Nora lowered her eyes slightly. Then, Old Maddy said, “After you were born, your mother discovered that the mysterious organization was in pursuit of her. In order to ensure your survival, she died before the mysterious organization’s eyes, so that they won’t continue investigating. But we all knew that they definitely won’t stop. Besides, no one could say for sure whether the Gray's were trustworthy or not.” Old Maddy looked at her. “It’s only when you become strong enough that you can resist becoming someone else’s pawn. Your mother was driven into a corner at that time was because she was not strong enough.”

Not strong enough…

Nora was taken aback.

Yvette could stir up the entire New York and throw it into instability back then. The drugs she developed-even in this age after more than twenty years had gone by-were still relevant.

She was multi-talented. To this day, she was still a legend in New York.

Yet someone like her was not strong enough?

Moreover, even now, Nora did not feel that the mysterious organization was that powerful. In the United United States, they had been completely suppressed by the special department.

Trueman had even almost been arrested. In the end, he had to leave the country in a pathetic state to seek refuge abroad.

So, had her mother made the wrong choice back then?

Would they really have been that fearsome if she had joined hands with Ian? Besides, why didn’t her mother seek asylum from the authorities?

These were all mysteries!

She wanted to ask something, but Old Maddy had already continued, “In order to give you the ability to defend yourself, and in order to give you enough confidence to face these things that you are facing today, she had no choice but to inject you with… a serum.”

Nora’s back suddenly became ramrod straight. “What?”

Surprise flashed across her eyes. But right after, it became a look of realization!

To be honest, she had already guessed as much that she had also been injected with a gene serum. When Lily was checking her DNA some time back, she had discovered that her IQ genes had mutated a little.

This was also the reason why the DNA comparison between her and Ian had only reached 98% and not the benchmark for a father-daughter similarity.

Perhaps because he saw that she had become a little agitated, Old Maddy hurriedly waved and said, “It was just a little! A little! Your father and your mother are already some of the most intelligent people in the world, so their daughter’s IQ could never be low. That’s why your mother only injected you with very little serum. There was only a bit of difference in your DNA comparison with Ian, right?”

Nora nodded.

It was medically recognized that a father-daughter pair’s genes should be 99.8% similar, but hers and Ian’s were only 98% similar. This indicated that a 1% change had indeed occurred.

Moreover, the change had even occurred in the IQ gene.

So, it was because she had also been injected with the gene serum that she was so smart and was able to master so many things easily?

While she was contemplating, Old Maddy spoke again. “However, that serum has a side effect. Has your health always been poor?”

Nora fell silent.

She had been frail since she was a child and often easily fell sick. She often visited the hospital and had poor immunity. The moment the weather changed, she would inevitably catch a cold. This had also given her stepmother a chance to give her hormonal injections, which had caused her to become fat.

Therefore, even though she was a fatty-a fatty who could fight and a fatty who was very smart-her constitution was indeed poor.

Additionally, Caleb was also in poor health. When she thought of him, all she could remember was the sight of him coughing his lungs out. As for Trueman, his physical condition was currently unknown. Given how he had kept himself hidden all this time, it probably wasn’t that great either.

But what did this have to do with her having children?

Could it be that..

Nora’s pupils shrank suddenly. Her head whipped up abruptly, upon which she heard Old Maddy say, “Adults cannot withstand the gene serum’s modification at all. Even if they succeed, they will only have two years left to live. Even if they don’t die after two years, they will go crazy. Children’s bodies have a high level of malleability, but even so, you likely wouldn’t have been able to withstand even that bit of serum. Moreover, your IQ genes were close to being perfect in the first place, so the serum couldn’t show that great an effect on you. That’s why, before the age of twenty, you needed to expel the excess dosage by giving birth.”

Nora was stunned. However, her first reaction was to ask, “Then what about the children? Will there be residual serum in the children?!”

Old Maddy shook his head. “We don’t know. Your mother didn’t have the time to verify that either. All she wanted was to protect you. I also brought this up to her at the time. Her answer to me was…”

Old Maddy kept quiet for a while before he sighed and said, “… It’s her child. She will have to do something about them herself.”

Nora: “…”

She had to check immediately whether there was any mutation in Cherry and Pete’s genes, as well as whether there was any residual gene serum in them.

She stood up suddenly. As she looked at Old Maddy, she asked another question, “In that case… why did the father of my children have to be Justin Hunt?”

Old Maddy was taken aback. “I wasn’t the one who executed that part of the plan, so I’m not sure. Back then, apart from myself, your mother also had two other subordinates.”

Old Maddy had been crazy for so many years, so he definitely wouldn’t know the details of Nora’s pregnancy. In other words, if her mother was the one who had plotted her pregnancy, then it was likely the other two who had carried out the plan. She was about to ask when Old Maddy said, “One of them is Charles Ramsey while the other is Ivan Rogers. Charles is very recognizable. He has a mole on his face, and there’s a strand of hair on the mole.”

Nora: “!!!”

Wasn’t that the lunatic Jessica had mentioned?!

She frowned and looked at Old Maddy again. “How do I contact Charles?”

Old Maddy sighed. “The three of us didn’t contact one another much. Besides, twenty years have already passed. Our contact methods may have become obsolete.”

Nora, however, said firmly, “Tell me.”

Old Maddy kept quiet for a moment before he said, “For more than twenty years, we never told one another our cell phone numbers. It was always one-way whenever we contacted one another. No matter which one of us it was, if we wanted to contact someone, we had to publish an ad in the newspaper and state clearly the number of a payphone and the time in the ad. When the other party saw it, they would find a payphone and call you.”

Nora’s lip corners spasmed. Why were they contacting one another as if they were spies? And it sure was old-fashioned. Even the three of them were on guard against one another… What exactly was her mother doing back then? Why did she have three such subordinates?

It seemed that she would have to talk to Old Maddy about her mother’s past again when she had time.

If they didn’t want the other party to know their phone number, couldn’t they just encrypt it?

She sighed. “Tell me the contact method.”

Old Maddy nodded.

After telling her about the contact method, he said, “Just publish it in the daily newspaper.”

“… That would be a hard thing to do.”

Most newspapers were published online these days, there weren’t many physical copies anymore. Even if there were, hardly anyone would buy them these days!

Old Maddy was also dumbfounded. “What should we do?”

Nora held her forehead. “I have a solution. But first, my last two questions—the first one is, do you know why they chose Justin Hunt as the children’s father?”

Chapter 657: The Mystery of Xander’s Birth!

Old Maddy said, “I don’t know why he was chosen, but your mother told us at the time to choose the smartest one. That’s because the serum she gave you improved one’s genes. Even if it was passed on to the child, their genes wouldn’t be modified much if the child was born very smart. This way, if the serum is unable to do what it’s supposed to, it will become ineffective. I would think that is likely the reason why.”

Nora: “…”

So, Justin had been chosen because of his high IQ?

The corners of Nora’s lips spasmed.

But she felt that the answer didn’t seem unacceptable either.

After all, Cherry’s IQ was slightly higher than Pete’s, probably because half of a female’s genes were inherited from the father.

“Then, here’s my last question.”

Nora stared hard at Old Maddy. “If I gave birth to more children, would the amount of serum distributed to each child have become smaller, thereby making it safer for them?”

If her theory was correct, then she could conclude that she had indeed given birth to triplets!

Her mother must have given her the triplet-making drug in order to let the three children share that bit of gene serum. If so, Xander would be her son!

However, Old Maddy suddenly smiled and answered, “Of course not.”

He sighed and said, “Your mother only injected you with a very low dosage of serum in the first place. The number of children you gave birth to didn’t affect anything. It can be said that the serum could not bring much harm to the child after passing through your body.”

Nora was stunned.

Why was the answer different from what she had imagined?!

She frowned, perplexed as to how things had turned out this way.

While she was thinking, Old Maddy spoke up again. “Besides, your mother once said that the Anderson's have genes for having twins, so it all depended on your luck. Whether you have twins or just one child, they are all still your children.”

_

Nora looked closely at Old Maddy for a long while. In the end, she lowered her eyes. “I see.”

She went out of the room to see Lily standing there and nodding off as she leaned against the wall.

Nora asked, “How long has it been since you last slept?”

Lily, who was taller than her, immediately replied, “Twenty hours, I guess?”

Nora uttered an “oh” and then said, “Get some rest.”

Those three words made Lily all excited, but unexpectedly, she then heard Nora say, “Once you’re rested, try to restore Xander’s DNA data as soon as possible.”

Lily: “…”

If she wanted it “as soon as possible’, how was she going to get a good rest?!

She couldn’t help but complain, “Boss, you are so impractical. Instead of saying so much, it’s better that you just give me a pay raise instead.”

Nora looked at her curiously. “Are you very short of money?”

“Not really~”

Lily blinked and replied, “It’s mainly because it costs quite a lot to support young men. Besides, that man in question is even your cousin. Boss, how much do the Smith's give to Quentin each month? Can we negotiate a little and have them give him a bit less in the future? If not, I won’t have enough to keep him as my ‘mistress’!”

Nora: “…”

She patted Lily on the shoulder. Then, she turned and left.

When she returned to the Smith's, to her surprise, she found Samuel seated in the living room. Seeing her, he immediately came forward with an ingratiating smile and said, “Nora, can you talk to Joel and have him release your Grandaunt Sue?”

Nora: “?”

She looked at Joel, only to see him as smiley as ever as he said, “Granduncle Samuel, what are you saying? Nora has nothing to do with this.”

As he spoke, he gave her a look.

Nora went upstairs at once. In the corridor, she could still hear Samuel downstairs. He said, “Joel, you can’t do this. Sue did make a false police report, but it’s already been so long. Shouldn’t you let her out by now? I heard that you even talked to the police, so she’s having a hard time inside. You can’t treat her like this.”

Joel was still smiling at him. “Granduncle Samuel, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

“You wolf in sheep’s clothing, stop pretending! I know all about it!!”

Samuel yelled angrily.

Joel, however, remained as smiley as ever. “Really? So, what do you know, Granduncle Samuel?”

Nora: “…”

She finally knew how Joel came to be known as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He was really good at frustrating people and making them feel as if everything they did was useless.

And in private, not only was he merciless, but also vicious.

She was sure that Joel was definitely the one behind Sue’s continued imprisonment.

It was like back then…

After Hillary was imprisoned, she had been having a very hard time.

Nora had wanted to punish her at the time, but when she looked into it, she found that both Karl and Joel had talked to the people inside. This led to Hillary’s life inside becoming a living hell. This was also why she had been duped in the end the moment they gave her a bit of hope.

Joel might look like a pushover, but in truth, he was secretly very vicious!

Moreover, after Tanya poisoned Hillary and was falsely accused of murdering her, and then her name subsequently cleared again, someone had exhumed Hillary’s grave.

She was already dead, yet her corpse had been taken out of the grave and whipped… One could say that this was revenge for Mia.

The woman who impersonated Jill also had a miserable end. She had attempted suicide several times in prison.

It was just a pity that Joel would not allow her to die after all the wicked things she had done, so she hadn’t been successful in killing herself all this time.

Nora went upstairs and ignored the ongoings downstairs. It was just that after a while, she heard that Samuel had decided to withdraw from the company’s board of directors and that he had also voluntarily given up some of his dividends to expand the ancestral graves and repair the Smiths’ ancestral home.

Nora shook her head, feeling like Joel was really someone who got things done quietly and inconspicuously.

However, she didn’t care much about these affairs in the Smith's.

After going upstairs, she posted a missing person notice in the online version of a newspaper.

Because she had spent some money on it, the missing person notice was published right in that night’s newspaper.

As long as Charles was still alive, he would probably take the initiative to contact her when he saw the ad, right?

After Nora was done, she leaned on the desk, her fingers tapping lightly against the desk as she waited quietly for the call.

Old Maddy’s recovery had allowed her to come one step closer to the truth. She had also received a great deal of information earlier in the day.

The mystery of why she would have died if she hadn’t had a baby had finally been solved.

But when she thought of this, she hurriedly stood up and walked over to Pete. Pete, who was writing his assignments, sensed her presence. He raised his head and looked at her. “What’s the matter, Mommy?”

Nora held his hand and said, “Nothing much. Just a routine check of your pulse.”

Pete looked at her quietly, his dark eyes filled with trust and love.

This made Nora suddenly think of the split-second glance she had seen from Xander when she was at the Hunt Manor earlier that day. It seemed like there was a similar pair of innocent eyes looking at her at that time…

A few hours after the ad in the newspaper was published, her cell phone suddenly rang.

Nora looked over-it was an unfamiliar number!

Charles’ call was here!

The mystery of Xander’s birth would finally be revealed!

Chapter 658: Hello, Charles

Nora withdrew her hand that was checking Pete’s pulse.

Pete didn’t have any major problems with his health. They were just some small problems typical of children.

From the looks of it, the gene serum didn’t have any effect on him.

Nora was relieved. She narrowed her eyes and then answered the call.

A low and deep male voice came from the other end. “Hello, who are you?”

Nora frowned and identified herself at once. “I am Nora Smith. You should know who I am, right?”

The call fell silent at once.

Nora slowly said, “Charles, I know you were my mother’s subordinate. I have some questions for you.”

Perhaps because she had called him by name, Charles replied, “I have nothing to say to you!”

He hung up right away after saying that.

Nora stared at her cell phone and clenched her jaw.

Why wasn’t Charles talking?

Was he hiding something?

She picked up her cell phone and immediately started tracing the call to find out his location.

Half an hour later, Nora paused when she saw Charles’ location. She stood up, rushed out of the house, and drove straight to the hospital.

That’s right.

Charles was in the hospital!

After Nora rushed to the hospital and got out of the car, she immediately saw a group of nurses and doctors moving about in a hurry and busy at work. Ambulances arrived at the entrance of the hospital one after another.

A lot of people in white lab coats were anxiously giving first aid to the victims being carried out of the ambulances.

Their white clothes were dyed red, and some of the victims’ blood had wet the white sheets, forming a shocking and harrowing sight.

All the non-urgent passages in the hospital had been closed, and all the doctors had rushed over to deal with the victims of the traffic accident.

Nora stood at the door and looked at her busy colleagues. She heard a doctor approaching and asking, “What happened?”

“Sigh, it’s a long story. A bus got into a traffic accident. All fifty-odd people in the bus are injured!”

“Really? How did this happen all of a sudden? I’ll take over the patient here, you can take care of the one over there.”

Although the doctors were flustered, they dealt with the victims in an orderly manner. The other patients also wisely stepped aside.

When a real disaster occurred, everyone knew that life was more important than anything else.

Beep, beep, beep… A medical instrument started sounding a warning beep. Nora looked to the side and saw that an unsupervised victim had suddenly gone into shock.

Upon hearing the warning beep, a panicked nurse shouted, “Where is Dr. Wilson? Where is Dr. Wilson?”

“A patient went into cardiac arrest just now, Dr. Wilson has gone over!”

The nurse was in a huge panic. “This patient has gone into shock! What do we do now?”

Nora rushed over subconsciously. She was wearing a black shirt. She took a white lab coat from the side and put it on. Then, she walked over to the nurse and said, “Let me do it!”

“You? Who are you?”

The nurse looked at her dubiously. “Are you a doctor?”

Nora’s one-liner made the nurse shut up: “I am Anti.”

The name Anti was most definitely a regal existence for people in the medical industry.

Therefore, a look of joy came over the nurse’s face at once. “What should we do about this patient?”

Nora took a look at the patient and immediately instructed, “Start CPR at once. Inject 5ml of…”

Perhaps because her voice was simply too calm and collected, the nurse gradually calmed down. Under her orders, she began to perform CPR on the patient.

What came after that was a slew of first aid measures. At last, the patient’s heartbeat returned to normal. Nora touched his abdomen and said, “The patient has internal bleeding. Send him for surgery at once!”

“Yes, doctor!”

Patients typically needed to go for X-rays and on top of that, it wasn’t even known which part of the body required X-rays before they could receive treatment. In the process of finding the cause of their illness, they ended up missing the most optimal treatment time.

However, with just a casual touch, Nora had figured out the cause of the patient’s condition, thereby speeding up the rescue process. This also saved them a lot of unnecessary trouble.

After the first aid was completed, the people outside gradually dispersed.

Most of the patients had also been categorized. Patients with minor or moderate injuries were currently resting in the corridor outside due to a lack of beds.

As for patients with serious injuries, they had been pushed into the operating rooms.

There were enough doctors in the hospital. Thus, after the initial panic, the order resumed and they started to provide medical treatment in an orderly manner.

Nora took off her mask and gloves, and then tossed the white lab coat into the room next door. When she looked around, she noticed a man standing at the door to the operating room. He was talking to a nurse excitedly. “I’m so excited. Oh my god, I’m so lucky. Really, I’m really too lucky… This is a whole bus of people we’re talking about. The bus even rolled over, and everyone is injured, but not me! Look at me, I didn’t even get a scratch!”

The nurse said, “Yes, okay, sir, we understand, but I’d still suggest that you have a full-body examination done. After all, there could still be many internal injuries.”

The man patted his chest. “No way, I really am fine! There’s nothing wrong with me at all! Look at me, look at how energetic I am! I am the luckiest person on earth!”

As the man spoke, he began to turn on the spot.

Nora had initially taken notice of the man because of his behavior, but the very moment he turned around, Nora suddenly froze.

Because… there was a mole on the side of the man’s face, and there was even a strand of hair on the mole!

When one connected this to the reason why Nora had come to the hospital…

She narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, she took a step forward and patted the man on the shoulder.

The man turned around.

Nora narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “What a coincidence, Charles.”