Axel nodded slowly, the faint sll of tea lingering in the air, before his gaze sharpened as if sothing had just occurred to him.
After a brief pause, he looked at Lana and spoke, his voice casual yet carefully asured. "Have you already found your real parents?"
Lana froze for a split second.
Her fingers stiffened, and a ripple of surprise passed through her eyes before she masked it with a small smile.
"I don’t really understand why you’re asking that," she replied, her tone light, though her chest felt strangely tight.
"But yes, I’ve found my biological parents. They’re... troubleso."
She exhaled softly. "I don’t plan to acknowledge them or get close to them."
Hearing that, Axel leaned back slightly, his eyelids lowering as if he were replaying fragnts of an investigation in his mind.
After a mont, he looked at her again and spoke gently, "If possible, you should keep your distance from them."
Lana frowned, an uneasy feeling crawling up her spine. "What do you an by that?"
Axel did not answer imdiately. Instead, he chose his words carefully.
"There might be things you still don’t know."
Seeing her expression darken, he added quickly, "I’ve been looking into your past."
Her eyes widened, shock flashing through them. Before she could react, Axel raised his hand slightly, his voice firm but sincere.
"I wasn’t snooping out of curiosity. I found sothing... unusual. Sothing worth paying attention to."
Lana stared at him, curiosity overtaking her surprise.
Axel gestured toward the chair. "Sit down."
She did, her movents slow and cautious.
Axel then continued, his voice steady.
"When I instructed my people to protect you, they needed to know how much protection was necessary. That required understanding your background."
His eyes flickered briefly. "During that process, we uncovered sothing interesting."
Lana t his gaze, waiting.
"Do you rember why you took a DNA ancestry test in the first place?" Axel pressed.
She shook her head slightly. "It was just a mont of curiosity."
Axel shook his head in response. "No. It wasn’t."
Lana fell silent. She leaned back, her mind drifting as mories surfaced one by one.
’He’s right.’ After a long mont, a na finally erged from the depths of her thoughts.
Her expression darkened subtly.
Indeed, it had not been a montary curiosity.
It was because she had once seen soone boast about it.
That person had claid that as long as two people shared the sa DNA roots through family, he would marry that person without hesitation.
As the mory sharpened, Lana’s lips pressed together.
Her first crush.
More precisely, her first crush from her previous life, the sa man who later beca nothing more than Brenda’s obedient lapdog.
It was because of him that she had taken the DNA test in the first place.
She told Axel the truth.
Axel frowned imdiately, his expression turning grim. "That’s the problem."
His voice lowered. "There’s a high chance your first crush already knew you were swapped at birth. He likely instigated this out of malice."
His eyes narrowed. "And there’s a strong possibility that soone paid him to do it."
Lana went silent, her gaze dropping. The table beneath her fingertips felt cold.
Axel continued,
"There’s also a chance that the so-called biological parents who approached you aren’t truly your biological parents at all."
She did not argue. Deep down, she knew Axel’s words carried weight.
In her previous life, she had tried desperately to uncover the truth.
She had taken a DNA test, only for the results to never reach her.
For so inexplicable reason, her supposed biological parents vanished without a trace.
Even the test itself was delayed endlessly until the sample was eventually declared lost.
She had later tried using a DNA ancestry kit, only to be told that those poor people from the slums were indeed her biological parents.
She had accepted it on the surface, yet doubt had always lingered in her heart.
’Sothing never felt right.’
Now, hearing Axel’s analysis, she felt as though an invisible hand had been quietly steering everything all along.
She lifted her head and looked at him. "What do you suspect?"
Axel replied calmly, "I strongly suspect that you were originally born into a wealthy family and were switched at birth."
He paused briefly before adding, "There’s also a possibility that you and Brenda were switched."
Lana shook her head almost imdiately.
"Even if I was switched at birth, whoever did it would have made sure I ended up with terrible parents."
Her eyes hardened slightly. "As for Brenda, her parents would never do sothing like that. They care too much about bloodlines and roots."
Axel studied her carefully. "Then what do you think happened?"
Lana smiled faintly, though there was no warmth in it.
"There’s a high chance I was first switched into that poor couple’s crib. After that, the poor couple might have mistaken for their real daughter and switched with Brenda without realizing it."
Hearing that, Axel’s eyes glead with sudden clarity.
Lana continued, her voice steady.
"If that’s what happened, then the girl who took my place likely knew everything."
Her fingers curled slightly. "She’s probably the one stirring trouble from behind the scenes."
Axel sighed deeply. "Do you have any idea who that person might be?"
Lana let out a bitter chuckle. "I don’t. This is all just theory." She looked away briefly.
"It could be wrong. Maybe there were coincidences, or factors we haven’t considered."
Then she t his gaze again, calm and resolute. "And honestly, I don’t care whether I belong to a wealthy family or not."
She was not lying.
In her previous life, she had been obsessed with her origins. Obsessed with finding parents who could love her.
Obsessed with the idea of siblings who might protect her. That obsession had died the mont she was forced to endure everything alone.
She had grown stronger through pain.
Strong enough that nothing in this world could truly make her vulnerable anymore.
Sotis, she still needed comfort.
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