Five Years Wasted Now They Beg Her Back novel Chapter 398

Grace was stunned.

She had indeed been called a genius since childhood. She could read at three, solve equations at five, and was accepted into a top university at fifteen, miles ahead of her peers.

She had always thought it was the result of hard work.

"That isn't talent," Melissa's voice carried a sigh of resignation, as if she were speaking of fate. "It's 'optimization'."

"Three hundred years ago, the Helix Line mastered a special 'gene optimization technology.' This technology can significantly increase the activity of the cerebral cortex, enhancing memory and logical processing abilities. In every generation of our family, one 'Successor' is chosen to be implanted with this dominant genetic marker."

"Your grandmother, Fiona Hawke, was the Successor of her generation."

Grace's mind was buzzing, as if she were listening to some wild fairy tale.

"Then… what about my mother…"

"Forty-nine years ago," Melissa's gaze grew distant, filled with pain and resentment, "there was a traitor in the family who attempted to sell this technology to a multinational corporation. To protect the core data, your grandmother, Fiona Hawke, fled overseas with her two-year-old daughter—your mother, Lauren Hawke—carrying a portion of the encrypted data."

"She vanished without a trace after that."

"We've been searching for you for forty-nine years."

Melissa looked at Grace, her eyes full of pity. "I never imagined that when we finally found you, Lauren would already be… and that you would have been tormented into this state."

Grace felt a chill run through her.

So her mother wasn't just some girl from a small town.

So the suffering she had endured all these years stemmed from that enviable 'genius brain.'

"This gene has side effects, doesn't it?"

Damien, who had been silent, suddenly spoke, hitting the nail on the head.

Wasn't that exactly what Grace had endured in the Hart family for the past five, even ten years?!

No wonder… No wonder Grace sometimes displayed an almost cold-blooded calmness, even experiencing short-term memory loss during moments of extreme pain.

"Grace," Melissa said urgently from the other side of the screen, "this is why I had to contact you in such a hurry."

"According to our family's monitoring, your psychological threshold has reached a critical point. If you don't receive immediate intervention and treatment, or if you continue to stay in this environment that causes you so much pain…"

"You will destroy yourself."

Grace looked down at her rounding belly.

"I'm not afraid." Grace looked up, a sad smile on her face. "It would be better to go mad."

"If playing by the rules means letting these monsters win, then I'm done being the victim. I'll become their worst nightmare."