?Chapter 1298:


    Freya and Ellis walked in just as Nina stomped off. “What’s going on?” Freya asked, puzzled.


    “Jesse’s making me think about my actions before a wall!” Nina pouted, but she stood by the wall anyway.


    Both Freya and Ellis were confused.


    Ellis frowned, looking between them. “Come here and tell me what happened.”


    Nina peeked at Jesse, then stayed put, facing the wall quietly.


    For the first time, Jesse’s word outweighed Ellis’s.


    Freya turned to Jesse. “What did she do?”


    Jesse shrugged. “She said she wanted to reflect.”


    Freya nced at Nina, who nodded sadly. “Yeah, I wanted to.”


    That only confused Freya and Ellis more.


    Freya tried to call Nina over, but the little girl checked Jesse’s face and stayed put.


    In that moment, Freya saw it clearly: Jesse held sway over Nina like no one else.


    Since neither kid would spill the beans, Freya and Ellis let it go. But they knew Nina must have done something wrong, and Jesse was punishing her. After all, if Nina hadn’t messed up, not even Jesse could have made her stand there.<fnef4a> ???? ????s? ???????s ?? ?ovelFind</fnef4a>


    As his parents sat nearby, Jesse thought of something. “Mom?”


    “Yes, honey?” Freya answered softly.


    Jesse nced at his dad, then asked, “How did you and Dad meet?”


    Freya paused, her eyes meeting Ellis’s.


    In that moment, her mind wandered back to a warm summer day long ago.


    It was the sweltering peak of August.


    Freya, alongside her friends, had thrown herself into the organization’s rigorous selection trials. She had only just turned seventeen.


    Deep in the dense thicket of the assessment zone, Freya sprinted like a panther on the prowl, her body slicing through the jungle heat.


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    The test was brutally simple: the first ten to reach the finish line would move on to the second round. She had no clue where the rest of the candidates were. The only thing she knew was that she had to push herself to the limit. After all, members of the organization were lying in wait, intercepting participants at every turn.


    A gunshot shattered the air.


    A nk round hissed past Freya. She carried no weapon—none of them were allowed to—so all she could rely on was her raw agility.


    Hidden among the trees, an observer named Michael Miller arched a brow and muttered to the man beside him, “The girl’s got some moves. Didn’t think she’d dodge that so cleanly.”


    The man next to him, his facepletely obscured by camouge paint, remained silent. He was Ellis. At twenty-three, he was one of the assessment’smanding figures.


    “Keep your eyes on the stragglers,” Ellis instructed, his gaze locked on Freya as she tore ahead. His deep voice carried the lilt of youth, edged with control. “I’ll handle her.”


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