Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

Chapter 55

Staring at Colin with a mix of shock and disbelief, it took me a moment to process the

bombshell he’d just dropped.

Snatching the paper from his hand, I gasped at the sight–every scribbled answer was correct. I had thought he was just jotting down nonsense.

“You… you’ve studied this before?” I asked incredulously, my voice tinged with a mix of awe and disbelief.

Wasn’t he supposed to be the village idiot?

He nodded nonchalantly. “Piece of cake.”

His casual remark stung my pride. Impossible! I’ve always been at the top of my class, a teacher’s pet through and through in college. I wasn’t a genius, but I was a solid student. How could Colin be… smarter than me?

“Did you peek at the answers?” I challenged, my competitive spirit flaring as I continued to work through problems on the paper. Yet, he solved each one quickly, and every single answer was spot–on. And the whole time, he kept getting distracted, glancing over at me now and then.

To be that distracted and still come up with the answers so fast, he wasn’t just any genius. He was like something out of a saying I remembered, “Madmen to the left of God, geniuses to the right,” and he was somehow straddling both sides.

“Did you go to college?” I ventured tentatively, my curiosity piqued by the mystery surrounding Colin.

“Kingstone University…” he finally said.

1

So he had gone

at fourteen, in the Genius Class, on a scholarship,” he elaborated.

triggering a throbbing headache and a flurry of memories–two kids standing at the orphanage’s entrance, beaming with oversized red ribbons, a banner congratulating

my temples, I strained to

memory was stubbornly

just a straight

why were you pretending to be a fool at the orphanage?” I asked, trying to maintain a composed front while

he wasn’t foolish at all. Was it an act? A

13:12

Chapter 55

wait for her.” Colin’s eyes dropped, his voice tinged

I frowned.

What?

Phoebe?

he mean me?

you listen? The Phoebe you speak of… is that me?” I wasn’t ready to trust

to myself, looking for any telltale reaction.

a long moment before

promise was made to Foebe?

read him. To squander his talents for a girl’s promise, to play the fool for years in an orphanage? He seemed almost obsessively determined, like the

To waste your gift waiting for someone?” I