Cassandra's eyes widened in surprise. She had trouble understanding what had happened. Why did the man before her claim to be Tony's father, while her own parents seemed to have known all along?
She cautiously raised her head, wiped the tears blurring her eyes with both hands, and carefully studied the person across from her.
He merely smiled and generously let her look.
The longer Cassandra looked, the more alarmed she became. This man looked far too much like Tony. Though there was a considerable difference in their ages, his eyes, eyebrows, and facial bone structure all seemed to have been carved from the same mold as Tony's.
She recalled what Howard looked like in her memories and only then realized that, aside from the mustache, Howard looked nothing like Tony.
Tony had always said he hated his father, but he had clearly learned to wear a mustache from Howard. Still, facial hair was hardly genetic evidence.
"Then this...?"
For a moment, Cassandra did not know what to say.
Mrs. Jasper patted her head from the side and placed a pie on her plate. "Eat something first. Don't think your parents harmed you. What parents would harm their own child? You like Tony and want to be with him—of course that's fine. If he can join us, it would also greatly benefit our cause. Why not kill two birds with one stone?"
"I don't quite understand. Tony doesn't know who his biological father is?"
Jude pressed his electronic larynx against his throat. Back then, Amanda had severed his trachea and carotid artery with scissors, damaging his vocal cords. Now, he could only speak this way.
"He doesn't know. He doesn't know who his mother is either. It all happened more than a decade ago."
Gray-haired Jude wheezed like a bellows.