Page 94 of Darkest Deception

How was I supposed to know that he was falling for her?

She seemed sweet to me, a small piece of the puzzle that fell in between our plans.

I warned her while I could, but Remo didn’t like that at all.

I’ll tell Ambrose tomorrow that I know of her past, but I’m not letting her go. If anything, I am holding on tighter, knowing something is brimming and Remo will not back down.

“You asked me if it’s possible to leave dead bodies behind for someone. Do you remember my answer?” Remo asks.

My shoulders tighten.

I asked him that when I saw him kill for Aurora after a decade of staying clean.

“I said yes.”

That’s when it dawns on me why he is telling me this. He wants me to acknowledge what I feel for Ambrose.

It cannot be what he feels for Aurora.

That’s love.

What he has with Aurora is love.

What I have with Ambrose?

That’s hate.

Right?

That’s why I’m killing so many people for her… Right?

29

Age twenty-one

Living within the walls of a library has taught me many things.

Knowledge cannot be taken away.

Knowledge will always remain the most powerful tool.

For the past eleven years, I have been hiding, sneaking into libraries, sitting and reading through everything, making use of a card I stole from a kid so I could use the computers. I mastered the artificial intelligence humankind has made.

I hacked into smaller places, seeing the kind of information not many others were able to gather. Then I stumbled upon Peccator, a search engine that allows me to find information on people. I can be anonymous and still get blackmail material.

And so I took advantage of it.

I blackmailed people, took their money, then expanded into gathering blackmail material for others.

I didn’t care. No one cared about me. Not a single one.

Until I stumble upon the heir of the Vino Corporation.

Remo Cainn.

And then I decided I wanted his help, knowing a deep secret of his that was about to be revealed to him after ‘someone’—me—decided to threaten to leak that the Cainns had another child, a daughter they didn’t want.

Power hungry people do that.

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