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"Dio," Saul murders. "I can't believe your own brother would do that to you."
"Are you an only child?" I ask him, even though I already know the answer. When he nods, I smirk. "Then you have no idea what it's like between brothers. We were always competing with one another. Always trying to see who could outdo the other one. In some ways, I think Xander won, but then again, I have everything I've ever hoped for, including Tallulah. And soon enough I'll have Ivette, too. I'm clearly fucking winning."
Saul doesn't need me to tell him that Ivette is Xander's wife. He's known that all along, ever since we sent asicarioafter her.
He still hasn't found her. We've been eagerly awaiting the news of Ivette's demise. I know it's unfair of me to go after my brother's wife, but it's the only way I can think of to hurt him as much as he hurt me in the past.
Besides, there's a part of me that can't resist going up against Xander.
There's that childish rivalry coming out to play again.
I want to beat Xander so badly... I'm willing to go to any lengths to do that.
"Why did Ivette run away from him?" Saul asks me.
"That's not my business," I mutter. "Especially because I don't know much about it. I haven't been in touch with my brother in decades, and I don't know what's going on in his twisted mind now. But I know that when he met his wife, Ivette, she was a different person. She was an innocent girl and he drove her to the brink of madness. Do you know that he branded her as a child?"
"Branded her?" Saul's eyebrows shoot up, as if he can't believe what I'm telling him.
"Yeah, he put his initials on her. Carved them in himself. I bet she's still wearing them because those cuts were too deep to ever heal up properly. And besides, that's not even the worst thing he's done to her."
Saul's questioning gaze follows me around the room as I base pace, wondering what Tallulah is doing.
I want to tell Saul more, but I feel I've exhausted the topic for now. My mind is firmly back to my ward.
"Leave me," I say firmly without any room for him to argue.
Saul seems to sense I need to be alone. He probably knows that I have to work through my feelings for Tallulah before I can commit to anything else.
"See you later,padron," he mutters as he walks out of the room.
I'm left alone with my thoughts and my guilty conscience over everything I've done to Tallulah.
Chapter 5
TALLULAH
Agefifteen
Once my parents tell me the truth about Xavier, it's time to start my training.
They've made it plenty clear that I'm going to be the one who winds up killing him. Once I accepted that my beloved guardian godfather was going to go down because of me, I embraced it.
Things in our home are mostly the same. I spend a lot of time with my sister Matilda. I also grew close to some of the people who work at our home. There is a group of people who work for my father and during my time at the house, I got to know them all better.
I usually hang around the children of my family's employees. But the one I got the closest to is a young boy around my age, perhaps a year or two older, called Davide.
We've always been close, spending a lot of time together. Sometimes I join him for his tasks in the gardens, which he makes sure are kept up to standard, even though he's a little young to have a job. My dad seems to like him, since he's given him a job and some security.
So when I come to my first day of training to be an assassin, I'm shocked to find Davide there.
"What are you doing here?" I ask him with a cocked eyebrow, a playful smirk playing on my lips. "You're not part of this, are you?"
Only then do I notice that his face looks ashen and he's pale as a ghost. I don't know what's going on here.
I wait in silence with Davide, saying nothing at all while we wait for my trainer to join me. Once the door to the walled garden finally opens, I'm surprised to find my father walking through the gates.
"Hello," he says.
