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His eyes meet mine. "And what about us?"

"You never knew me." My friend’s mouth falls open, and the room grows even quieter.

"If anyone starts asking questions, you don't know my name. You don't know my face. You've never worked for my father. If I need you, I'll find you. You’ll know it’s me. Until then..." I look at each of them individually, making sure every word sinks in. "You stay anonymous. Every single one of you."

Nobody objects, and they nod.

“Before you leave, I have a present for you.” Emin slides an envelope over the desk, and I grab it. I open the folder lying on my father's desk and pull out the only photograph inside.

M.

Emin is talking about how he found out who M is by asking around, but his voice sounds far away. I am laser-focused on the photograph.

Emin falls silent as I study it.

So, this is the man who is responsible for taking everything from me. I expected a monster. Maybe he would have had a scar running across his face, cruel eyes, or even a busted lip. Instead... I find myself staring at a man so devastatingly handsome it almost pisses me off. In this photograph, it seems he is at some event in a dapper suit. Dark hair falls carelessly across his forehead. His jaw is sharp enough to cut glass, the light stubble only making him look more dangerous. Those black eyes don’t hold an ounce of remorse.

M is the worst kind of combination in a man—handsome and lethal. And I fucking hate that my mind notices it. I trace my thumb along the edge of the photograph.

"So, you're M," I murmur. The man everyone fears. The man they call the deadliest assassin, after my father, of course. My baba has a notorious reputation, and everyone thinks that he is the most dangerous man in the world. He was a couple of years ago, but now?

If only people knew.

For some time, my father has barely been able to leave this house. The tumor stole his strength long before it ever stole his life. Yet the request for hits kept coming, and the bodies kept falling.

Because of me.

Every shot they believe my father fired, I fired. Every throat they think he slit, I opened. Every legend they attach to his name, I built with my own hands. Nobody ever questioned it. No one imagines the most feared assassin in Europe could be a woman, and now I’ll use that to my advantage. My baba hid me from the world, and he made me invisible. He turned me into a ghost.

Now I'll become everyone’s worst nightmare.

My eyes return to the photograph, and M’s face is flawless and somehow familiar. But that’s not possible, so my thumb keeps brushing the stupid photo. For years I've wondered if there was anyone capable of understanding the darkness living inside me. Anyone whose mind wasn't poisoned by morality. Anyone who wouldn't flinch at the things that make me feel alive.

I never found that person.

Now I don't care if you, M, understand me. I only care that you bleed. No matter how long it takes, I'll find you, and I will burn everything that you hold dear to the ground. And when I do... you'll learn why the world was looking in the wrong direction all along.

I'll make everyone wish my father had taught me mercy instead.

Chapter nineteen

Noa

Present day

“After that, I didn’t see her for almost a year. All of us stayed underground and kept to ourselves.”

What a fucking ride. And this confirms that Lana has been wrong about me all along—I did not kill her father. I don’t even know where she lived.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with me. I didn’t kill her father.”

“You expect me to believe anything you say?” I shake my head and curl my lips down.

“I don’t care. Now, what did your leader do to me? And how?”

Emin moves his hands, and after he concludes that he can’t escape, he gives up and starts talking.

“Fine. We met up in secret at the armory, and before that, Lana made sure everyone believed he was in jail. The first time we met, she told me she had been following you. The first year, she followed you. The next two years, we gathered information on you together. The fourth year, we dived into your businesses. The fifth year, Lana upped her game and got to know your friends.”