Fallen Ashes |✔️

Bad blood

8 years ago...

Myra

"Please, mom." I begged her not to leave again- I hated it when she left for 'business' though part of me learned to admire how strong she was.

A solitary tear trickled down my face as I waved goodbye to her, slightly envious of how flawless she looked even in the clothing of a mafia agent.

"She's too young." I'd heard my stepfather Marcus growl at my mother, but I wasn't. I knew enough about the crime world, about what went on when my mother or Marcus left for 'business'.

That was the last time I'd seen my mother.

Twenty agents all dead- including my mother. All slaughtered in mafia crossfire, all killed as threats to rival mafia groups. I pieced together enough to realise the power struggles of the crime world- at the expense of my mother.

And I knew the man behind the deaths and execution of mafia bosses and agents alike- the Greek mafia lord. The killer. The snake.

My mother had never revealed her past relationships before Marcus- but I sensed the unspoken volumes of her words, the riddles and warnings she spoke to perhaps one day guide me towards a greater purpose.

The Greek crime lord was my father.

She hardly referred to it as a 'relationship'- but whatever it had been, the man scared the life out of me. I hated the way he frequently visited his many mansions in the states with his family, hated the way he had met with Marcus on several occasions for 'business'.

But once again I knew the man hadn't come for mafia alliances, but to see my mother. To see the daughter who had the same fire in her eyes. To him, we were threats. And as the power and influence of the Greek mafia increased, the power of the American mafia slowly dwindled to nothing after the death of my mother.

I knew she wanted vengeance, she wanted to destroy that bastard- and died for it.

___

"M-marcus?" I stammered, watching him drink away his pain after the loss of his agents and my mother- his wife.

"Get the fuck out of here." He growled, leaving me alone every passing night to mourn silently as the orphan I knew I'd become.

If you can't go for the head, go for the body of the snake, my mother had told me before I never saw her again.

"I hate you." I sobbed for weeks under my covers, smashing and destroying anything that came in the path of my temper. I hated Marcus. I hated the Greek crime boss. I hated my mother for leaving me in the way she did.

That was the last time I cried, the last time I showed weakness.

I asked for no birthday presents, nothing that would suggest a father-daughter relationship between Marcus and I; I was nothing to him. Nothing more than a reminder of the dead woman who left him with her daughter from another man. And as far as I knew, Marcus had no idea the Greek crime boss was my father- and I prayed it would stay that way.

All I began to ask for was a gun, to train with other agents to kill as they did. The American mafia had faded into nothing, no longer boasting the assets and power it once had- one day I would change that.

I knew I'd lead better than the asshole who made everything go to shit- though Marcus would never see me as an heir. But whether he liked it or not, I'd take it from him when he finally saw me as the threat I knew I'd become.

Marcus had no qualms with letting me train- and soon showed no pity in throwing me into danger as his spy, his right hand, his killer.

And I didn't stop- it would be worth it one day. I'd bring down the Greek mafia, the bastard who didn't deserve the power he held.