They Who Slaughtered Hope 🌈| 1-2 Updates a Month

Chapter 15

Before he knew it, Lennox's mother rushed to hover over him, thrusting a candelabra at him and yelling, "If you so much as move a single metre, you vagrant, more than this candle holder will be embedded in your skull for thinking you could waltz in here and—" She had her eyes clamped shut, as if that would shield her from the responsibility of the person she was about to injure. Lennox's mother opened them to see Ren, who had ducked out of the way. "Oh. I thought you were a thief... or one of those blasted Crimsons." The candelabra clanged against the wooden desk, leaving a scratch on it.

She had the same frail physique and eloquent speech as Lennox, though not his sarcasm and defiance. His irreverence was all his own.

Emily scrutinised his black gloves with a hand on her hip, her tapered eyes reminiscent of an emerald dagger in Mitsan's collection. "Besides that, why are you in my son's room when he's away?"

Lennox invaded the sniper-turned-spy's thoughts once more. Ren could vividly imagine his ire should the flower boy discover 'Renato' in his room. It would be enjoyable to surprise him, if only he could get rid of Emily.

His mission came first.

"I was just waiting for Lennox. Usually, he would only be gone this long to visit me, but now that I'm living here, it feels like he's avoiding me. I wanted to take a shufti at his latest projects without contaminating anything, so I'm wearing gloves."

"Is that so..." Emily halfheartedly replied as surveyed the room. Her gaze rested on a desk drawer that wasn't closed all the way.

All of a sudden, she whirled around, simultaneously retrieving and positioning the candelabra at his neck. "You and Lennox may think that I only vouched for you out of pity and awe of your cooking skill, but don't be mistaken, I know you are up to something. So please, go ahead, give me any reason to doubt you, to second-guess your motives, and you won't survive the night. Is that clear?"

He was conflicted. Ren couldn't risk the mission more than he already had. He had to make a decision. Should he act innocent? Invent a reason? Tell the truth? No, he couldn't do that. He had to lie.

Ren clasped his hands around the base of the candle holder and guided it from his cervix. "I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just someone waiting for his man. You know, like any girl would do in a heterosexual relationship?"

He was exhausted by this conversation, so much so that he convinced himself he needed a cigarette to cope with it. Why did he have to perpetuate every stereotype to persuade anyone of anything? 

"Any woman is so much more than 'just a girl' in anything she does. You may think that Wade caught on to your deviltry first, but don't delude yourself, you aren't fooling anyone."

That, along with Wade's remarks during Ren's first dinner here was the most validating thing Ren had heard since he put his reputation at stake for this mission.

"Then why did you allow me into this house? What possibly possessed you to let this stranger in?"

"You're good for Lennox. I can see it in the way he looks at you, at the way he opens up to you in a way he never did with me. He needs someone his age to confide in. And that person turned out to be you, as much as I hate to admit it. For all I know, you could be an assassin from the Syndicate, or a Verita spy making sure that Wade isn't betraying the brotherhood like he's betraying our marriage. You could be anyone but my son's lover, but that's how you defined yourself. That's a definition I have no choice but to trust. For his sake."

Little did she know that the sniper was exactly who she thought he was.

Ren felt a tug at his heart and a clenching in his stomach. He wondered if this was how Trix felt when going undercover, or if she was numb to it like he was with sniping.