He ignored my accusation against our grandmother. "She's not apart of TIA anymore. How could she have known all that?" Joseph was angry and annoyed, that much was obvious in his tone.
"Joseph, her parents came up with TIA. There's no way she's never not been apart of it. Just because she retired doesn't me she still isn't in it somehow it. She owns it, she had to." I pleaded with him, trying to get him to see the situation as I saw it. "She is TIA."
Before Joseph could respond, the kitchen door swung open and Dante and Thomas walked out. By the looks on both of their faces, I could tell they had a tough conversation, one that was probably needed. They looked exhausted but content with whatever conversation they had between the two of them.
Joseph nudged his knee with mine and whispered, "Don't say anything to them."
I wanted to ask him why, but I had a feeling he wanted it to stay between us. There was a reason I'd voiced my opinion about Lucille to only him. Thomas and Dante might think I've lost it if they heard what I was thinking.
Maybe I had lost it. Maybe I was going crazy. Maybe a bit of both. My life flipped upside down when I lost my dad. And now I was learning truths that were slowly making me crumble and stripping away the identity that I had before all of this mess.
Joseph was my brother. My mom and dad were apart of an agency that tortured people. Dante accidentally killed my dad. Cole had been a liar all this time, even kidnapped his two closest friends. There was only so much I could take before I cracked.
Dante looked at me and he could tell I needed out of the room. "Want to talk outside?"
Joseph stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. "Like we'd leave you alone with her. You could be just like your brother." I could tell by the look Thomas gave him that he was over Joseph's attitude as much as I was. "A traitor ready to-"
"Shut up," I said, raising my voice. The looks that came from Dante and Joseph showed their surprise. Thomas on the other hand just smiled and shook his head. He was used to me talking to him like that every now and then. "I know you're my big brother and you want to protect me, but I am more than capable of making my own decisions."
"Really? Are you really?" Joseph drawled out, silencing all of us. Thomas and Dante could tell there was a meaning behind his words, but only I knew the real one. Joseph was asking if I was sane in the head.
After killing Angel, I hadn't been the same. I knew that and I'd been ignoring the part of me that was changing.
I'd been acting without thinking. I made sure I got Mark and Shelly to safety, but I left Cole behind. Who knew if Cole was even alive. I should've told him to come with us when we left, but I also didn't think about what could happen if he stayed. All I had thought about was how badly I'd wanted out of there.
I also trusted Dante a lot more than I probably should. He did kill my dad after all, even if it was on accident. But he also helped me run away.
Maybe I'd been losing it since my dad died. Nothing made sense to me anymore, especially people's intentions around me. My emotions were all over the place and I didn't know who I could trust.
I didn't know what to do anymore. My dad had always known. He always known what his next move was going to be before he did it.
And now, I was blaming our grandma for our mother's death. Voicing my thought to him is what was making him question my judgement right now.
"You're the one who told me to call her," I said meekly.
"I thought she'd give you answers you needed. I didn't think you'd go and blame her for kill our mom," Joseph spat. He was angry, that much was clear. He knew Lucille way better than I did, she raised him in the TIA. He had every right to be upset with me.
Thomas held up his hands. "Hold up, what's going on here?"
Joseph glanced from me to him, and then to the floor. "Nina thinks Lucille killed our mother and could possibly still be alive."
The silence in the room that followed was thickening. Thomas' face was expressionless and I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
Dante was the one to break the silence first. "I think Nina could be right. When I got to Lucille's house after she k-" He gulped nervously. He didn't need to finish that sentence. We all knew what I'd done. "After I found Nina, I saw the blood on the walls. There was nobody there besides Nina and Angel and neither of them had wounds that would cause their blood to splatter on the walls like that."
His words surprised me because I expected him to think I sounded insane for blaming my grandmother of all people. "It looked staged," I finished for him.
He dipped his head in acknowledgment. "It definitely did."
"I've never met that woman but Clint never liked her," Thomas added. The concern in his eyes for Joseph and me was clear as day. Both of our words were flipping everything upside down.
"No, she only had good things to say about Dad," Joseph said, sounding hostile. I didn't blame him. He thought it'd be them three against me for sounding insane, but it was us three against him.
"She told me she didn't blame him for our mom's death, Joseph, but she did say I was supposed to grow up at TIA with you. I was supposed to be an agent like Mom and Dad, but Dad took me away before that could happen. It sounded like Lucille almost blamed him for taking me away. And the month that I did live with her, I could tell she didn't really like me. We just existed in the same house."
Lucille and I never really talked to each other, more at each other. We were both constantly trying to get answers out of each other but that was as much of our conversations entailed. Me trying to figure out TIA and her asking questions about my dad that made me uncomfortable. She'd ask where we disappeared to, where we lived, who we talked to. Just weird and random questions.
"Well-" Joseph paused, searching for words. "It was a month, that's a really short time to get to know someone."
"Joseph, Angel told me she was everything I couldn't be. What if Lucille replaced my spot with Angel? That would explain why Angel took it personal when she tried to kill me," I explained.
"It would also explain why Angel left Lucille's number as a clue," Dante added. "She did come to TIA some time after you vanished with Clint."
I could tell Dante was also thinking about something else. Joseph looked lost and I could tell Thomas felt for him. Someone who'd been family to him all his life was looking guiltier by the second.
"What if Lucille-" Dante shook his head. "Never mind, it's crazy."
"Ha." A humorless laugh escaped Thomas. "At this rate anything is possible with that lady. We're not sure whether she's dead or alive. This is also the same lady who's parent created Torqueo Intelligence Agency to kill people."
What Thomas said must've given Dante the courage to voice what he was going to say seconds ago. "What if Lucille wanted revenge on Nina for leaving and maybe she let Nina live with her for a month to see what she knew about Clint? Or maybe what she had found out about TIA?"
Jospeh shook his head. "Do you know how insane you guys sound right now?"
"Joseph, you were once my best friend. Listen to me." Dante gave Joseph a look and an unspoken understanding seemed to pass between them.
As he rolled his eyes, Joseph motioned Dante to continue. "Go on."
"Clint obviously found out something about TIA and that's why he left. Whatever information he found is why I'd been sent to track him and Nina down. By leaving thirteen years ago, Clint also took a prospect for TIA with him. Nina has TIA blood running through her. She would've been a fourth generation TIA member," Dante clarified. "That had to piss Lucille off in some way."
"And all Lucille ever wanted to talk about was what my dad and I did after we left TIA. Where we lived, what he taught me, everything," I said adding onto Dante's reasoning.
"What about Angel? How does she play into this?" Joseph asked, looking skeptical.
"Lucille brings her in to take Nina's spot. Trains her to be like Nina. When Angel had the chance to take the letter that Clint left for Thomas, she left it instead for them to find and gave a clue leading to Lucille. The month that Nina stayed with Lucille, she wouldn't give anything up resulting in Lucille getting upset and not having a reason to keep Nina around."
"And giving her reason to send Angel to try and kill her," Thomas added, his face morphing into realization. "Nina wasn't needed anymore."
"It also explains why it would be personal for Angel being sent to kill you." Joseph looked defeated. "She was raised to replace you."
Why Angel hated me was laid out nice and neat.
TIA had also told her not to tell me anything in case I ended up killing her. They didn't have much faith in her if they told her not to give anything up. No wonder she took trying to kill me personal. She was trying to prove a point to them.
Instead, the people who raised her to be like me tossed her to the side like she meant nothing to them.
No wonder my dad left TIA. It was way more messed up than I thought.
A/N: Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get this out. I needed a mental break after writing three chapters in one day haha. Plus, I've been working on a new project. Again, if you've enjoyed, please vote! It helps so so much! <3