Sensitive topics such as murder, parental loss, suicide and childhood trauma are included in this chapter, proceed with caution.

"Speak you piece of shit!"I snapped fists slamming against my father's face again.

The moment I entered his home office, the asshole had the nerve to look resigned and sorrowful. As if he hadn't just turned my world upside down.

I didn't even give him time to explain himself. Not this time. My fist collided with his face before reason could hold me back. Because right now the love of my life, the very essence of my existence was going through God knew what at the hands of a psychotic killer and my father was the very man who had delivered her to him on a golden platter.

"Hitting me won't get her back." Father responded, his lower lip bleeding.

"Where is She?"I asked, hands wrapping around his throat as I lifted him off the ground.

He remained quiet and that only further angered me. My fists collided with his face again and again. I would rearrange his face until he spoke.

"Stop hijo mío! Por favor!(Stop, my son! Please!)"Mom's brokenness echoed in the office as she walked in.

"Stay out of this, mamá." I snapped, tightening my hold but father only stared at me and the resignation in his eyes unnerved me.

Why was he not fighting back? His men were right outside and yet he didn't call them in. Why?

"You always thought I was the Villain in the story..I must have failed terribly as a father if that's how low you think of me" A broken laugh left my father's throat.

"Spare me the victim play. You were always the monster in this family" I responded with fury.

"Eli.. Your father.." My mother's voice was cut off as my father glared at her.

"Do not utter another word, tesoro mio(my treasure). This is my burden to bear" Father responded, making me slam him against the wall.

"Then speak for yourself. Father. Why did you do this? Do you hate Celine so much that you're willing to endanger her life?"I asked, my anger rising as I choked him.

"I beg you, Fernando. Tell him the truth! Please.. Do it for me" Mom implored father, making me feel more confused and angrier by the second.

Father stared at mom with a myriad of conflicting emotions and so much love that I wondered how come he never showed so much emotions before. The moment his eyes filled with guilt, sorrow and acceptance..I knew I wouldn't like what came next but I never once expected those words.

"It was Landon." Father confessed in a stuttered exhale, making my muscles pull taut as I processed his words.

I stared at him, mind reeling but I refused to believe it. My heart simply couldn't. "You're lying. You're deliberately putting the blame on Landon. You might be able to brainwash mom but not me"

"It was him all along the way, Eli. He was done with the Profiling the day he came to see you. When you told him you were thinking of taking Celine to another country, he had a mental breakdown. That's when he came to me. I tried to reason with him when he asked me to make her disappear but he was inconsolable. I might have never supported your relationship with Celine in the past but I would never kill her. I'm not that heartless" Father responded.

I stared at mom hoping to find her in denial just like me but her eyes were filled with tears. "I'm sorry Eli.."

"Why.. Why would he do it?"I asked, chest burning as if I was being seared by fire from the inside.

So this was how it felt like to be betrayed by your own family...

My grip on father loosened until he fell on the floor, mom rushing to his aid as he tried to get his breathing under control.

God how did I turn out to be such a fool..

"Landon's mother was killed by Isabel."Father explained, making my skull pound as I tried to make sense of everything.

"Isabel always had an obsession with Gustavo, she wanted to marry him but Gustavo fell for Olivia and she never took it well. The day before Isabel killed Olivia, she had tried to get Gustavo to sleep with her, she drugged him at a club gathering to trigger his sex drive but he fought back and slapped her. She took the rejection badly. I was there at the club. She swore to take revenge but we didn't think she would actually go through with it. She's been jealous of Olivia for ages. Something Gustavo never allowed Olivia to know. But it never went further than a few arguments and conflicts here and there with Isabel throwing a fit of jealousy on missions" Father's words made my head throb so much, I stumbled back.

"Why did you keep this from me?"I asked in a barely audible voice.

"Because you were just a child. And I was filled with grief. And so much guilt. If it wasn't for me putting Isabel and Gustavo together on a mission at the start of their career, they perhaps wouldn't have gotten close.. All of this could have been avoided.. I noticed Isabel's growing attraction and still kept them as a duo because they were efficient together. They worked fucking well together so much so it felt like they were one person coordinating an entire operation. They were a good team.. Best friends. But God.. I still never thought it would come to this"Father's voice broke as he stared up at me.

Mom's sob echoed in the room as she whispered in a barely audible voice. "The day after that, Isabel went to their house when Landon was out with his father.. There was a bloody fight.. Gustavo immediately rushed home with Landon when he got alerted by the security feed.. But when both came home.. Olivia was dead.. Isabel was stabbing her repeatedly.. Even if Olivia was already dead."

My breath stuttered, overwhelmed by everything. "How did you learn all this?"

"We saw it all through the security footage. Gustavo lost it and killed her right there with Landon staring. He was just a little child, Eli. He was just 5 years old. It broke him. He didn't move through it all. Even when his father cradled Olivia and cried his heart out, Landon remained rigid, in a catatonic state. His father apologised to Landon in the next seconds before shooting himself."Father said, voice hoarse.

"Landon didn't even flinch after the shot. He remained there.. It was only after I came that he moved. Even then he kept uttering 'Father's best friend killed Mamá. It's all the best friend's fault..' I calmed him down and brought him home but he never healed like we thought. We tried to bring him to the best Clinical Psychologist and psychiatrists but he refused to talk about it to them. So we stopped and tried to give him a normal childhood. He was happy with you" Mom cried as father consoled her.

But I could only stare through the tears in my own eyes at them.

Everything that happened until now suddenly took on a different light. Landon's visit telling me to cheer up, that he had good news. And then my overwhelming thoughts.. Him telling me that he was close to finishing the Profiling just after. It was all a lie. He had completed it by then but lied to my face because he was thinking of using the killer if ever father refused to help him get to Celine.

Landon's reaction now when I said I wanted to leave with Celine, his troubled expression made so much more sense. Landon telling me and Celine to be careful when we were talking about the killer with Agnus. Landon making me believe father refused the interrogation and truth serum..

It was all a lie.

Father's words when I confronted him back then suddenly came back to my mind.

"You think you understand the machinery of this family, Eli? You know nothing."

How did I fail to realise it all? Landon's questioning after I confronted my father as well. His carefully molded face feigning sorrow and anger on my behalf so perfectly. He was just checking if father kept his mouth shut like he had expected. He played on father's guilt perfectly.

Landon didn't just check Kyron's residence either. He was the one that helped Kyron clear it all out. All along the way he was the one who was helping him. He was the one who gave Kyron everything he needed to take my little Flame. He was the one who tipped him off about the shoe trackers.

"I didn't know Eli.. It was only after you called me telling me it was your father that I realised something was wrong.. It was only then that your father told me what was going on. But he made me swear not to tell you anything. We didn't want you to get hurt by Landon's actions.. We kept faith he wouldn't go through with it. Landon seemed well all those years, he was content by your side, we thought that he was mentally alright now" Mom said, coming closer to me with teary eyes but father couldn't even look me in the eye.

I stepped back "You both stayed quiet.. And today the love of my life is fighting for her life.. I really thought you were different, Mamá" I whispered, voice hollow as I turned and left despite mom's broken voice calling me back.

I couldn't. Not when they both knew and yet stayed quiet about it. I understood their grief, their guilt and need to protect Landon safely but they were willing to let Landon destroy my life.. I don't think my parents even realised it, the sheer atrocity of what Landon did. They were too consumed by their own demons.

I don't even know when I walked to my car and drove off. My mind was drowning with a myriad of memories and childhood moments my younger self never thought much of.

All the times Father and Mother would take Landon out as a kid making me stay back suddenly made so much more sense. Sometimes they said it was a general check up, other times a visit to his parents grave, or the dentist. Eventually the visits lessened and I never questioned it because I knew Landon was grieving his parents and if my parents wanted to take care of his every need this tenderly I was alright with it. But all this time it was visits to Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists.

Landon's frequent nightmares and screams as a kid made so much more sense too. He never talked about it. No matter how many times I asked what the nightmares were about. He simply shook his head. So I stopped probing.

As an 8 year old big brother, my instinct took over. I wanted to protect and shield this shattered 5-year-old Landon who just lost everything. And we eventually fell into a natural rhythm, him coming to my room at night when he couldn't sleep, us sleeping side by side with the lamp on Landon's side always on. Me bringing him breakfast and trying to get him to eat. Me taking him in the back garden to play. Us watching Tom and Jerry together. Him warming up to me.

Us becoming closer than blood brothers. Us against the world. Us trained by father throughout the years. I now understood better why father stopped with the bed time stories soon after Landon arrived. Why the switch flipped. It didn't justify it but I understood and I wished it didn't hurt this much.

Landon was never just an adopted sibling to me, he was someone I actively protected even more so that we grew up under the same brutal training regime by my father. We have been training and working together in the Guild for years. I trusted Landon implicitly. You don't suspect a brother you've protected since he was 5 years old.

Right now.. Landon's betrayal felt like a massive knife to the chest.

My throat tightened as I realised why Landon wanted Celine gone. It was his trauma triggering him to behave the way he was. In his mind, Isabel was responsible for Madrina Olivia (Godmother Olivia) and El Padrino Gustavo's (Godfather Gustavo's) death.

The best friend was the threat.

So when I said I wanted to leave with Celine, it made him feel I was going to abandon him and leave too. That 'the best friend' - Celine would take me away from him. I pulled the car in reverse and slammed my head against the steering wheel as I cried.

I cried for the brother I never knew was hurting. For the 5 year old version of Landon who was all alone with his parents' bodies in a mansion. For the brother who betrayed me. For the brother I swore to protect but failed because I never knew the demons tormenting him.

Witnessing a horrific murder-suicide at that age explains why Landon's mind fractured so deeply, and why he was able to build such a perfect, sociopathic mask over the next 25 years but it still felt surreal. He literally grew up learning how to hide his catatonic trauma from me and his adoptive parents, tricking mom and dad into thinking all these years that he was fine and happy by my side but all along the way.. He was a ticking bomb.

God if I had known.. I would have never uttered those words that day. That god forsaken day. I would have made him understand instead that I would take him with me too and never leave him behind. Heck maybe if I had known since we were kids, I would have tried to get him to open up to me, to speak to me about his fears and pain. Maybe all of this could have been avoided.

I don't know how long I cried, how long my heart bled, how long pure sounds of agony left my soul but by the time I was back on the road, my body felt lifeless, my soul hollowed from everything I felt.

There was only one thing left to do.

Confronting Landon.

And ending it all for good.