"Come on. Explain to me!" Tony demands loudly after he hears a click on the door, a sign that they're now safe to talk about anything so no one will hear.

Hermione glances at the file on the table. Although she never thought anyone would find it, but it's not a surprise to know Tony finds it.

Even if she's a pro at dealing with dead people and killing humans, Hermione never thought that to be facing Tony is still the hardest thing to do in her life. It takes everything in her to not to cry in front of him -- or shut her eyes and seal her hearing with pillows -- and just look at him with a look that she thought the most frightening look. At Villa, Arnold once taught her to lift up her chin and look at the person in front and never blink if you want to sacare him/her. Now she's doing it. But to compete with Tony's big eyes? She knows she's losing.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, Helen!" It's so odd but nice at the same time to be able to pronounce that name again, especially knowing that the person is not dead as he thinks. "I want you to explain to me everything. From A to Z. I want to know." Tony stands still at the end of her bed, arms crossed on his chest.

Hermione rolls her eyes and let out a scoff. She shakes her head, not believing what is happening to her right now. "There are cameras everywhere, Mr. Stark," she points out, addressing the man like how the people in TVs address him. Tony has to admit here that is breaks his heart hearing his own daughter calling him that like they never knew each other.

"Who gives you the right call me 'Mr. Stark?'" Tony's voice was cold. He then continues without waiting Hermione's answer. It was a rhetorical question anyway. "I'd disabled all the security systems so I can talk to you about this in private. I want you swear that you tell me everything."

The girl looks at him with eyebrows knitted together, angry. "To whom should I swear to? My mother?" she retorts with the sassy mouth she's got there. "You don't have anything to know about and I refuse to open up to you even if it's... you should know."

"You know I know everything already. I've collected your data as much and the techman, who you thought was doing his work perfectly, failed to conceal your identity. At least to me," Tony says, in which relaxes Hermione at his last sentence. At least, it is Tony who knows not some strangers who may plan to plan a muder on her, as much as she hates know. "So now, Helen Stark," Tony pronounces her full name like he used to when she was in trouble when she was young. His voice holds like a businessman that Hermione hated so much, "tell me everything."

"I don't care what you say but I won't tell you anything." Hermione's face is in deep shed of red for holding her anger deep inside. Her nose is now flared with invisible smoke than only a true imaginator could see. She keeps her cold gaze on Tony as Tony do the same.

The man sighs, rubbing his face with both of his hands before they land on the portable table to hold his body weight while he leans. He doesn't like to see the look on Hermione's eyes when she's looking at him -- like there's no mercy in her eyes anymore -- so he keeps his eyes on the wooden-coloured file on the table, thinking the next move.

"We both know well I won't give up, Helen," Tony finally speaks after a seconds of silence. His hand has turning the file open. "I don't want to do this but you force me to."

"I didn't force you anything," Hermione replies before Tony even finishes his sentence. "I didn't force anyone to do anything. I do and did them on myself. Because that's better than knowing I don't have anyone there with me."

"But you could've said no," Tony responds back. It's like looking at his nightmare when he reads Hermione's history especially one part that says about killing people. "You have choices but you chose to be an assassin. Why?"

"Because I feel alive when I kill people," Hermione says with a flat voice. If she wanted to, she could cry right there and show her real emotion while telling the truth why she chose to be an assasin instead of giving the alternative answer, but she figures it's not the best way for some personal reasons.

"How can you feel alive when you kill people when you know that," leaving the file open, Tony moves to the bedside, "there are wives and children waiting for their father at home? Have you never think about that?" It is not his place to ask these questions. It is Director Fury, but he has the right. He has the right.

"I do think of them," Hermione replies. "In fact every second before I pulled the trigger. But then I think again: why should I bother? If I can cope living after my mother killed herself after her husband left her and not returning her calls; if I can continue my life knowing that I have a father but never thought about me even a second, why can't they?"

The questions Hermione asks generally slap Tony in the face hard. He can even hear the loud pang in his ears that he thought he is really being slapped by Hermione's hands. If this is not business, he doesn't know what to do and how to handle the case. He's glad to know that he has a reason to be doing this though unofficially.

"I never got an attention. But when I want it, I'd do anything to get it."

"How do you know they can live with the lost of their loved ones, Helen? -- Or Hermione as you preferred to. I read your data and it says that, you changed your name to Hermione as soon as you're adopted by a man named Arnold-"

"Don't talk about Arnold in front of me," Hermione warns the man in front of her through her clenched jaws with full of hatred. "And for your information, Arnold is not just a man. He is everything a young daughter needs from a father."

"Don't compare me with him, Helen! I am your father; not him!" Tony snaps, making Hermione jumps on her bed. Without telling to, both of their eyes begin to wet.

"A father loves his daughter," Hermione can't help to yell back at him. She's mad but she doesn't want to do it because he's still her father, the one she remembers to tuck her to sleep but she's losing her temper at the moment. And she's tired of keeping everything. "A father won't leave his daughter," she contiues. "And a father won't make his daughter suffer and makes her watch her mother kills herself."

Tony catches his breath as he stares at Hermione who is now broken down. It tightens his heart to watch his own daughter crying in pain. As much as he's itchy to hug his daughter and whisper soothing words in her ears, he knows she won't want it especially now that she hates him. He can see it in her eyes. To hear about his previous wife killed herself after he left is one of the worst things he'd ever heard. Now he could only imagine the darkness of Hermione's life with his mistake.

"Helen..."

"I don't want you to interrogate me, Mr. Stark," Hermione speaks when she calms down. Her mouth almost called 'Dad.' "Get me Fury, Natasha, or Hill, I don't care as long as it's not you. I figure this is only going to be personal if we talk."

Hermione has a point, Tony thought. "But it's not going to be easy with either of them," he tells her. His fatherly heart understood that it's going to be complicated if he was the one who do the interrogation although he wanted to do it himself. But he knows too that Hermione won't tell him anything if he's incharge in the interrogation.

"I don't care," Hermione answers gravely. "I hate to see your face." She has no choice but to throw that word to make Tony makes up his mind as quick as she would like to.

Tony shut his eyes. It stings his ears to hear the words and it stabs his heart to see how real the words are. At his sides, he balled his hands into fists, helping himself to stay calm to deal with Hermione. He has to accept that Hermione is a reflection of himself that teaches him how to handle her. It gives him a wide view that shows him how strong Pepper has been to live with him for almost a decade.

"But they can't know that you're my daughter."

"Why can't them?" Hermione quickly asks. "Ashamed that she's an assassin, someone you can't be proud of? That you're a genius and I am just an assassin that kills innocent people? That I am supposed to be like you but I am not?"

"It is not like that."

"Or am I just a mistake you did with Mom? That's why you left us?"

"It's- it's not like that."

"Because you do not want to deal with me so you let me lived by myself." Hermione laughs at herself as if she's crazy. "I see it now Mr. Stark. The secret's starkly showing in front of me like how stark my secret is opening in front of you." She refers to the file on the table. "So I made the right choice-"

"It's not like that!" Tony repeats louder than Hermione's voice that it makes her shut herself up. "If I tell them you're my daughter they're going to ask you about your past -- which I know you hate to be reminded. And they'll make you tell about the man who adopted you and the person who's incharge in the programme you're now working with."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Do you want to let them now? About your pathetic life? And let them finish the people you know? The one you care about?"

"The one who has the pathetic life is you, Mr. Stark, not me." Hermione has no fear to point it back to her father. "And I have every way to convince them what they know about Wit-Assassin Villa is fake. I am an assassin. I know every trick to put my interrogator down." Hermione's father's heart clench. "Now I want you to wipe out every information about the Villa. As far as I know it's only you who knows about this. They don't." She doesn't know how she can tolerate with Tony right now. Maybe the bonding is still strong after all.

"Are you ordering me?" Tony asks in disbelief. "Are you ordering me?"

"Hell, yes, I am ordering you!" Hermione exclaims. "Plus, they won't know if you didn't give them what you have. I don't care if they kill me if I don't give them answers. I don't have anyone to live anymore."

"Don't you dare say that again!" Tony points his finger at Hermione's face.

"So do it," Hermione says with a slight shrug and a small triumphant smile on her face.

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Dedicating this chapter to @littlethormaid11 . Thank you for supporting this book since I first posted it. I love you :)