Liam began to come into my room less and less over the next few days. The nights began to grow long for me as I waited for him to come to bed... but he never did. Instead, he would spend his nights in his office, working long hours in isolation.

I used to go in his office, check in on him, try and make any kind of conversation I could. But each time I did, I felt like an annoyance to him. He would just type away on his computer, not even bothering to engage in conversation with me. If anything, he would just flat out ignore me, only to give me a halfhearted apology and blame it on his work.

We hadn't gone out to eat, or had dinner together either. The only interaction I've had with him is when I sit in on his meetings with him, but even those have been going poorly lately. There were some days where he would even attend meetings by himself, leaving the estate without a word only to come back late in the evening. He would occasionally give me a quick kiss on the forehead, or a peck on the lips before returning to his office, but other than that, we didn't talk much. Actually, there were days where we didn't talk at all.

I know he was stressed out, I know that he was trying his best to hold everything together, but I felt lonely. I felt ignored and unheard. Even though I tried to fight it, I began to feel resentful. I resented the fact that he had this kind of control over me, over my emotions.

I've never cared for relationships. I never longed for one, never wished for anyones attention before. But with Liam... he has me all sorts of fucked up. I missed him. I missed the way we used to talk over dinner, I miss the way he used to hold me while we slept, I miss the way he used to look at me, how he used to kiss me.

It was miserable. I felt as if I couldn't be alone with my own thoughts, because every thought I had was of missing him. Even when we were in the same room, I couldn't help but feel a pang of loneliness.

So instead of wallowing in a pool of my own self pity, I kept myself busy. James had tasked me with overseeing the security for the estate, and to say their security was a joke would be an understatement. All their flashy security measures would do nothing to stop anyone with a sliver of skill, so revamping everything was just the distraction I needed.

When I wasn't working on that, I was with Nova. Usually we would eat in the dining hall, or I would spend some time sparing and training with her. She was one of the best here, and I could tell she was getting better everyday.

And in the evenings instead of spending time alone in my room, waiting for Liam to come by, I instead worked on deciphering the wire transfers, looking at the transfers that occurred within three months of Marias death. It was calming, getting lost within the routing numbers, looking at each account holding wondering if they were going to be the one I get to kill.

I was sitting at my desk, crossing yet another name off my list. One thing I knew about Nadia was that she never liked to have the same people on her crew. I wasn't sure why, but she was always paranoid that if she saw the same person twice in her crew, they were going to try and kill her. And the wire transfers show proof of that. Each person was different, and she never paid the same person twice.

I inputted the routing number that I was on, waiting for a moment as my computer processed who it belong to. I raised a brow as I saw Feliepe Lombardi's name pop up on my screen. I stared at his name for a moment as his words echoed through my mind.

She still owes me money from that job. I've been trying to track down the little bitch for months.

She paid him.

I opened up his profile. Looking into his accounting and routing number one more time. I recited the numbers in my head, memorizing them quickly before cross referencing them on the list. My eyes scanned the document, looking through page after page until I found what I was looking for.

There was another person Nadia paid, who had the same account and routing information. On the documents, it showed that she paid Feliepe Lombardi, but the money was sent to someone else's account. Nadia was meticulous, she didn't make mistakes.

I quickly inputted the account information into my program, waiting for a moment as it processed the data, my eyes staring at the screen in anticipation. When it finally finished processing, I grit my teeth as I saw the name.

Leah LeCroix.

The name that popped up wasn't unfamiliar to me. It was a woman that I did dozens of missions with. A woman who was known in Corporate as a genius, a revolutionary hacker.

No one ever knew the truth about Leah LeCroix. But rumor has it that she a genius. She could completely destroy any security system from behind a screen. It was even whispered that she hacked into the Pentagon just because she was bored. Her skill, and her genius made it easy for her to climb the Corporate ladder. I've known her since I was a girl, and she was apart of the training program at a young age. No one ever knew where she came from, or what her story was. But she rarely talked, always going to her room after training and sitting behind a computer for hours.

She grew up to be an intimidating woman, mainly because you know that she can find out your entire life with a click of a button. She would find out your weaknesses, whether it was your friends, family, any bit of information she can find on you, she would use it against you.

Back when we grew up together, she was Maria's rival. Leah and her were always top of the class, and the instructors would always put them against each other. Maria would always tell me how frustrating it was going against her, how she was training harder everyday just to beat her. I would watch as Leah would play dirty, breaking nearly every rule just to beat my sister, but in the end, Maria always came out on top.

Everyone knew about Leahs competitive nature, so each time my sister beat her, she grew more and more hateful towards her. So part of me wasn't surprised that she was apart of the crew that killed her.

I spent hours doing research, spending more time than usual hacking into her bank accounts. I already knew that she was going to add extra cyber protection to everything she was tied to, so I spent most of the night programming software to bypass her security.

After a few hours, I finally thought I had it, only to run my program and hit a wall. I groaned slightly as I hit my head on my desk, closing my burning eyes and resting for a moment. I heard a ping on my computer, and I looked up to my cursor moving across my screen. I furrowed my brows as I watched it move, opening up a notepad before someone began typing.

Hello Mila. Trying to find me?

My heart sank. I knew she was good, but never to this extent. She found me immediately, getting through my own security software with ease.

I'll save you the trouble. 741 Via Condoli. One hour.

I grit my teeth as I stared at the screen in front of me for a few minutes, waiting for Leah to say something else, but she never did. I narrowed my eyes before checking my security software, kicking her out of my computer before wiping it completely and erasing all of its data.

The address she sent me was for an abandoned warehouse that was under construction not far from here. I stood up, gripping my injured ribs in the process. I did want to wait until I was fully healed before doing anything, but this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. She openly gave me her location, and part of me knew that if I didn't meet up with her today, it was only a matter of time before she came after me, or even worse, gave my real location to Corporate.

I slowly looked over towards the closet Liam bought for me, the light colored, lavish clothes hung neatly on the hangers. I looked at it for a moment before turning towards my old closet. I walked in, looking at the sea of black clothes and guns. I quickly changed into a casual outfit before I turned to the cases on guns in the center of the room. I quickly opened the case, taking out two handguns, a few knives, and some ammo before walking out of the room.

I put my hands in the pockets of my jacket, walking through the empty hallways as I made my way towards the front door. I glanced over at Liam's office, surprised to see that the door was open.

Like always, he was behind his desk, his laptop in front of him, papers scattered everywhere. I stood in front of the door, looking over at him. I waited there for a moment, waiting to see if he'd even notice me.

I wasn't even surprised when he didn't lift his head, nor acknowledge my presence at all.