Boxes & Smoke

Box 10

Alexei

"Melissa,"

Carver took a step to Travis' corpse. At the moment he didn't plan on being wary about what the three of them could do to him. His hand unsigned the rifle as his knuckles turned white in clutching to its grip.

He kneeled on the floor as his hands touched Travis' face to close his eyes. To think that his friend would meet his fate in the hands of the woman he had longed to always reach from afar is something Carver couldn't shrug. They might've grown up with Melissa but only Travis had been so close to her. After all this time, Travis had always been right there to keep her at bay. And then the day had come when he alone couldn't save her anymore.

If only I had seen and understood it sooner...

Though he knows that this isn't the time to contemplate things. He'll mourn later. Right now there's still some business to do.

Veleno took the front to cover Melissa and Kinsley Schleifer but the Lacroix secretary touched the assassin's shoulder. Melissa smiled and Carver had almost forgotten Sarah's wish to him.

"Don't give our dear Veleno that face." Melissa giggled. "It wasn't entirely her fault. You see, Sarah isn't my biological sister"

Carver's brows creased. The head of the Lacroix organization had two daughters and he knew that too well. If an issue like that had existed then Carver would've known it right away. For even, the most taboo secrets of the organization were entrusted by him.

"If there's someone who's adopted between the two of you then it would be you, Melissa," he said. He saw how Melissa's smile faded on the taunt.

"You're like my father. But I know better," she muttered. "The blood of the Lacroix doesn't run into her veins and yet our father still prefers someone like her! Why do you all choose her over me?! I'm the real heiress of the Lacroix. There is no point for her to exist"

"Are you meaning to say.." Carver started his eyes deeply marked on her figure as his hands were itching to set the rifle aimed towards Melissa.

"I hired Veleno to kill her. And I succeeded, now I just need to worry about the old man. When he dies, the organization would be in my hands" she smiled again.

Now it all came to Carver. If there's someone close enough to manipulate the data and report used by Sarah to formulate their strategy on that day, it'll be Melissa. Aside from him, she was the closest one to Sarah. And Sarah had trusted her sister more than anything.

Carver had always thought that Melissa was harmless. The same way he had thought about Paisley but he was mistaken. Melissa had been manipulating the strings all this time. Only Travis had seen through her.

He didn't want to accept it, but that's how a legitimate throne holder of the Lacroix mafia would act.