"You knew about my parents after all?"

"Yes," Vincent admitted.

"So you lied to me."

"No, I just withheld the truth."

"Which is no better than lying. You told me that you didn't know anything about them."

"You weren't aware of the situation happening with your parents and it wasn't my place to tell you about it."

We laid in the bed on our sides facing each other and I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

"Yeah, you're right."

"Aren't you upset with me?" He asked.

"No." He gently placed his hand on the side of my neck. "I want to be though."

My head felt heavier and my eyes began to sting.

"What's wrong?"

"I just got this massive headache." I closed my eyes because I assumed that it was a migraine.

Vincent's hand left my face to go rummaging for something in his pocket.

"I was going to give this to you later but you need it now."

My eyes hesitantly opened and I saw him hold up a little glass bottle with a brown spongelike cap on it. There was a light blue liquid swirling inside.

"This will help you whenever you feel weak. Like I've said before, you need to be physically harmed in order for the serum to work."

"If I could just go to the skatepark I can easily get a scraped knee." I thought back to when I was younger and would go to the park to practice new skills on my board with city noobs.

"I know you miss riding that death trap, but you risk being seen. Especially since you're practically a celebrity now." He poked my stomach and I giggled lightly.

"It is pretty exciting." I smiled but the movement made my headache worse.

"Drink it. I have more if needed."

I glanced at him one last time before popping the top of the bottle and hastily drowning my mouth in it so my pain would go away.

The antidote was smooth and didn't taste as horrid as I thought until the aftertaste kicked it. It was sweet like honey but punched the back of my throat with the sourness of a citrus fruit.

I scrunched my lips and grabbed the glass of water on my nightstand.

"Do you know why I gave you the serum that day?"

I shook my head.

Maybe I didn't have to ask him all of my questions. It was as if he knew what I was aching to ask.

I always thought he gave me the serum because of my asthma attack since he gave Claire the serum for her heart.

"For months my father had been working on a serum that would heal others in the blink of an eye: Experiment X.
Ronnie was the only subject that Leonardo was testing in order to keep everything seclusive. Right before Violet and I ran away I took a vile of your dad's blood from my father's office so I could further the results. Leonardo was trying to do so many things at one time and his focus wavered away from Experiment X. I took it upon myself to perfect the serum."

"So did the experiment work on my dad, or not?" My eyebrows met in the middle of my forehead.

"It did, and that's the weird part. After making sure that Experiment X was showing progress, Leonardo brought in more people to test the product on but they died soon after the injection. When I gave Claire the serum she also responded negatively. I kept remembering how your father hadn't died from Experiment X, and when I first met you I was curious."

"You were curious or you thought I was a wildcard?" My tone was firm and agitation began to rise in my chest as my headache sailed away.

"It made sense at the time. Maybe it only worked on your dad because Leonardo built the serum around his blood, and you are his blood. Leonardo will see that I can take over the company."

I was aware of this already. Vincent only wanted to prove something to his father and that's the main reason I was going to Italy with him.

He wanted his admiration, and nothing could beat the pride that a father has for his son.

I was a guinea pig in Experiment X and Vincent knew that giving me the test was a risk. Before he probably didn't care if I died from the serum. He would've just looked for someone else to test on.

The thought of taking risks always excited me. However, with risks comes having to expect the unexpected.

My risk: traveling with the man I was to kill long ago.

What I might expect: for that man to see me only as a shiny gold medal at a science fair.

"That'll show him." I kept quiet of my true feelings on the situation because I was too exhausted, and I just wanted to sleep. Even if it was in a bed with him.

Shifting to my side, I turned the light off and instantly felt an arm being wrapped around my stomach.

I heard the jazz blasting from the earbud he had in.

"I promise we will get your dad out of jail. You know that I don't break my promises," he whispered into the darkness.

* * *

8 years ago (13-years-old)

The mala hanging from Mom's car mirror chimed together as she drove us further and further away from our home.

"Where's daddy?" I gripped the teddy bear in my arms as Mom made a sharp turn.

"Don't worry about that right now honey. How's Mr. Crystal doing?" She looked at me through the driver's mirror.

"He's a little scared and he wants to go home. So do I. I hate traveling without Daddy."

"Cynthia, we are going to a new home, and hate is a very strong word. Don't be sad honey. What do we always say?"

"Home is where your heart is," I said and saw that we pulled into the back of a grocery store parking lot.

"And you are my heart. I need to see your Aunt Tanya and I will be back before you know it." She turned around and gripped my chin. There was a dark purple circle eating at her cheek and I wanted nothing more than to ask about it but she left before I could say another word.

Aunt Tanya was Isaac's mom. She worked long shifts at this grocery store which is why Isaac was always at our house.

I saw that Mom left the keys in the ignition so I decided to turn on the radio. The song playing was my favorite.

The trunk held five suitcases, including my Dora backpack and an unfamiliar brown bag.

"Where do you think we're going Mr. Crystal?" The dark eyes of the stuffed animal stared back at me as I was begging it to open its sewed lips.

The first time I saw Mom hurt was when Dad started to act different. He came home smelling terrible and he would break everything because he would be upset.

He even stopped practicing. Even though he quit touring years ago, he would always play his saxophone in the living room when he came home from work. I would always try to match the key of the strange notes on his music sheets.

I bet Mom was afraid of the big, scary man from that stormy day. He had a weird accent that I would never forget. His eyes were the color of emerald city on fire and I was way to scared to look into them for too long.

He only came by the house once and brought two boys with him. The oldest one had long hair and the younger one had the most beautiful eyes. They were much lighter than his father's, and I wished that I could see them from the staircase I was hiding on but the boy kept his head down. He must've been shy like me.

I started getting anxious as the time passed by and Mom had yet made her way back. After much consideration, I broke and slung the brown bag over the seat next to me.

The bag was full of little plastic baggies with pretty roses on them. What appeared to be purple mints was in the bags.

Right as I went to open a bag, I heard a loud pop that made my ears ring.

Outside my window I saw Mom and Aunt Nadia running toward the car with Isaac clenching his mother's hand. Mom had a big box held to her chest.

Isaac's dad was holding the store's door closed behind them but it thrusted open. He tried to hold back the men that were behind him but they shot him once they came through. He was on the ground in seconds.

The four men were on skateboards and had guns in their hands. A bullet hit the window I was staring out of and I luckily bent down on the car's floor.

My heart was beating out of my chest when the door of van was slid open and my cousin jumped into the backseat with me. Isaac slid the door close.

Isaac sat on the floor next to me and kept my head down since the men were still shooting at the windows.

"Tanya, get the kids out of here. Cynthia and Isaac's new identification cards are in the brown bag," Mom yelled as she pushed Auntie into the driver's seat.

"Kathy, I am not leaving you!" Auntie tried to pry the door back open but she couldn't match Mom's strength and the door was pushed closed again. "The baby!"

"It'll be fine. Get out of here. Go!"
With hesitation, the wheels squealed and we jolted back as the car sped off leaving my mother behind.

I regretted getting up to look through the back window because I heard another pop and Mom collapsed. She fell on her knees and even at the illegal speed the car was going I could see her lips tilt. A tear slowly rolled down her face.

She smiled. She smiled. She smiled.

I didn't scream. I couldn't make a sound.

I wanted to rip my heart out because it hurt. I didn't want it anymore because it wasn't mine. My heart was smiling at me from an eternity away and the heart that was beating in my chest made me frown.

I hate...I hate...I hate.

"Who were those men?" I asked Aunt Tanya as she swerved onto the expressway.

"They wanted to steal your mom's car."

Liar.

* * *

You're no longer Cynthia Washington.

Your name is Amari Taylor.

Your name is Amari Taylor.

"Which one of you is the great Amari Taylor?" Henry's blue eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"I'm Amari Taylor. Nice to meet you."