Trigger Warning : Murder, Dead body.

The day halted with the news of the sudden demise of the Pope. People immediately started traveling from all of Europe towards Milan where the Pope was currently situated. Venezia, taking the advantage of her emotions requested everyone to leave herself alone in the pope's chambers to have some time alone with her father in solitude. She had all the raw crime scene to herself which she took her time to clearly investigate.

Somewhere in her mind, she was sure that the pope could never take his life on his own. He was so adequately full of himself and arrogant that he could never rely to trust anyone in order to take up the future from his hands. She just needed some time and patience to calm herself enough and notice the details in order to prove herself that this is not a suicide. She moved towards the wine cellar first which was kept aside in this old vintage room. The rustic texture simply enhanced the room's aura and signified many large to small celebratory moments the Pope must've had there. After a quick second of nostalgia, Venezia traced the rows of wine, proudly pieced out in the wine cellar with her index finger running smoothly on the surface. Her eyes took attendance of each wine and ...

Mark picked the best wine imported from Switzerland as a his random choice, complimenting the Pope first, while he was tied down with a rope, stuck with a cloth on his mouth. "Hmm, quite a impeccable taste!" after a minute to walking back he continued. "wonder how it tastes like?"

Her eyelids shifted from left to right, tracing 180 degrees of her area after which she finally decided to come back to the original spot. Bending a knee , she picked a pinch drop of the spilled wine from the floor on her index finger and intensely gazed at it with a single mind.

"Take that last sip, slowly, it's the last wine you're enjoying in your life." Mark instructed, giving a cold stare into the Pope's eyes with a sinister smile of his face. He loosely held his neck to avoid the inconvenience coming from his resistant face, not intending of choking him neither leaving his hand marks on it. When the Pope looked at him cynically, his hands were shaking to convey hesitation and fear, Mark noticed it and felt bad. But more than that, his rage blinded him and he expressed by banging his other hand on the arm of the chair. "I wish you wouldn't have been in this situation, if you hadn't killed the love of my life." The Pope tried to nod a 'no' and resist even more, being completely drained of feeling scared but his face withheld stiff by another figure behind.  

Looking straight into the eyes of her dead father was so not easy for Venezia to handle, but she tried doing it anyway. She focused on his neck, found nothing as such than the pale skin. Then she moved towards his wrist, touching the cold surface lightly. The nails were numb with a light shade of blue inside and the palm was solid hard after turning cold-blooded. Nothing but the thought of death came into Venezia's mind. Her lips parted in anxiety and she did not notice that she was sweating. Sitting on her knees, she was so concentrated on studying the Pope's body from a distance, that she did not allow even her body to move. She noticed the fine lines, the ash grey hair, the wrinkles of his face and his open mouth until her vision got stuck on his in-evident jawline.

Rio carefully held the knife with his thumb resting on the surface of the blade near the Pope's face, just with an intention to threaten him. His face was covered with his iconic black cape for which he was famous for in Venice and didn't really revealed much of himself to the victim, feeling slightly guilty. 

 A slight cut was barely noticeable because it wasn't bloody but it was there. Looking closely she realized, she never saw even a pinch of needle being poked to the Pope. She knew her father very well and how he treated himself so precious to even be touched upon by anyone and this, this cut denoted pain. A kind of physical pain he would've never experienced since his late childhood. Whatever the scene was, one thing she appreciated, was that the method he got murdered with, left not a single evidence. "Since when did Mark got so clever ?" was the question that left her aghast. But, the criminal always leaves an evidence behind, believing on this she wanted to believe on the slight proof she got. Surely her mind was still skeptical if she wanted to blindly trust on it, but it was ironically big enough to spark a fire against Mark.

They waited for a day to start the grand funeral , but for now the Pope was covered inside the casket. From white, Venezia's attire changed into black and many matched her. It continued for three days, every day being an event of people coming and going, some sympathizing and others just came for their kind courtesy. It was tiring for her to interact with so many unknown people just for the heck of it but her mind couldn't stop creating conclusions about Mark, which kept her busy. She kept returning to her memory to find a definite reason why Mark would become a murderer besides the knowledge of her fake death. Something just didn't quite built the pieces of this puzzle together. It wasn't in the nature of Mark to do such a thing.

"There must be a strict reason" she whispered to Hannah while thinking deeply, who was greeting the guests while standing diagonally behind her.

"I'm sorry, m'lady?" Hannah asked, confused.

After an hour or so, Venezia was sitting alone, beside a huge window in her room. Hand on hand, she noticed the silence and looked outside in her stage of deep depression. After hearing a light knock on her door, she allowed the person in who requested to see her so urgently. Standing up, she looked down and tried straightening her dress but was instantly met with a tight hug. It was her best friend, Daisy. Who was finally back from the Vatican, in order to check on her after hearing the news. It wasn't a joyful hug that she was met with, but sure a sudden one.

"Jesus Christ! I've missed you" Daisy blurted while still holding her in a hug. "how are you?"

"I'm alright, come, sit with me!" Venezia responded while parting away and offering her to sit right beside from where she was sitting before.

"I know I'm late, Now how do i back you up with all my misery."  Daisy tried to hesitantly distract her sad best friend's mind. She took an awkward pause expecting a reply but Venezia even avoided to meet her gaze, so she continued "uh, by the way!! I've bought all your stuff from the Vatican!" she said in an overly excited tone, but then toned down gradually in a flow. "I assumed you will be staying here from now on, until the next papal elections. Don't worry, you're not alone . I'll be here with you." she kept a hand on hers in order to reassure her, lightly pressing it to and gave an empathetic smile.

"Thank you daisy, whatever you do, just never leave my side!" Venezia acknowledged her feeling utterly lonely at this point. Her heart felt empty and her mind was distressed. All she needed was this little reassurance that came up from her. She stood from her place suddenly and moved towards the place where daisy kept her unopened baggage. She emptied it in a hurry hoping to find some clues from her past while daisy kept blabbering in the background to fill the silence.

She found some letters, clothes and a bible she left at her room back in the Convent. The letters were from her father, the Pope. She picked it up and held it close to her chest in sorrow. When her mind finally came back to finding Daisy's voice and figuring sense out of her chatters, Daisy scoffed. "Oh and i know that you ran away with that Prince who came to our Convent. hehehe! the hottest prince in entire Europe. Don't worry, it didn't spread like a wildfire , and some thought of it being just a silly rumor. But I think it's true! did you really do that? " She held Venezia's both hands intriguingly in excitement that she forgot to notice the letters in it. Venezia acknowledged and slightly nodded yes feeling startled with everything. She felt so lost, mostly because her thoughts were running somewhere else, figuring out Mark's situation but Daisy mistook it with grief. After covering a lot of awkward silences, she gave up and asked Venezia to rest up.

"I'll be back to check up on you!" she shut the door behind and left Venezia alone in her room again.  Venezia leaned back, staring at the letter and back at her simple days in Convent. That's when it struck her. The night she had her first big fight with Mark and after she wrote an apology letter, eventually crushed it in front of his door and left after what she saw in the room. Mark has somewhat been like this, taking extreme measures to relieve his anger. This has always been in his nature.