"You sure you're okay?" He asked for what feels like the fifteenth time.

"No, I've lived in Russia for eighteen years and can't hail a taxi myself," I replied with sarcasm.

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "I'm just concerned." And he leaned in for a hug.

It was now nine in the morning and I just left Peter's apartment, making my way to a more populated area where it was more likely to find a taxi. Peter's apartment was in the area near to Cinder Edge Avenue, which was where I spent four years of my life barely surviving.

As I made a right turn up the alley, I felt a presence behind me, creeping up on me that I felt a warm breath near my ear. I sensed a pair of hands reaching for my face, and I managed to duck before the person could do so. I then used my elbow and aimed at the person's chest, making them stumble backwards and nailed them down by tripping their balance with my leg.

"Ouch!" The person exclaimed before I had a proper look at them and recognised who it was.

My face turned into confusion. "Ophelia?" What was she doing creeping up on me?

She groaned and stood up. "Hello to you too, Tiana. Got some new moves I see."

I knew Ophelia during my time in the streets. She was and probably still is the leader of one of the larger gangs here. She ran an all-female gang and we even worked together once.

I ignored her statement and narrowed my eyes on her, "Why did you try to attack me?"

She gave me a weird expression. "You're asking the questions? You disappeared for half a year and just all of a sudden decided to pop back up?" She scoffed, "I jumped on you just in case what I heard was false and you weren't at the diner yesterday."

Well this is sure a surprise, didn't know if anyone would realise I was gone.

"I was... away," I answered briefly and thankfully she didn't look like she cared about asking further.

Instead, she said, "Good to know you didn't kill Zari."

My eyes widened. "What? You thought that I killed Zari?"

"I didn't, that was what other people were saying. Some people came up with the theory that you went all crazy, killed her and was sent to a mental facility." I was a topic of gossip? That's new...

"That wasn't what happened." I quickly debunked those gossips.

"It's definitely confirmed now, by the leather jacket and boots you're wearing. Both of which cost a few hundred dollars." She raised her eyebrows at me and I blushed. Both of those were bought by Nicandro when I lived in his mansion, which I didn't ask him to, but accepted it anyway as I didn't want the money to go to waste.

I tried to change the topic. "Anything else you needed now that you confirmed it was me at the diner?"

"Watch your back," she said and that caused my ears to perk up. "Last week, one of my contacts at the police station said that the captain asked him to dig up the file of a case file of Zari since it was probably buried by now. He then saw the captain having a meeting with this man in his office and passing him the file."

My heart rate quickened. Shit, someone knows. Whatever it is, it can't be good.

"He did say this man had an ugly scar on his face, most likely from fire." She added on and my heart almost shot out from my chest. What were the odds that the man is Luis, one of the men from Felon's inner circle. Flashes of my two interaction with him; in Thailand and Spain appeared in my mind and I pushed them away quickly.

"I see from your expression you know what's happening. And don't worry, I didn't tell anyone this information. Whatever it is, I've got a feeling not knowing is better than knowing it. Consider me telling you this a favour for the thing you did two years ago." I gave her a nod and she patted me on the shoulder before walking away.

I stood in that alley for the next five minutes, nothing else on my mind except that Felon was onto me. He knew. He had known for the last few months that I had knowledge about what happened to my parents. He then told Helena the information so she could enact her revenge as well as get rid of me at the same time. Now, he probably knew Helena was dead and thinks I'm the one who killed her.

Nonetheless, I made it to the front gates of Anton's house eventually. I was standing in the street where it looked like the whole street was where the rich people lived. I pressed the buzzer on the pillar at the side of the gate, and an unknown male voice came out of the receiver. "State your name and business here?"

"Tiana. I'm here to see Anton. Tell him she's here to talk about Helena." He definitely wouldn't want to ignore me if he wanted to.

The line was silent so I assumed he went to check with Anton while I waited outside. It took a good few minutes for the gates to open and I made my way to the front door to see an anxious-looking Anton. He didn't say anything to me as he held open the door as I stepped into his big house, I noticed a middle-aged woman who looked at me warily from the other room. It took a few seconds for it to click in my head that that woman is his wife.

Now I know why it took a few minutes.

She didn't say a word to me, and I wondered what was going through her mind. She definitely knew who I was, but it was to what extent her knowledge of this whole thing had me curious. I followed Anton and he closed the door behind me as I walked into his office, gesturing for me to take a seat. He was still silent as he poured a glass of water and what looked like whiskey, set both glasses on the table in front of me, taking a seat opposite me on his armchair.

"I think I'll need something strong for whatever you came here to say." He finally spoke, voice filled with annoyance as he took a sip of his drink.

I have the right to be pissed at me, for not telling me about Helena and maybe Leah when I met with him last year. Maybe I wouldn't be stabbed and had a proper relationship with my half-sister who is also my last living biological relative. But instead, I feel pity for him. That after almost two decades, he was still living in fear of Felon. He probably hasn't felt completely free since the plane crash and his guilty conscience weighing on him ever since.

"I think you'll need it," I said, not wanting to waste time talking about his wife. Because frankly, it wasn't my business and he deserved whatever was coming to him for keeping secrets from her. "Helena came to Singapore."

His face went pale, obviously shocked that I knew the name. I continued, "She infiltrated into my life by dating Breton. And how she's dead."

"Oh my god." He covered his mouth in shock as he processed the information. "How-"

"No." I raised my voice at him. "You don't get to ask me for answers when you haven't given me a single honest one. Helena was the one who provided Minh and Roman's travel plans to Felon, I know she told you because the both of you had a fling going on and didn't like the path Roman was going down with drug dealing. You knew Felon was going to kill them and you didn't warn them! How could you-"

"They were doomed either way!" Anton countered back and whispered shouted at me, not wanting his wife to hear as she was probably outside trying to listen in. "At the time, Felon already had control of more than half of their assets, it was only a matter of time before he took over control. He actually gave them mercy by killing them discreetly instead of humiliating them by torturing them to say that he defeated them, therefore taking control of the business. It only clicked when he revealed his identity, his priority was gaining enough power to overthrow his father rather than have the satisfaction of tearing them down."

He knew. And he let them die.

I was fuming with anger and I took deep breaths, staring into Anton's eyes, finding any remorse. I did, which was the reason why I didn't reach over to give him a punch. "Now tell me the truth whether you knew I survived the crash."

"I didn't. You didn't deserve to be dragged into your parents' mess and I would've done everything in my power to ensure that." I scoffed at that and he frowned at me.

"No thanks, I'm glad you didn't know." I voiced out my thoughts. "Yeah I would've gotten a better quality of life, but I wouldn't want to be raised by the man who was involved in my parents' murder."

He sighed. "You don't get it."

I took my head and scoffed. "I definitely get it. Ever since my best friend was killed by a man hired by Helena, I was caught twice by Felon's men, worked with the prince of Spain, witnessed Felon shooting the king of Spain and got stabbed in the abdomen."

He didn't give any reaction, just narrowed his eyes at me as I kept going. "You're the man who hides in the shadow, and you're alright with it even if it meant doing it for the rest of your life. I'm not like you, I've tried living a normal life the past few months and I can't escape everything that has happened. I don't know if you've heard about the beginning of the downfall of Felon's empire, but it's happening. And when it happens, I will be there to watch it burn while you hide."

He didn't say anything, so I asked the last thing which I came here for. "I want half a million euros to check, from an untraceable account." He definitely has one of those.

He looked away for a few seconds before reaching to a drawer and taking out a cheque book, writing what I asked. I took the cheque and walked towards the door, but turned back to face him as I touched the door handle. "What does your wife know about me?"

He looked dumbfounded. "My wife?"

If that woman outside isn't his wife... no wonder she wasn't happy Anton was talking to another woman, which was me, who clearly isn't his wife.

I raise my eyebrows at him in judgement. "Wow."

Before he opened his mouth and tried to give lame excuses for his indiscretions, I beat him to it. "Remember that you said you can't help me with finding out who was responsible for my parents' death because you're a family guy? Well, what a family guy you are."

I didn't give him the chance to defend himself and walked out of the room.

I felt more awake as the cold water from the tap splashed on my face. I used a tissue to dry my face before staring at myself in the mirror, dark circles clearly visible under my eyes.

Nikita's condition had gotten much worse over winter break, the doctor said she only had a few months left. Before, it hadn't hit me that she was going to be gone soon, but having to see her vomiting every day and colour draining from her face has set reality in. I haven't been getting much sleep since then, crying until my eyes are puffy in the middle night.

It had been even harder making it through winter break without Walter and his jokes. Not only things have been weird between us since he kissed me, he was away during the whole break with his family. I also hadn't told him Nikita has cancer; he only knows she was sick, but not the extent of it. His grandfather who he was close to died of cancer last year, and I didn't want to burden him with a sensitive subject.

I sighed and took out the tinted cream from my bag, applying it under my eyes as I've been doing it for the last week or so. It helped cover it pretty well, and I put it back in my bag before having one last look in the mirror before heading to the cafeteria for lunch.

The door then burst open, Walter quickly closing the door behind him and locking it. "We need to talk." He said as a matter of fact as he walked toward me. "Wait, is anyone else in here?'

"Yes and no," I replied.

He closed the gap between us, and my breath hitched as he stared into my eyes. "I just want to say I thought about our kiss every single day since it happened."

Me too, I thought. Who wouldn't replay their first kiss in their head, wondering if it was great or horrible on both sides.

"I want to apologise for acting awkward after that and not telling Yonna to back off even though I knew she was being mean to you. I was afraid that you don't feel the same way and that I would lose you. So I wanted to see if you liked me back by seeing if you felt jealous by Yonna's actions."

Was I jealous of Yonna's actions? I wasn't sure. But I was definitely sure I hated it and wanted it to end. Regardless, I wasn't going to lose him over that. I was already going to lose Nikita, I couldn't lose Walter too.

I reached my hand out to grab his. "I don't want things to be awkward between us anymore. Winter break was torture not texting you every day."

"I feel the exact same way." He gave me a wide grin before leaning down to press his lips to mine.

The feeling of his lips on mine was still foreign, but this was only our second kiss. I can feel his lips grinning against mine which made my heart flutter. We kept on kissing each other and exploring this new territory between us until the bell rang.

When I walked out of the door, I felt the most whole I had been in the past few weeks.