Secrets of the Harts

1 July 2010
A long time has passed since I last saw Dylan. To my surprise, I find that I always end up thinking about him. It made no sense at all because I had wanted to get away from him. It was part of our deal—I’d help him find the heir to the Mafia, he’ll help me find my mother and we’ll never have to see each other again.

I remembered asking once if Dylan knew how to use a gun. The look that he had given me told that he knew and that he had killed before. It was different for me though. I knew to operate a gun and I knew how to aim to kill but I had never killed before, not until Owen.
At the last second, Calloway hadn’t moved the trigger. It wasn’t easy for her to kill her son; no mother would do something like that because that kind of love was unconditional.

So I did it instead. My original intention had been to maim, not kill. I had wretched myself out of his grip and had turned around, aiming for his bicep with my knife but he had reacted quickly and I threw the knife without being sure of meeting my target. It had gone far off my aim and pierced his stomach instead.

Until now I don’t know how to feel about killing him. I was mixed up inside with so many different feelings about what I had done. But I did finally get my answer to my question, about if he had loved me, in the split second when he had been surprised by the attack. The answer was yes, but not enough.

It was ironic how I’d ended up killing him. I’d told Dylan that I would help him find the man but I would never help him kill.

With this thought in mind, I didn’t know how to look Calloway in the eye. I never found out how she felt about what I’d done or if she’d done everything Owen said. In any case, I hadn’t had the need to see her because the Agency had been shut down immediately after Owen’s death. Reports of how an Agent, one who was Calloway’s son, had betrayed the Agency and turned rogue, using the Agency’s very own resources didn’t reflect well on her. And so, whoever that owned the company (whether it was the government as Dylan suspected or a private candidate) stopped their funding and the Agency was no more.

Calloway had disappeared by then. And although it was clear that she hadn’t been a good mother, she had been an extremely efficient President to the Agency, so I supposed that that would be the way Agents would remember her. They would probably have to find new employment though. But not me, because I won’t go back to that life.

So now I knew what I am not. I was no longer a naive girl wrapped up in the Agency, completely clueless as to what it really was for. I was not an innocent anymore, not when I had killed before. I was not anybody’s puppet, freely manipulated in order to carry out some grand scheme. But I didn’t know what I wanted to be.

Kristen Hart would have been an excellent choice. The problem was; I didn’t know much about her either. The only things I knew was that she had a mother, Alessandra Zeta, who wanted to make amends to her for all that she has missed. She might have, could have and probably would have fallen in love with Dylan Fuller if there hadn’t been so much in their way. The fact that he had left after confirming that his father had died while in the Agency’s custody hadn’t helped matters either, because he left before she could say goodbye.

Besides, maybe she hadn’t wanted to say goodbye. And the minute I’m done, I don’t ever want to see you again. I thought I wanted that, but now I’d take it back if I could. Like I’ve said, I always think of him, even though I know that I shouldn’t.

I roused myself out of my thoughts, intent on concentrating on packing instead. I was moving to Sicily and it was going to be permanent. After all, my mother and my other family were there. I was ready to meet them and discover who Kristen Hart really is.

I was ready to try something new, the way Luke and Tia had. I had found out, shortly before Dylan had left, that they were staying in France where Tia’s parents paid for their education. I guessed that her parents were previously Sean Fuller’s people but I had never breathed a word about it because they all deserved a second chance. And I owed it to them that I hadn’t died that day.

It turned out that Dylan had planned to meet up with Luke at Paris before going to Tia’s. We were going to stay there for a while, hide it out until Owen lost interest in us. Dylan had a rough plan worked out for his confrontation with Owen and he was going to do with the Agency’s help. But when we hadn’t turned up at the arrivals after our plane landed, Luke had been worried and went to the Agency for help. Even then they hadn’t believed him, at least not until Tia’s parents had turned up and vouched for Luke—they had known about Dylan’s plan.

Besides, her parents were using this chance very well. They had used their leftover money for Luke and Tia’s education as well as to open a restaurant, which earned rave reviews.

They seemed to be happy with this arrangement as well, especially the last time I had spoken to them. They were both learning new things, things that didn’t involve killing or scheming. Surprisingly, Tia was great at Biology and she was thinking of becoming a doctor. Not so surprisingly, Luke was doing well at Literature. But least surprising of all was how they’d finally committed to a relationship. I knew that it wouldn’t have taken that long for Dill to find his Scout.

Smiling at this thought, I stuff that last of my clothes into my luggage. Casting one last look at the now sparse room where I had spent the last seven years, I locked the door to my room at the Agency behind me.

31 July 2010
“Okay, Kris. Are you ready?”

I frowned slightly, wondering why Mum seemed so nervous about today. She was dropping me off at school as always, which was anticlimactic considering all that has happened to me. But it was true that unless I was going to continue finding work as an Agent or something similar, I would need a degree to get a proper job. I had never completed high school and so, I was sent there even though I already knew most of the things I was supposed to learn thanks to the homeschooling Calloway insisted on.

It was kind of lucky actually because some classes were taught in Italian, so I had no idea what they were talking about. I clearly needed to work on it and I was trying every day, with some help from Mum.

“Well, I suppose I would never get used to you attending school.” She shot me a shaky smile, staring at me from rear mirror.

I looked at her strangely, wondering if something was wrong with her today. I hoped that it had nothing to do with the phone call this morning. If it was Uncle Dante calling to pester her into joining into some deal the Cosa Nostra was organising again. Between Uncle Dante and Uncle Adriano, I personally preferred the always cheerful Uncle Dante. But it didn’t mean that I liked it when he pestered her or talked badly of her job as a teacher at the private school I was attending.

Usually though, she let it roll right off her back. She had even yelled right back at him some Italian swear words I was pretty sure I was not supposed to know. But it seemed to bother her today.

“Have a good day today!” Mum added, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

Now I was definitely concerned that there was something wrong with her. I narrowed my eyes at her, which made her smile even shakier, before getting off the car. Whatever it was that was bothering her, I would get it out of her when school ended.

Sighing slightly at the sight of my school, I half pondered why Luke and Tia seemed to like their school so much while I could barely stand mine. Perhaps it was the uniform that annoyed me, especially the red plaid skirts. They’d originally been around knee-length which looked extremely strange and unbearably hot. Then some girl in my sewing class, I was forced into it, had ‘helped’ me by making them the same length as the rest of the girls in my grade. This meant that the skirt barely covered my butt right now.

Honestly, how was I supposed to sit when the skirt kept riding up and nearly flashing my teachers? Besides, the skirt reminded me a lot like the annoying ones that Dylan had made me try when he’d given me my makeover. They were equally short.

Gritting my teeth, I reminded myself not to think about him. There wasn’t any point thinking about a boy who’d never return.

“Hey, princess! That’s a nice skirt you have there.”

I lifted my eyebrows, wondering when my reminiscing had turned into hallucination. I had never imagined his voice before but I had to say, it was a pretty good imitation of it. I’d captured his annoying tone as well as his perverted words quite well.

“C’mon, don’t pretend that you can’t hear me. I know you’ve missed me.”

It really sounded like he was somewhere behind me. But it couldn’t be. I’d not spoken to him at all since he’d left.

Someone’s hand was on the small of my back and suddenly, he was right beside me, wearing the same smirk that annoyed me endlessly. He looked good. His green eyes were more alive that I’d ever seen them, he’d gotten tanner and if it was possible, even taller than I had recalled. “Princess, tell me you’ve missed me.”

I stared at him, still somewhat not convinced that he was there. I reached out and pinched his arm, the one that was becoming too acquainted with my back.

Dylan’s arm instantly recoiled away from me. “What the hell?”

Looking at his half-amused and half-confused expression, I suddenly felt angry; so angry that I wanted to break something. So I slapped him.

He gapped at me, a frown developing on his face. Strangely, he didn’t look angry, only confused. But at least he didn’t look amused anymore. “What’s that for?”

I didn’t say anything to him but walked away from me. The late bell was going to ring soon.

Being Dylan, he couldn’t take a hint. He followed me, causing some of my school mates to shoot me strange looks since I’d unexpectedly acquired a stalker. “Hello? I’m right here. You can’t keep ignoring me...unless you’re trying out that Christina Drake ice queen thing again. Then I’ll have to tell you, it’s not working out.”

Biting down on my lower lip, I stopped in front of my locker and spun the combination for my lock. It took me a few moments to get the correct numbers because I kept getting distracted by Dylan. He’d finally given up on smiling and acting like everything was fine. He was just looking at me now.

When I finally got the right combination, Dylan slammed the locker down shut and leaned against it instead.

Now that he was right in front me, I could see that he hadn’t grown taller. He was the exact same height. And if I wanted to, I could just reach up and kiss him.

“Please stop ignoring me. Tell me what’s wrong, Kristen.”

I think it was Kristen that did it, making me burst into tears.

“Oh don’t cry.” Dylan wiped at my cheeks with his thumb, the way he had that day in the rain. Only, he looked more alarmed now than he had then. It was probably because he knew I was crying because of him. “What’s wrong?”

“You left. You left before I could tell you I wanted you to stay,” I muttered through my tears, sort of hoping that he wouldn’t hear what I was saying because it was kind of pathetic.

“I thought you didn’t want that. You wanted me gone.” Dylan cocked his head to the side, looking slightly puzzled. “I thought that after all the trouble I’d put you through, you wouldn’t have wanted me near you again.”

“Then why did you come back?”

He seemed to think through this question for a while, wrapping his arms around me. I relaxed in his arms. Finally, he said into my ear, “Your mother set me out straight.”

I smiled slightly, my tears ebbing. Then I closed my eyes and told him what he had wanted to hear, “I missed you.”