[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

𝐀 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐅 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍
"𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡."
—𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑛 𝐴. 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒

𝐈
— 𝐷𝑖𝑒𝑔𝑜 —

𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 before a river, the bright lights of the surrounding city buildings reflecting onto the body of water that softly splashed against the algae-ridden stone platform.

His attention, however, was not focused on the twinkling lights, nor was it on the faint sound of Mara laughing at something Klaus had just said in the car behind him.

No, his focus was on the monocle that was clutched tightly in his hand, the cold metal taunting him as it pressed against his skin.

His focus was divided equally to also pay towards Luther's (annoying) voice, his words echoing in his head, 'Do you ever remember a single time that Dad wasn't wearing his monocle?'

Diego swallowed, biting on his lower lip as he flicked his gaze away from the river and to what was in his hand. The monocle twirled around in the air as he clutched onto only the end of the chain, the glint of the gold teasing him as it reflected in the moonlight.

A few minutes passed by in what felt like seconds, and he suddenly flinched as he felt an unexpected warm hand upon his shoulder before a soft voice spoke from next to him, "What are you doing?"

He quickly balled the entire monocle up into his fist, making sure that it was hidden from her sight as he turned towards her and shook his head. "Nothing. Just—just thinking."

Mara ignored his feeble excuse and gazed at his clenched hand, which he then moved behind his back, and she tilted her head as her gaze met his. "What's in your hand?"

"Nothing," he lied once again, his fingers curling even more and causing the edge of the monocle to dig into his palm.

Her eyebrows furrowed, her eyes now suspicious as she lightly pushed his arm and demanded, "Show me."

"I told you," he quickly reassured her with another shake of the head, "it's nothing."

Being as stubborn as she was, she grabbed his hand and pried it open before he could react. It took a moment for her mind to register the gold monocle, and she looked up at him with widened eyes as soon as she realized what it was.

"Is this . . . ? Diego." Fear grew in her eyes as she glanced between him and the monocle, causing him to let out a small groan. "Holy shit. Did you—" She let out a short breath, licking her lips as she looked back down at the monocle in his hand, her eyebrows knitting tightly together as she tried to figure out what was going on. "I mean, I know you hated him, but you—"

"It's not what you think," he interrupted, quickly shaking his head.

It seemed as though she didn't believe him, but she still questioned, "Then what is it?"

"I didn't—" Diego swallowed, his jaw clenching as he tried to think of the right words, but none came to mind. "I didn't kill him."

Mara took a step closer to him, close enough that he could feel her unsteady breath on his chin and the heat of her body radiate onto his. Despite what was happening, Diego could feel his heart begin to race faster from the shortened space, and he resisted the urge to make it even shorter.

Her eyes were pleading with him to give her a reasonable answer as she questioned, "Then why do you have his monocle, Diego?"

"I . . ." Diego heaved a great sigh before he shut his eyes and confessed, "Mom had it. And I didn't want Luther to find it on her and freak. She's not a killer, but I know Luther wouldn't hesitate to jump to that conclusion."