FOR YEARS, Delaney Knight's family had one singular goal - to become the biggest crime syndicate New York City had ever seen.
NOW, Delaney's father has a new agenda - to seek vengeance for the murder of his wife at the hands of their biggest rival...
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BY THE TIME FRIDAY MORNING ROLLED AROUND, Delaney was thoroughly exhausted. The events that took place the night before had left her tossing and turning in her bed until morning broke. With around two hours of sleep, Delaney was nearly running late to her first class and didn't have time to swing by her father's house as planned. It would have to wait until later, luckily for her father because any sooner and she'd have been absolutely seething during whatever exchange they'd have. She needed more time to calm down.
Enough was enough, she had enough anxiety in her life as the daughter of a crime lord, already constantly feeling as if she had a target on her back without actually having one. The lack of respect from her father was astounding, especially given how close they had been before her mother's passing. Now, they hadn't even spoken since the funeral - not for lack of trying on Delaney's behalf.
Unfortunately for an already frazzled Delaney, her first class of that day was film studies for the second time ever. She hadn't seen Peter Parker since he had given her an excuse about having a class to avoid going for a drink with her, and her ego was still a little too fragile to see him again so soon.
As she plopped down into her original seat, she breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that Mr Parker hadn't arrived yet. The class was already pretty full, so there was a chance maybe he wasn't going to show up.
Luck wasn't on her side however, as before long the tall man bounded into class and immediately made a beeline in her direction once she was spotted. Straightening up nervously and feeling the blood rush to her cheeks, Delaney focused on fiddling with her pen as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
She couldn't stop herself from glancing up in surprise when she noticed in her side-view that he had casually plopped in to sit beside her, wearing a goofy grin of greeting.
"Happy Friday, Blair," he announced cheerily, a far cry different from his attitude on Monday.
"Hey Peter," she replied with half the enthusiasm, lips flattening into a forced smile as she returned her gaze to the front of the room.
Peter frowned momentarily before realisation struck. Ah shit, his mind cried out. The last time they spoke as 'Peter and Blair' was when he had embarrassingly ran a mile from her after she had kindly offered to have a drink together. The vibe between them wasn't going to be as natural now as it had been when it was 'Spider-Man and Laney'.
This called for some quick damage control.
"Hey, look-" he started, pausing to mull over his words for once instead of vomiting them all out with no control, "I'm really sorry about Monday, running off like that. It's been a while since I've been invited anywhere like that, I'm really busy lately. When you asked that, the very little social skills I do have just went completely out the window."
This seemed to appease her at least, her soft smile starting to look less forced and more genuine as she nodded in understanding.
"Thank god for that," she admitted, dramatically wiping a hand over her forehead, "I thought maybe I'd scared you off. I've been told I can be a bit frightening."
