Poison

Prologue

 It's one thing to marry into the mafia business, it's another to grow up with it. My entire life I was told to never interrupt father when he's working, for it would disturb his clients. I was also told to keep a smile on my face, to my parents I had the most beautiful smile in the world. They wanted to use me to get more clients even though we were already rich enough. "Never, ever stop smiling, okay? Smiling is how you can get away with anything. You have a stunning smile, and no man can resist it." My mother would whisper to me. She was like the devil, whispering things in my ear, telling me to do things that confused me. She's raised me to become a killer, a professional assassin, not that I needed it. I could break a man's heart and he'd do the job for me.

My father wasn't ever around. But when he was, he would always remind me that I'd end up being my older brother's disciple. He would constantly remind me I was the weaker sex, and I would never gain the respect of any man ever. I was going to be used as my brother's payment to his clients. One new client, they get a bonnie young woman for payment. My brother wasn't taught how to kill. They didn't turn him into a killing machine, like they did me.

"Nefeli, don't forget, when I die or retire, you will work for your brother, Achilles."

Father would never let me forget it. But one day, my brother came home, drunk. He walked into my room that night and pinned me to my bed. I was asleep and woke up to a stabbing pain in my neck and wrists. I opened my eyes and saw my brother hovering over me, breathing shakily. I didn't cry, nor scream. I knew no one would come to my aid. This was normal. The men take control of the women. Natural selection.

What I didn't expect was to hear my bedroom door swing open. I turned slightly, just enough to see mother with an angry look on her face. I'd never seen so much hatred before. At the time, I didn't see the knife in her hands. I didn't even know she was holding a knife until it was lodged into my brother's skull. His blood spurted all over my face and chest, she stabbed him again, this time forcing the knife into his heart.

"Dead?!" My father found out from mother that Achilles was murdered. Again, murder was normal, like I said, natural selection. Father was beyond angry. He started to throw wine glasses at me and mother. "Stop throwing things at me!" mother had cried. "Nefeli is the reason he was killed!" She'd blamed it on me. I didn't kill him. She did. So why... why would she do that to me? She knew what father would do, and yet she still put the blame on me. "Smiley, did you kill your brother? You know he was the heir to my position, right?" father had said these words calmly. He was much too calm. I didn't realize he was coming closer until his face was mere inches away from mine.

"You know what has to happen, don't you?"

I nodded. Suddenly.... the only thing I can see is blood. Blood is flying in every direction. Father's face warps into that of a person in pain. And then he was dead. Two men in the Dunkel household had been killed. I looked up and saw my mother's crazed smile.

"You see? You should always play the weak one. Men will always underestimate you, why do you think I've been training you so hard?" She had spoken so softly that day, standing over my father's corpse. Her smile had been burned in my brain, and I would never forget that day. I still haven't.