Victoria’s body shook in anger as she read the note in her hands. It was hand-written and though the cursive style looked good in the eyes, she can’t appreciate it. Disbelief washed over her as she repeatedly read it. The contents of the note made it hard for her to comprehend it, and when she did she jumped to her feet and ran back towards her room.“Vicky!” Brandon was right behind her, their footsteps were frantic as they raced towards the room. She was gasping for air when she slammed the door open and immediately went to the painting and removed it. Her hands shook as she punched the code to her safe. “Calm down, Vicky. You’re shaking.” Brandon tried to calm her down but Victoria didn’t even bother to listen to him. Her attention was all focused on her safe. “Dammit!” She cursed, her voice was shaking when she punched the wrong code because of too much tension. When she got it right, she didn’t waste any time, she opened it. A gasp escaped her mouth the moment she saw the e
There was a considerable possibility that Victoria would sell him to those who wanted him dead. He looked at his watch, it was a cheap watch he purchased in a local thrift shop. As much as possible, Simon will not waste the cash he had right now. Simon knew when he took those jewelries, it would be hard to sell them, but not impossible. It’s past one in the afternoon, and by now he’s sure Victoria had already found out what he did. Conscience clawed his heart as he remembered his betrayal of Victoria. There’s no excuse for it, and it’s unforgivable. But what can he do? He has no choice. He’s technically as poor as a rat right now. He can’t even pull out his money from the bank, even though it’s under the name of Simon Scott. He’s not sure the extent of information his killers had on him, and he’s not taking the risk. “They can have my money, but they will never know that I am still alive,” he murmured to himself. He was currently eating dinner. The place was crowded, which was a
After almost two days without sleep, Simon finally got the chance to rest. Janus was generous enough to let him stay for the night. They were talking over beer when Simon fell asleep because of exhaustion. Janus felt pity for his friend. He let Simon take his rest. Good thing it’s his rest day today, so he will stay in his apartment and assist Simon. Simon woke up with a grumbling stomach. The delicious smell of bacon, toast, and coffee assaulted his senses. He felt refreshed and regained his energy that he finally got to rest. Escaping and eluding the police and the crowd was not easy. Not to mention that he still had to make sure that his identity was concealed. “Good morning, princess.” He heard Janus from the kitchen. The apartment was small, good for only one person, but it was neatly arranged. “Morning, sorry I dozed off last night. I’m fucking exhausted.” He rubbed his eyes as he pulled himself to sit on the couch. He remembered talking to Janus, and then he didn’t reali
“Damn, I don’t like this idea. Isn’t it illegal?” Janus was pacing back and forth in his small living room. Simon had briefed him on what to do and say and who he needed to talk to for them to acquire the said new identification Simon was talking about. “It’s not that hard, you just have to enter that antique store and find who Chris Ramsey is. He’s the person that you need to talk to.” Simon was sitting on the worn-out sofa. He pushed a picture to the table. Janus immediately went to the seat opposite of Simon and took the picture. “This is the man?” he asked. Simon nodded. “He’s an antique dealer, but he has also been doing these kinds of things. He knows how to hack the government’s database, so he’s really reliable.” Simon has been explaining to Janus what he needs to do. He will not be going there, but Janus will. Simon can’t risk exposing his identity to anyone, especially to a person who can hack systems. He might have sold him to those interested parties, Simon can’t re
Janus pushed the picture towards Chris. The huge man eyed him with suspicion before his eyes went down to the picture laid on top of the table. “Who’s that?” he asked, his voice full of angst. Janus gave him an uncertain smile. He’s totally new to this kind of deal. Hell, never in his life did he see himself having to do some kind of business deal with someone who was into illegal business. He’s always been an employee type of guy. “That’s Simon. He’s the one who needs a new identity. He’s a new guy here, and he wanted to start a clean slate, so that’s it.” Janus laughed, again, in an awkward way. Chris looked at him with an amused face. A minute later, he started to laugh. He leaned back in his chair and relaxed himself. “You see that’s not going to be that way. I require him to come here and ask for a favor himself. That’s the way that it should be.” Simon was right about Chris. This is the way they do their business here. If you want to have a new identity, then you need to f
After a week of waiting, Simon finally got his new identity. The picture he used on his new identification card looked entirely different. There were no traces of Simon Salvatore Morelli in the picture. “Damn, man. You really look different in that picture. How did you do that? I mean, you wore that artificial hair and that beard to cover your face, the traces of your face totally disappeared. Did you use some makeup, man?” Janus was baffled. The moment he saw the card, he was amazed by how Simon could transform his face into someone who was totally not him. Simon intentionally made his hair a little longer, he had been avoiding going to the barber shop for a haircut. He even dyed his hair into a dirty blonde, concealing the real color of his hair. He used eye contacts with the color of emerald green. He used black contacts when he was still staying with Victoria, he needed to use another color now. And the beard. It covered his jaw and chin, making it hard to identify Salvatorre
Apart from his plans that involve Janus, Simon had other plans that only he himself knew. He trusted Janus enough that he would not betray him, but there are things that should be done alone, and the things that only he should know. It was already eleven in the evening. Everyone was asleep as he snuck inside the huge mansion of Senator James Morgan. Simon developed this idea while he was still staying with Victoria. That woman was involved in burglary, she had men steal the most expensive pieces of jewelry in the country. Simon had to admit that he’s broke as fuck right now. He needed money to go on with his plans. This is entirely risky but he’ll do it anyway. Selling stolen jewelry in the black market was not new. In reality, almost all of the items sold in the black market, especially jewelry and paintings were stolen. The owners can’t do anything about it. If they want to get the item back, then they just have to buy it back, or else it will have another owner. This is the r
After Simon’s break-in into Morgan’s house, it became national news. And what’s more crazy? People were actually happy that the infamous senator became a victim of burglary. Many people gave their comments thanking whoever broke into his house. Some even expressed their happiness and requested that the senator should be beaten to death for being a corrupt official. Simon couldn’t put the smile out of his face. As he listened to the news, the conscience that was supposed to be eating him from the inside slowly dissipated. Police investigators, and even the FBI got involved. “It's one of the biggest cases of burglary in the century. The stolen jewelry may amount to millions of dollars. The burglar, which the people now called The Shadow, was still at large.” He turned off the television and went to get beer from the fridge. He just moved to this apartment yesterday, and it was much more secure than Janus’ apartment building which was infested with mold and cockroaches. “The Shado