Chapter 2

Vincent stopped in front of an old villa. The rundown building looked like it belonged to a different era.

Ivy's little cheeks puffed up. She took in the crumbling house and Vincent's plain clothes. Then her eyes lit up with excitement.

A poor family just getting by! This was perfect!

Rich families like the Shaws had so many rules. Her new family was clearly the right fit for her.

"Vivienne, look what surprise I brought you."

Vincent pushed open the door, but the empty villa stayed quiet for a long moment.

Curled up in Vincent's arms, Ivy looked around eagerly, hoping to see the mother who had always been so warm and gentle with her in her past life.

At the half-open basement door, a small, pretty woman was dragging something heavy. Her voice was impatient.

"Can't you see I'm busy? This delivery was difficult. It struggled and got blood all over me."

Vivienne yanked the bloody leg in her hand. Despite her small build, she was surprisingly strong. With a casual toss, the thing thudded down into the basement.

"What surprise could you possibly have for me? It couldn't be..."

Vivienne spoke casually, but when she turned and spotted the soft little creature in Vincent's arms, her face broke into wild joy.

She let out a scream, and before Vincent could react, Vivienne had already snatched Ivy from his arms in a flash.

"A daughter? And a living one?"

"A daughter who can talk and breathe?"

Vivienne was completely smitten. She kept stroking Ivy's dirty little face and couldn't stop.

The child was covered in filth and smelled of sour sweat. It didn't dampen Vivienne's joy one bit.

She had two sons, both rough and noisy. Every time she walked down the street and saw other people with sweet, soft little daughters, she burned with envy. She wanted to drive her fingers straight through their skulls.

After the previous daughters had run away, Vincent had found her a few who couldn't run.

But those couldn't breathe either. They didn't take long to rot and start stinking.

"I'm Ivy Winter, Mommy."

Ivy wrapped her arms softly around Vivienne's neck. Her clear, bright green eyes carried a closeness that had carried over from two lifetimes.

That one word, "Mommy," hit the softest spot in Vivienne's heart. Her eyes trembled with fierce delight.

She had been through countless wild moments in her life. But even the most dangerous one, when she had cut off a target's head in a storm of gunfire and hung it from a high-rise, hadn't made her heart pound this fast.

"Welcome home, my baby."

Vivienne pressed a kiss to Ivy's dirty little nose, more tender than she had ever been.

She pointed to a small boy tinkering with parts in the living room.

"This is your little brother, Silas Winter."

"Your big brother is away studying right now. When he gets home and finds out he has a sister, he'll be so happy."

Silas was putting together a new mechanism he had been working on. Usually focused and unbothered by anything around him, he looked up for the first time.

He had a handsome little face that looked just like a smaller version of Vincent's. His eyes, which he got from Vivienne, were a bright golden amber.

Silas stared at the newest member of the family. His face stayed cold and blank as ice, showing nothing.

"Hi, brother. I'm Ivy Winter."

Ivy smiled wide, showing two rows of small white teeth, and waved cheerfully at Silas.

Silas looked cold, but Ivy knew him better than anyone. In her past life, when she was badly hurt and unconscious, Silas had kept that same icy expression the whole time.

He fetched water. Wiped her body. Fed her medicine.

Sometimes at night, he would carefully poke her cheek with one finger, quietly begging her to get better soon. Later, when she couldn't walk anymore, Silas had stayed up all night designing a pair of mechanical legs for her.

The Shaw brothers had always treated her like a punching bag. Kicking her down the stairs until her head bled was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Mm."

Silas didn't seem used to that kind of warmth. Faced with Ivy's bright, sunny smile, he only made a single sound before quickly lowering his head and going back to his mechanical parts.

"Ah-choo!"

Suddenly Ivy felt her nose itch. She let out a soft, babyish sneeze.

Vivienne, who had been buried in Ivy's hair smelling her daughter's scent, snapped to attention. She suddenly remembered she had just been dealing with a body and still had blood on her face. The smell must have gotten to Ivy.

Both Vivienne and Vincent worked in this line of business. They walked the criminal path every day, and the smell of blood at home was impossible to avoid. Vivienne had taken in daughters before, and she had believed that family should have no secrets. But after those daughters saw the basement, they all chose to leave.

So to hold onto Ivy, this daughter she had finally found, Vivienne decided the whole family would play along. They would all pretend to be a normal family for their precious girl.

"Did that scare you, Ivy?"

"Actually, Mommy is a chef. I was just butchering beef down in the basement."

Vivienne wiped at the blood specks on her face, but only managed to smear it more evenly across her skin. Her whole face was now red, her eyes glowing with an eerie light. She looked even more terrifying than before.

But Ivy didn't notice anything off.

She held tight to Vivienne's neck, looking up at that blood-soaked, demon-like face with a completely innocent smile.

"Chefs are so cool! Mommy must be a really great cook then!"

"Ivy is strong too. I can help Mommy butcher beef someday!"

Ivy's bright, innocent little face automatically filtered out everything strange about the house. The decorations made from skulls. The dark, dried bloodstains on the floor that no amount of scrubbing could remove. The floor lamp with a texture that looked uncomfortably like human skin.

None of that mattered.

What mattered was that she had the most important family in the world right here.

"Ivy, how about Mommy gives you a bath first, then we eat. Does that sound good?"

Ivy was absolutely filthy.

Vivienne went to run the bath. On her way, she swung around and punched Vincent, who was curled up asleep on the sofa, jolting him awake.

Vincent had been up all night working and had only just fallen asleep. The punch felt like his heart was being torn right out of his chest.

Vivienne hit with the full force of a killer, but her face stayed soft and warm.

"Honey, go get the beef from the basement and take care of it. I'm giving Ivy a bath now."

Ivy needed a bath. Vivienne needed that time to deal with everything in the house that might be alarming.

Vivienne turned back to Ivy and kept up her cover story.

"Daddy is a truck driver. Whenever Mommy finishes butchering beef, she has Daddy take it away and handle the delivery."

Ivy nodded without a single question.

Mommy and Daddy were the people who loved her most in the world. Ivy would believe them without any hesitation.

Even if something didn't quite add up, she would choose to look the other way.