Chapter 1: Rebirth

"Get out of here! Don't dirty the steps!"

The heavyset nurse's shrill voice made Chloe's eardrums ache.

Chloe's eyes snapped open.

Cold wind cut across her cheeks, sleet mixed in. She looked down at her bony hands, black grime caked under her nails.

These hands... they were her five-year-old hands.

Back then, she was still at St. Mary's Orphanage.

She had gone back to three years before the Sterling family from Manhattan came to reclaim her.

The Sterling family.

That name had made her struggle in the mud until she died.

In her past life, she had thought she could return to her biological father's side. But there was already Mia in that house. A shiny, polished replacement.

Mr. Sterling only ever smiled at Mia. New York's wealthy young men circled around Mia, treating Chloe like a toy for their amusement.

"You're not even worth the dirt on Mia's shoes."

That was what she had heard most often before she died.

This time, she would not make the same mistake.

Chloe clamped her jaw shut and pushed herself up from the stone steps.

She would find a regular family to adopt her. The farther from that world of money and power, the better. Even if she had to eat day-old bread every day, that was better than being tormented by those psychopaths.

The orphanage's iron gate stood open. Few people walked the street.

She watched every passerby closely.

Her gaze landed on a man.

Black hair. Dark circles under his eyes. He wore a worn gray trench coat with no brand name, the collar stained. Every step he took looked heavy with exhaustion.

A classic New York working stiff. Just another office drone at the bottom of the city's food chain.

There was no better target.

Chloe didn't hesitate. She broke into a run.

She threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around the man's leg.

"Mister!"

Her small voice rang out sharp in the freezing wind.

Arthur stopped. He looked down, his brows instantly pulling into a deep frown.

He had just finished a sniper job. He was still trying to figure out how to wash out the half-drop of blood on the back hem of his coat. Now, out of nowhere, a scrawny little kid had latched onto his leg.

"Mister, will you be my daddy?"

Chloe tilted her face up, her amber eyes wide and round.

Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"What?" He looked down at the kid clinging to his leg.

"I'm very smart." Chloe tightened her grip on his pant leg. "I can take care of myself. I don't cry when I'm hungry, don't fuss when I'm tired. If you don't have much money, I can get by on half a slice of bread a day. Please adopt me!"

She let go, stepped back half a pace, and bowed deeply.

Way too polite for a five-year-old.

Arthur slowly crouched down. Their eyes met at the same level.

He didn't reach out to touch her. His dark eyes moved over her tangled hair and the chilblains on her cheeks. His face showed nothing.

"Why me?" His voice carried genuine confusion.

This kid had a death wish. He still smelled like gunpowder.

"Because you look normal." Chloe said it with complete confidence. "I'm normal too. We're the same kind of people."

Just regular, broke New Yorkers.

Arthur went quiet for a moment.

Calling a professional assassin who ranked in the top ten on global wanted lists "normal" was almost darkly funny. His gut told him taking in a child of unknown background would be a massive headache.

He hated headaches.

But then Diana's beautiful, unhinged face flashed through his mind.

"I want a daughter!" The woman had screamed last night while sharpening a boning knife. "If you don't bring a girl home, I'll go to Brooklyn and grab one myself!"

If he didn't give her what she wanted, that knife would probably end up at his throat tonight.

Adoption would actually solve the problem.

The man's cold fingers touched Chloe's rough cheek.

No warmth at all. Cold as a dead man's hand.

"I can adopt you." Arthur's voice was low. "As long as you can stay quiet."

"I won't make a single sound!" Chloe immediately pressed both hands over her mouth and nodded hard.

Arthur agreed.

Twenty minutes later, they sat in the director's office.

The heavyset nurse barely glanced at his paperwork. She just pushed a few forms across the desk.

Arthur picked up the pen.

Chloe stood on her tiptoes, staring at the plain white paper.

Arthur.

Just one name. No last name. Signed like it meant nothing.

"Alright, Chloe." The director knocked on the desk and waved her hand, clearly ready to be done with this. "Here's your new guardian. Now get out."

Leaving the orphanage, Arthur strode ahead.

Chloe scrambled after him, her short legs working furiously.

"Mister, wait for me!" She panted.

Arthur stopped. He looked at this little creature with her stubby legs, sighed, and bent down to scoop her up with one hand, hoisting her onto his shoulder.

"Call me Dad." He corrected.

Chloe's stomach pressed against his hard shoulder. Her hands instinctively grabbed fistfuls of his coat fabric.

"Okay, Daddy." She buried her face into the rough material.

The man's back muscles stiffened for a second.

He fought down the urge to toss this fragile little thing into the nearest trash can and headed toward the subway entrance.

A battered taxi stopped in front of an old apartment building in Brooklyn.

The iron door was rusted. The walls were covered in graffiti. Everything matched Chloe's idea of what a poor family's home would look like.

Arthur pushed the door open.

"Darling, you're back."

A blonde woman in beige loungewear walked toward him, her smile warm and gentle.

Then her gaze landed on Chloe perched on Arthur's shoulder.

The woman let out a piercing shriek.

"Oh my God! Arthur!" Diana covered her mouth, eyes wide. "You finally went and stole a child?"

Arthur rolled his eyes, about to set Chloe down.

Diana had already rushed over.

"How many times have I told you, don't steal! But this little girl is so cute. Good job, husband!"

She snatched Chloe from Arthur's shoulder and pulled her into a tight hug.

Steal a child?

Chloe froze completely.

Before she could make sense of it, she was wrapped in Diana's warm embrace and the faint scent of vanilla.

"Little one, what's your name?" Diana nuzzled her cheek affectionately.

Worn building blocks were scattered across the living room carpet. The fireplace in the corner wasn't lit, but the whole room felt warm. Chloe's unease quickly faded.

"My name is Chloe." She reached out and hugged the woman back. "Ma'am."

"Call me Mom, baby." Diana's eyes lit up.

Arthur had already sunk into the worn fabric sofa. The dark circles under his eyes made him look completely drained.

This was the real face of a New York working man. Seeing him like this, something in Chloe's chest settled. In her past life, she had been surrounded by arrogant heirs from old money families. This worn-out, exhausted-looking man made her feel safe.

"Daddy, you worked hard." Chloe meant every word.

Arthur's eyelid twitched.

His job of ending someone's life with barely any effort was indeed rather draining.

A faint sound came from the stairs.

Chloe looked up.

A boy in a gray hoodie stood at the corner of the landing. About six or seven years old, with black curly hair and features so fine he looked like a porcelain doll in a shop window. But his eyes were completely empty. Empty enough to send a chill down her spine.

"Leo, come down." Diana waved her hand, smiling brightly. "This is your new sister, Chloe. You have to protect her."

She put a little extra weight on the word "protect."

Leo came slowly down the stairs and stopped in front of Chloe.

He stood very close. Chloe couldn't hear him breathing.

"Okay, Mom." The boy paused for two seconds, like a machine that had just received a command. "I will make sure she doesn't die."

Chloe had nothing to say to that.

This kid had a very strange way of putting things.

Diana clapped her hands in satisfaction and headed to the kitchen to start dinner.

Only three people were left in the living room.

Leo stared at Chloe without any attempt to hide it.

"Dad is never home," he said flatly. "Mom's mental state is not very stable."

"My oldest brother is a vet. Always working overtime."

"My second brother is a security guard. Very low salary."

"My third brother is mentally ill. Lives at Grandma's house."

"Our family is very poor. Too late to regret it now."

But to Chloe, this family sounded almost perfect. The oldest brother was a vet. The second brother was a security guard. The third brother was getting better at Grandma's.

"It's okay." Chloe sat down on the worn carpet and tilted her face up with a wide smile. "I just like your kind of normal family!"

Leo looked at her like she was a lost cause.

A sharp, rhythmic sound of chopping meat came from the kitchen.

Arthur lay on the sofa, flipping through a tattered book called The Home Vegetable Gardening Guide.

A page slipped out.

Chloe glanced over. Inside the hollowed-out cavity of the book, a matte black silenced pistol lay gleaming in the dim light.

The smile on her face froze solid.