I decided to meet with Rose to get more information about what Uncle Jonah had told me. So I called Rose to meet with me at an abandoned warehouse where I could get information without intrusion. I knew Rose was innocent and that her husband might have used her as bait or a mole to get to Marvin. I just have to talk to her to give up her husband and let her know that no harm would come to her. She was my very good friend.

Rose came but something seemed odd. I noticed she had not dressed this way before. I was concerned about her dress choice as I noticed it gave her room to hide any weapon. I had never seen Rose dressed this way. it was only assassins who had images and identities to conceal usually do this type of thing.

“Thank you for meeting with me, Rose. I am so sorry we had to meet like this. I didn’t plan it this way, but circumstances warranted it?” I said, sizing up the lady in front of me who looked extremely changed from the Rose I knew from the office.

“It’s okay, Cassie, you are always kind to me,” Rose replied.

I cannot help but tell her, “You look different, are you okay?” I asked with a smile, trying to make her comfortable for the next question.

“Thank you, Cassie, as you know as well, I am not in the office,” she said. I was not expecting that answer, but it was okay. She came and that is what matters.

I went directly to ask her if she knew her husband was an assassin and working for a deadly mafia lord who wanted to kill Marvin at all costs. I never imagined I would hear the most devastating statements since I took the contractor. Rose was the Shadow of Deception, she was not innocent.

The revelation had cut through the air like a dagger, leaving me stunned and betrayed. Rose, seemingly the epitome of innocence, stood before me, a figure shrouded in the shadows of deception. The warehouse, though quiet, once a sanctuary, now echoed with the weight of the truth that had been laid bare.

"You knew?" my voice trembled with a mix of anger and disbelief, my eyes locked onto Rose's. You wanted me dead as well.

Rose, her expression void of remorse, met my gaze with a cold detachment. "Yes, I knew. We've been working for the Contractor, and I won't let anyone jeopardize our mission. I am sure you know what that mission is."

My mind raced, grappling with the reality that the very person I considered a friend had been harboring a dangerous secret. The air became charged with tension as the seconds ticked away, each moment intensifying the impending confrontation.

“You know I am going to kill you for this, right,” I said. As I stood there, my feelings for her automatically changed to the target I was supposed to take out.

“To protect your loverboy and the father of your twins?” Rose said and started laughing. Her laughter annoyed me more than the truth about my unborn children. I move a little closer to her.

“Your laughter is going to be cut short soon, and if you continue laughing sooner,” I said.

“You know everyone thinks you are the smartest and the best. People studied your every move and the way you handled crises. I must give it to you, but like I told the Contractor, everyone makes mistakes, even you Cassie, and not coming here with Larry was one of your biggest mistakes,” Rose said.

What everyone thinks they are, sometimes they are not. I felt Rose underestimated me. I was the number one assassin in the whole country and for you to think that I called for a meeting to be killed by you or anyone else must be a joke of one of the New York dailies in their publishing.

In an unexpected twist, Rose's hand moved with swift precision, producing a concealed firearm. Before I could react, a gunshot rang through the room, the sound reverberating against the walls. Pain seared through my body as the impact of the bullet hit her. Rose's shot went through my stomach. The thought of hurting the babies in my womb was more painful than the gunshot wound itself.

The world blurred as I staggered backward, my vision clouded by a haze of agony. Instinct kicked in, and my training took over. In a desperate bid for survival, I retaliated, firing back at Rose with lethal precision. The warehouse echoed with another gunshot, the deafening sound a grim punctuation to the unfolding tragedy.

Rose, was the orchestrator of her own demise as she crumpled to the ground with her eyes reflecting a mix of surprise and resignation, while mine was that of pain and regret. The weight of the revelation, the betrayal, and the violence hung heavily in the air around me and my heartbeat had just jumped twice faster than normal and all of a sudden started slowing down faster as it went up.

I looked across the warehouse and saw someone move. I had seen that movement before, though my sight was now cloudy, it looked like the movement of the contractor. As the person came closer, I realized that it was Rose’s husband. He was angered by the way he was looking and was reaching for his gun.

I tried to push myself backward to give myself a fighting chance at least, but the more I tried, the more painful it was. He shot at me and got my gun-hand, but what everyone kept forgetting is that I am a knife person, and with the other hand, the knife left with all the strength I had in me, straight to his chest as I reached for my phone and pressed the alert to signal Larry of my situation and position.

Now my sight and vision are blurred, and I was beginning to lose breath and blood. The last thing I saw was Larry, who was alerted by the commotion, burst into the warehouse to witness the aftermath. His eyes widened at the scene before him, it was a tableau of conflicting loyalties and the collateral damage of a clandestine world. I was blank from every call Larry made because I died.