Leon clenched his fists and gritted his teeth after looking at the photo.
"Why… Why did he have this photo?!" he said with his voice full of anger.
Tania looked at the picture and asked, "What's wrong?"
"This is… my family photo.." Leon replied.
"Oh!" Tania looked carefully at the photo and thought, 'The photo is printed new, but it was captured a long time ago.'
"Why are you angry then?" Tania asked with a confused look on her face. She didn't know that the photo didn't belong to Leon, but it was detective L's.
"It's similar to the picture I have at home, but this one was clicked from a different angle," Leon stated. "After my brother and parent's death, I lost almost all our belongings. But that doesn't matter."
Leon frowned his face and muttered, "Why did that piece of shit have this photo?"
"Can I take a close look at the picture?" Tania asked hesitantly.
Leon reluctantly handed the picture to Tania and started pondering on why detective L had this photo.
Tana pointed her finger at 7-year-old Leon in the photo and asked, "Is this you?"
"Yes." Leon nodded in response.
"You look so… different." Tania then moved her finger to Liam and said, "So this is your brother?"
"Yeah."
"So…" Tania tapped on Layla and said, "This is the girl."
"Hmm?"
"She is the 'I am stuck step-bro' girl, right?"
"Don't call her that."
Tania scoffed and moved her gaze at Leon's parents.
"And they are your parents… hmm? "Who is this?" Tania squinted her eyes and looked closely at Leon's mother.
"It's my mother."
"Why do I feel like I have seen her somewhere before?" she asserted with a serious look on her face.
"Not surprising," Leon uttered in a low voice.
"Huh? Tania turned to Leon and asked, "What do you mean?"
"You must know of a Blood's Creed mafia syndicate, right?"
Tania nodded and said, "It's the number one mafia syndicate of this country."
Leon nodded and continued, "Thea main head of the syndicate, Raslidya. He is my… biological father…"
"What?! But he is like… 84 years old!" Tania exclaimed. "Does that mean he fathered you when he was 65?!"
"Not only that…" Leon frowned his face and continued, "My mother was his… granddaughter."
"What?!"
"You should know that in Blood's creed syndicate, the leaders, that is Raslidaya's sons; They marry in their own family to keep their blood pure. Most of my uncles married their sisters, and some married their daughters."
"I have heard about this before, but I thought it was just another rumor spread by the opposite syndicates to tarnish their name. But now… that's fucked up…"
"I mean, marriage is a cute word. They don't actually marry. The night the girl turns 18, they get mated. A male's age doesn't matter," Leon shrugged his shoulders and said, "And my brother, he is a product of when my uncle did it with my mother."
It took Tana a while before taking it all in.
"How did your mother manage to escape then?" Tania asked curiously.
"Did you forget the underground war that occurred 12 years ago?"
Tania's face turned pale after hearing that.
"My mother died in that war…" she muttered.
"My mother found a perfect opportunity to run away and took Liam and me with her," Leon asserted. "Then, when we were living in an abandoned building, we met Layla's father."
"Then they got married?" Layla asked with a curious yet calm look on her face.
"It was a court marriage, but yeah."
After a brief silence, Tania raised her brows and said, "That means you can be the leader of the blood's creed mafia syndicate, right?"
"I am probably the last one in the line," Leon scoffed.
"Just saying… why don't you go back then?" Tania asked hesitantly.
"I hate that place." Leon had a trauma connected to that place... The torture he received from Ryan was nothing compared to the hospitality he was getting at the mafia syndicate.
As they say, the deeper the wound, the longer it takes to heal.
"And why should I even go back?" Leon snorted. "I plan to annihilate every one of them once I am done with my revenge."
"Blood's creed syndicate and number two— my Drio Syndicate are nemeses. If you become a leader, then you will become my enemy." Tania shot a glance at Leon and said with a slutty smile on her face: "Fortunately, I no longer belong to Drio syndicate."
"Well, I leave a seat open once I become the leader of Blood's Creed syndicate."
After a while, Leon raised his brows and asked with a confused look on his face: "Which syndicate was in connection with the previous president?"
"Number three— Niolyr. It was a no-name syndicate until a few years ago. It suddenly rose in ranking and became number three," Tania answered and added, "I am sure the previous president was behind it."
"Enough talk about that." Leon looked at the photo and frowned his face as he said, "I think I know why that detective had this picture with him."
"Why?" Tania asked curiously.
"He is looking into me. Involving Layla in his mess was a big mistake. But well, he still doesn't know that I am the secret killer. So my secret is… safe."
Leon stopped when he looked at Tania and remembered Tania knew that he was the secret killer.
"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me," Tania reassured with a gentle smile on her face.
"I don't care if my identity as a secret killer gets exposed," Leon snorted. "But I don't want it to be exposed because Layla's life can be in danger."
"That's true…" Tania pondered for a while and said, "Do you want me to assign some bodyguards for her?"
"Umm, are they female?" Leon didn't want any other male to get near Layla. She was only his property.
Tania shook her head and said, "Unfortunately, most of the females are always in undercover missions. Cuz… you know… they are easy to blend in and…"
"And?"
"And males are weak against weak women. They let their guard down, so…"
"Yeah, I get it."
Tania turned around and took out Leon's 'secret killer' mask from the drawer.
"Here. This is yours…"
Leon wore the mask and left Tania's apartment.
'Time to kill that asshole who shot me.'
===
Author's Note- This was Leon's other dark side of his childhood. It also shows why he chose the path to become a psychopath. I was going to reveal Leon's origin after some hundred chapters, but it would have looked like a forced plot, so I think I made the right choice to do it now.