Chapter 135 You survived, didn't you?

Chapter 135 You survived, didn't you?
Elara's POV

The memories came back like a flood.

It had been dents and cracks before, as though the bridge or dam holding them still was slowly being broken, but this was the last straw.

The dam broke and everything came back.

Who I was to the Ashfords the day that I revealed that I wasn't their daughter.

They disregarded me.

No, they didn't. They may have taken away the little title of Ashford only daughter that I had, but they didn't throw me away.

Instead, they found another use for me.

They made me into something else.

Something that wasn't human.

A sob left my lips as the memories forced their way back into my brain. The way I was trained, forced, perfected into the very person they wanted me to be.

The blood...

So much blood.

The screams.

I didn't care.

I couldn't care.

They took away my emotions as well.

Another loud sob left my lips, and my legs curled upwards towards my chest, my hand holding my head tightly. But no matter what I did, the pain remained.

It felt like a thousand needles were poking into my brain, each of them holding a painful memory at their tips.

The hard ground felt colder beneath me, and my body shook. The pain was terrible but bearable.

The memories weren't.

"Arghhh!"

A scream tore through my throat, and my eyes flew open.

My chest heaved heavily, my lungs struggling to catch up with my breathing. Sweat covered my forehead and soaked through the back of my clothes.

For a few seconds, I simply stared into the darkness.

I didn't know where I was.

I didn't know how long I had been there.

My eyes moved around the room, trying to make sense of my surroundings, but the darkness swallowed everything.

Then I remembered.

The way those men stared at me, the van... The cloth around my nose.

I was kidnapped.

My breathing became heavier.

And then...

I remembered everything else.

Ever since I began living in Jayden's mansion, the flashes had reduced. It was as though my body was trying hard to fight it. It didn't want me to remember.

But now it was all care.

I remembered the mansion, the rooms and people.

The training. The first time I held a gun.

The first time I was forced to... to kill.

I killed.

I wasn't just put aside, I was made into something else.

My stomach churned.

I pressed a hand over my mouth, fighting the sudden urge to throw up.

"No..." The word came out as a whisper.

I shook my head. "No, no, no..."

I didn't want to remember.

I had spent over five years without those memories. Five years building a life where I was just Elara Reyes, a mother and an employee.

I had convinced myself that the worst thing that had ever happened to me was Liam's betrayal.

I had convinced myself that being abandoned by the Ashfords was the reason I had broken.

But that wasn't the whole truth.

It wasn't even close.

I had forgotten what they turned me into.

My hands began trembling again.

I looked down at them. They looked the same.

They were small and soft. The calluses had healed, they looked human.

But I remembered what those hands had done.

The people they had hurt and the lives they had ended.

My lips trembled.
"I didn't want to..."

The words died in my throat.

That wasn't true.

Not back then.

Back then, I hadn't cared.

They had made sure I didn't.

They had trained me until pulling a trigger became as normal as breathing.

They had taken every ounce of hesitation out of me, I had no weakness..

And whenever I cried, they made me train harder. Whenever I refused, they reminded me that I had nowhere else to go.

I had been their daughter when they needed one.

Their weapon when they found their real daughter.

Their assassin when they realized I could be useful.

My eyes burned.

A tear rolled down my cheek.

Then another.

I wiped them away angrily.

Why?

Why had I forgotten?

Why had I been given the chance to live a normal life if it was only going to come back?

My children.

The thought of Jake and Leo hit me harder than anything else.

They didn't know.

They knew me as their mother.

Their safe place.

What would happen if they found out what I had been?

What would happen if they found out their mother had killed people?

My breathing became uneven again.

No.

They could never know.

I wouldn't let them. I had to get out.

I had to get back to them.

I pushed my palms against the ground and tried to stand.

My knees immediately buckled.

I fell back down with a quiet groan.

I was too weak.

My body hadn't recovered from whatever they had done to me, and my mind was still struggling to process everything.

I crawled backward until my back hit the wall.

My fingers curled into my hair.

"Think..."

I whispered.

"Think, Elara."

There had to be a way out.

There had to be something I could do to get out of...

I couldn't finish that thought.

A faint sound came from outside the room, traveling into my ears. My breathing still and I snapped my head towards the sound the sound.

Footsteps.

They were slow and heady, coming towards us.

My heart began pounding. I looked around desperately.

There was nothing. I couldn't see anything.

The footsteps stopped outside the door.

My breathing stopped with them.

The handle moved. The door opened.

I instinctively pressed myself harder against the wall.

The door opened wider, but the room remained dark.

Then a hand reached toward the wall.

Click.

The light came on.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second before opening them slowly only to come face to face with the devil himself.

His hair was swept back with a few strands sticking out, it seemed like he had tampered with it a few times. His suit was sharp and so was his gaze.

Hillary Ashford.

He stood in the doorway, dressed neatly as though he hadn't just kidnapped someone.

I knew it was him the second I saw the van, even though the reported to someone else.

His eyes met mine. For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.

He studied me carefully.

Then his lips slowly curved upward.

I forced myself to stand, gripping the wall for support. "You used me." The words came out hoarse.

Hillary's smile widened. "I knew you'd remember everything sooner or later. I guess it was sooner."

I stared at him.

The anger inside me was almost unbearable.

"Even after over a decade and a half, you all didn't care about me at all. You left me to rot as though I was nothing just because you found your real daughter."

This wasn't the time to iron issues with Jim, my brain knew that, but I was hurting too much. The memories returned with all the pain that u had bottled up all those years.

But...Hillary didn't even look guilty.

Not even for a second.

Instead, he walked into the room and closed the door behind him."Oh, we didn't let you rot, darling. We built you." He said raising both arms up before pointing them at me. "We formed you into something unique, something deadly."

My fingers curled into fists.

"An assassin!" My voice sounded louder than I expected. It echoed in the round giving it more depth. "You made me an assassin for your fucking mafia group!"

That was what I was.

An asset.

He tilted his head slightly.

"I gave you purpose." Hillary said, nodding his head. "Wasn't it better than being a nobody? Than being cast away?"

He spoke as though he really did know that I was going to remember. He was ready to answer for the question I had.
"Purpose?"

I laughed bitterly.

"Killing people? You turned me into a killing machine."

"You survived, didn't you?"

My eyes widened.

That was all he had to say?

That was his justification?

I had spent years trying to forget the things they had done to me, and he stood there acting as though he had given me s
ome kind of gift.

"It's been almost six years since you've forgotten everything. Six years since your last kill. But now you're back with me. Now that you remember it all, everything will be easy. You just need a little bit of practice. Do you remember where you usually trained and how?"