"Velika, wake up, now!"
She felt a gentle slap on her cheek, which partially woke her up from the extreme sleepiness. An extremely handsome face appeared in her vision, it was Daniel Heinrich. Usually, she woke up earlier than him, she was mildly annoyed by him waking her up at the very rare times that she could finally sleep longer. Then she saw a dirty red lamp with very dim light at the corner of dusty walls which had scratches and dark stains on, her danger alarm went off within a splash second, she was fully awake now.
"Where are we?" She asked in a calm voice even she could feel her heart rate was increasing rapidly.
Then he said the word she feared to hear:
"Valentine."
Valentine was an asylum build on the remains of an old abandoned hospital on North Brother Island, New York City. The island was claimed to be closed to public and rumors said the place was haunted due to the previous usage of the land. However, it was secretly kept as a 'psychiatric asylum for the mentally disturbed'. This place was the worst nightmare of Velika O'Sullivan, the place she would never step her foot on, not ever again. Yet she could never run away from it, the moment she knew about the development of XYZ-2421-ERA, she knew that she was once again, connected to this place. She had witnessed the most brutal event in her life on this island and she did not doubt that the land was haunted.
Sometimes you must be strong and face the worst.
"We are trapped," Said Daniel Heinrich with extreme concern, "Look around you."
She looked around, there were four more people locked in this room with them, she scanned them quietly, and when she saw the face of the man who sat at the corner, she knew her worst fear had yet to come.
"How did they find him?" She said in a cold, flat tone. Daniel Heinrich could sense her devastation, it was the kind of devastation that she did not need to say a word about it, but he already knew that the deepest secret of hers had been ruthlessly discovered.
The man at the corner saw her, his pretty sapphire blue eyes widened.
"Velika?" He said in a voice of doubt like he couldn't decide if she was real or his pure illusion.
"I haven't seen you for a while, Landon," Daniel Heinrich heard her said in a shaky voice, yet she was trying to smile at the man, and he knew that this man was at least somehow influential, or was involved in her past, "And I didn't expect to see you here."
How much about her that she still hadn't told him yet? He thought that he knew Velika O'Sullivan already, but apparently, he didn't, she was still a mystery to him.
The man named Landon moved swiftly across the room and held Velika O'Sullivan tightly in his arms, kissed her on her forehead, and whispering in her ear, telling her to calm down. The other people, including Daniel Heinrich, were staring at them with confusion.
Velika O'Sullivan took nearly a minute before she spoke a word, she turned to Daniel Heinrich. With a shaky voice, she said:
"Heinrich, meet Landon Hetherington, my legal, well, legal in a way, husband. Landon, this is Daniel Heinrich, my partner."
It took Daniel Heinrich for nearly thirty seconds to respond. How did Velika O'Sullivan have a legal husband but had never told him about it? Daniel Heinrich felt betrayed, but deeply he knew that he had no right to be angry, she did tell him many times that he shouldn't be attached to her. It was himself overthought, or more like over-simplified the situation with her. Landon Hetherington looked like someone who straight walked out of Velika O'Sullivan's perfect illusion of a man, perhaps not the type that others would agree, but she would considerate as extraordinarily pretty. Suddenly her partner realized the reason that she insisted to stay in the nonsense marriage with Dean O'Sullivan, was probably because she wanted to protect Landon Hetherington, who she married to at an unknown time. Was he the friend in New York who she was on the phone with?
Although he wanted to deny it, Daniel Heinrich felt that he was being cheated on, even though Velika O'Sullivan told him not to be attached for countless times.
"Where's Laken? Is it safe?" This was the first thing she asked.
"He's with my mother." Said Landon Hetherington, from his accent, Daniel Heinrich knew he was from south Germany, just like himself. Then Daniel Heinrich recalled, when they went on the trip to Germany together, the name on her passport was Velika Hetherington. It was safe to assume that Landon Hetherington was never involved in the business so Daniel Heinrich sort of understood why Velika O'Sullivan tried hard to protect him. However, he still believed that the existence of Landon Hetherington was only a minor part of the secrets Velika O'Sullivan was hiding.
"Velika," Daniel Heinrich interrupted, with an anxious voice, "What's going on?"
"You have just discovered my secrets," Velika O'Sullivan gave him a gaunt smile, "I also have a son."
###
Five years ago.
The moment when Velika O'Sullivan let Daniel Heinrich go, she knew she was on a way of no return. After she confirmed that Romeo Leontes was behind Dean O'Sullivan's disappearance, she decided to stay on the side of Astoria Leontes. In exchange for her trust, Astoria Leontes told Velika O'Sullivan about her cruel and heart-breaking past, which did tie Velika O'Sullivan to her side. And ever after their heart to heart conversation, the woman who was left behind by her husband began a life of being a double alias.
Not surprisingly, both the Leontes had eyes on Daniel Heinrich and would love to make use of him. They ordered her to set him free, and with no doubt, she obeyed. For the outside and the rest of Natural, it was a corrective action and she had to work with a local branch for a while, stay away from the headquarter due to her lack of responsibility. She was no longer the Chair Field Agent and almost everyone, probably except Nicholas Watson, believed she was demoted and cast out. This gave her a perfect cover to follow Daniel Heinrich, who she had all the background information about. For her, it was almost like a vacation with no specific limit amount of time, all she had to do was keep a close eye on Daniel Heinrich, making sure he couldn't get any sort of help from his old connections. They had to isolate him so that they could be sure he would say yes when the time came.
And that was how she ended up following him to the San Francisco Bay area.
But it wasn't him who started a normal life there, it was Velika O'Sullivan. Not even in her wildest dream could she believe, that she magically built an actual life most unexpectedly. Life just had too many surprises for her, way too many.
Once again, she met a man.
###
When 23-year-old Velika O'Sullivan followed Daniel Heinrich to the San Francisco Bay area, she didn't know what to feel. Too close, it's not that far of a drive to San Francisco city, where she spent her early adult years and those years as a wife in. When she was on the flight from Los Angeles, she couldn't help but think, even though she knew perfectly that she shouldn't think anything like this, that what if Dean O'Sullivan stayed with her, how would her life be if they were together for all these years? They would be married for five years by now, Dean O'Sullivan would be a licensed physician, then she could go back to school, got her degree and perhaps, had children. Daydream, she told herself, it never hurt too much to daydream.
Sure enough, she knew her daydream would never come true, aside from it was far off from reality. She wondered if Dean O'Sullivan didn't leave her that way, there was a great chance that he would leave her in other ways. That man, though he seemed nurturing and kind, he was the most manipulative person that she had ever met. He knew how exactly to get her heart, to let her fell for him, gave him all that she could offer in a relationship to him, and returned her with so-called, love, in the most dysfunctional way.
Dean O'Sullivan was the reason that she lost her desire of finding love. People were all the same, she told herself coldly, why would she ever bother to give out her heart to someone again? Yes, indeed she admired Aaron Carling, but that was more of lust, lust that she only ever fantasized in her dreams. Aaron Carling would never be a match for her, they belonged to separate paths and those paths shouldn't ever be crossed. Velika O'Sullivan knew this by heart.
Even she was away from Natural Headquarter, the Leontes told her that they would assign her smaller operations that she could easily travel to and complete on her own. They trusted her abilities as a field agent, after all, she was the best after Adelaide Fox left the company. She agreed on their terms, they paid her fairly well, almost as good as she was still the Chair Field Agent. For her, it was almost like they sent her on a long-term vacation yet still paid her for the work that she didn't do, to which, she had no complaints.
Daniel Heinrich decided to settle in a small city named Albany, it was a nice, quiet place and warm throughout the seasons. Velika O'Sullivan didn't quite understand why he didn't choose San Francisco city, but she was secretly glad of his choice. If she had to go back to that city, regardless of how much she loved her time there, it would be too much memory for her, and she didn't know how well she could handle that.
Work stress is always easy to be dealt with emotional stress, thought the exhausted Velika O'Sullivan, who was determined not to get involved in anything sentimental anymore. The lust towards Aaron Carling was partially her act, to this day she still didn't know surely how many emotions that she invested in the Swedish doctor, and she probably would never be able to figure out.
It was like starting a new life. Moved to a new city where she knew nobody. She didn't have to disguise her as the enchanting assassin who was cold-blooded, heartless, and ordered her assistants or other field agents in a demanding tone. That wasn't what she wanted to be, inside the wall of her heart that she built for herself over the years in the field, she had the soft side that she only kept to herself. Again, the emotion was the most dangerous weapon people could use against her, and she would never want anyone to be able to use it.
You can't use paper to hold backfire, but you can always hold it a little, just a little longer.
She found a nice apartment complex near the south side where was quiet and less traffic around. When she didn't have to work, she spent the majority of her time in her apartment, reading, or watch movies, enjoyed the life that she never dreamed to have. Velika O'Sullivan was used to living a busy, chaotic life every single day for the past three years of her life and it became a habit. At first, she wasn't used to it, but then slowly, she adapted her new lifestyle and started enjoying it.
Before she realized, it wasn't Daniel Heinrich who built a new life during the years outside their business, it was Velika O'Sullivan.
Velika O'Sullivan became acquaintance with Sierra, the woman who lived next door when Sierra knocked on her door one evening, borrow some tools to fix the sink.
"Ugh, that sink clogged again, it's too late to call plumper," Said Sierra, trying to put her messy curly hair back to a ponytail, "Tyler is out of town for the week, and an independent woman needs to fix her sink problem, am I right?"
Even Velika O'Sullivan never said it, but she did like Sierra a lot. Sierra was like a version of her in the normal world, where she didn't have to hide all her secrets and pretended to be someone who she wasn't. They had similar personalities and soon became friends. Not too close, since Velika O'Sullivan had to keep a distance from other people, the last thing she wanted to be someone got involved in the chaos she was forced to be in once upon a time.
Sierra, the woman that Velika O'Sullivan never knew what her last was, worked for an architecture company just outside of the city, there was a short driving distance from their apartment complex. She worked as a front desk receptionist and sometimes also took up the role of an assistant when her supervisor needed extra help in the field. As a genuinely considerate person, or just to have normal conversations between two acquaintances, Sierra asked what Velika O'Sullivan did for a living.
"I'm an editor," Said Velika O'Sullivan with a smile, it was so natural when she lied about her occupation, just like she did so many times before, "I work mostly from home, and sometimes I get to travel, which is pretty nice."
"You said you are from LA, right?" Said Sierra, she was holding her wine glass in her hand, and sitting comfortably on Velika O'Sullivan's couch, "Why did you move here? I mean, Bay area is great, but why not San Francisco city?"
"It's quiet here," Answered Velika O'Sullivan with a smile, "I've been in LA for too long, now I'm trying to live a quiet life for a while."
Then, naturally, Sierra asked the question that her friend didn't want to answer but was sort forced to.
"Are you currently seeing anybody?"
"No, I'm not." Velika O'Sullivan smiled, took a sip of her wine, hoping Sierra would stop right there. She hadn't been asked by anyone about her relationship status for a long time before she was married, then she got into Natural where everyone could care less about relationships, they were more focused on how to survive another day as they were the people put their lives on a thread and walked on a blade day after day.
"Well, then I have someone to introduce you to." Said Sierra with a sneaky smile. Before Velika O'Sullivan could stop her, she already started talking about the man that she wanted to introduce to her new friend.
Landon Hetherington was his name. He was six years older than Velika O'Sullivan and was Sierra's supervisor, or more like he was her supervisor when he needed assistance in the field, such as recording measurements, not much of manual labor that a small woman like Sierra couldn't take.
When Sierra showed Velika O'Sullivan a photo of Landon Hetherington, there wasn't much of this man that was attractive to her. He had blue eyes and fairly skinny, and didn't seem like someone who could handle lots of intense fieldwork. However, Velika O'Sullivan couldn't turn down Sierra's offer since her dear neighbor was very enthusiastic and kept telling that they would be great for each other.
Velika O'Sullivan didn't believe a word of it until one day, she realized what she had got herself into. She thought it would just be like when she met Bryce Sanchez, a meaningless summer romance with a man who lived a normal life, then she would sink back to her world and minded her own business before she even realized it.
She was wrong.