Reversal

Keeping his words in mind, Christian nods "But, why do I have to fight in handcuffs?"

Smiling slightly, John says "You never know what can happen to you, imagine you have broken arms, broken legs, you're handcuffed or you can even be tied up, you should always be ready for what you least expect"

"..." Nodding, Christian continued "What next now?"

Smiling, the old man took out an old book from his clothes "In this book, I talk about all the weak points of the human body. You have hundreds of them and they vary according to sex. It has details and images, so study it along with other books that I will send to your cell. Don't think that by reading you have to stop training; you will dedicate 4 hours a day to training with me. Besides, now you will stop developing your feet and fists, you will change it for legs and palms, be sure to hit the wood with all your strength so that your skin gains hardness"

Nodding, Christian takes the book carefully "What will the other books be about?"

"The topics will vary, from cooking to quantum physics, you have to learn all the basics about different subjects, especially the math and physics books I will give you, as they will be useful for weapons training"

"Why cooking?"

"Didn't I tell you I would turn you into an assassin?" smiling softly, John continued "An assassin must be prepared for every field, one day you can be a cook and another day you can be a teacher. You will do whatever it takes to get closer to your target. Then I will give you a book of recipes and poisons, and you will have to learn all the existing and known poisons, plus sleeping pills and aphrodisiacs" With seriousness, John takes Christian's shoulders and says "You will especially have to be able to identify aphrodisiacs... you are blessed with a unique beauty, and women will not hesitate to use all means to get you, especially the most dangerous women, so be careful, because having beauty and no power is just a curse"

Frowning slightly, Christian nodded.

"Good, now I want to ask you something... you are training to be an assassin, but do you know what an assassin is?"

Pursing his lips, Christian remembered everything he saw about them and said "Aren't they those ones that always wear black and have an aura of death around them? The kind that you look at and say 'this guy is dangerous', then after that they pull out their knives and start doing somersaults in the air or hide in the shadows, then-"

*Pa*

"Hey!" Holding his hand to his cheek, Christian looked at the old man angrily "Why are you slapping me!?"

"How can you be so stupid!?" Angrily, John exclaimed "A real killer can be tucked in the crowd and you'd never know, a real killer doesn't always wear black and have that 'aura' of death like you say, those people who do that are nothing but stupid!"

"Why are you getting mad...?" Grumbling, Christian continued "I've only seen killers in movies..."

"*Sigh*" Wearily John looks at Christian seriously and says "Christian, a real killer should never be detected let alone have anything that characterizes him, he shouldn't have tattoos, he shouldn't have scars, or anything special... and if you already have that, you should hide them, because it only makes you more recognizable, understood?"

"Yes..."

"In a while I will teach you makeup technique and the use of masks to change your face, I will also teach you how to use people's blind spots and how to go unnoticed in crowds... but we will have a problem" Looking at Christian carefully, John sighed "Your face is very hard to hide, so you won't be able to go unnoticed in the public eye, unless you use other faces..."

Frowning, Christian asked "So what do I do?"

"If you can't go unnoticed, you just have to have a shadow in your light" Smiling with sparkling eyes, John continued "You are already destined for the limelight and to always have people following you, fame is your thing and you will have to embrace it, but you have to use that to your advantage"

"No one will expect a very famous person entering a building to change faces and mess up an elevator so that someone will fall and die, those are strengths you have to exploit"

"But if I use fame, I will always have people following me..."

"And that means you'll have a stronger alibi"

"Alibi... I see" Christian nodded "If I enter a room and leave through the window or sneak out, people following me can be used as an alibi in case they suspect me"

"Exactly, but for that you'll have to learn a lot more" John nodded "You'll have to learn how to murder and the many techniques that entails, especially the cleaning of scenes and how to plan different types of murders, be it suicide, accidents, heart attacks, among other things"

"Interesting..." Christian murmured.

"And that's only part of it" Smiled John "I'll also teach you how to seduce people, how to walk and smile. You have to work on expressions thoroughly"

"Seducing I understand... but why do I need to learn how to walk and smile?"

"Because your posture when walking says a lot about you, and everyone judges you based on that... you have to take into account different postures and what you want to represent, as for your smile... it's simple. Your smile is beautiful, no one can say otherwise, but if you worked it more and learned to smile in the perfect spot, it would be a deadly weapon to bewitch others... there are countless different kinds of smiles and you must work them all... as for expressions, it is so as not to show one's feelings or thoughts to people who would take advantage of it. You are smart, you must have an idea why"

"..." Nodding, Christian thinks deeply about everything.

"I was thinking about which face you should use, whether the cold and indifferent man, or the eternally smiling one... and the truth is that both faces fit you well, but your look is somewhat warmer and softer, so you'll have to go for the eternally smiling mask... it might be exhausting, but you'll have to use it on many occasions"

Frowning, Christian asked "So I'll be another typical hypocrite?"

"Christian... look me in the eye."

With hesitation, Christian looks up and stares "..."

"If you are in jail today it is because you don't know how to control yourself and you have angered many people you could not offend, you have your family to protect and you cannot think only of yourself... I understand your personality, you like to say what bothers you or what you like upfront and that's good, but you must know with whom to do it and with whom not to, because if you dare to say something wrong to the wrong person, your life and your loved ones' lives are at risk"

With a complicated expression, Christian reluctantly asks "So will I always have to wear a mask?"

"Who says always?" Patting Christian's head, John smiled softly "You can be yourself with your trusted people or your family, but you can't be yourself with your enemies or people you don't trust, because they will exploit all they can from you... I will also teach you to use different masks and expressions so that you can always vary your expressions for the right people. Take it just as extra security... I will also teach you to eat elegantly so that you don't embarrass yourself at certain events, and I will teach you intimidation techniques through your body expressions. At the same time, you must also learn psychology to predict human behaviors so that you can work with a complete profile"

Biting his lips, Christian nods silently.

"*Sigh* After that I will teach you how to use bladed weapons, I will teach you how to wield them and how to defend yourself against them, plus I will teach you how to throw them, it's something very important in this trade"

"Sounds entertaining"

"And it is" John laughed lightly "After that we will move on to firearms, I will teach you how to load them and aim them. Then we will see how you can practice because here you can't... I will bring you some replicas in the future and you can get used to them... finally you will have to learn battle tactics, killing and healing, this is vital everywhere.... to finish all this combat stuff, I will teach you how to use different tactical equipment, like night vision, compass, weapon sights, grenades, how to make bombs, among other things... and to finish all your training, I will teach you how to survive in different environments, snow, deserts, jungles and environments like that, including cities obviously"

"Sounds like a lot of work..."

"It will be" John laughed "But after this you won't have to worry about basically anything. The only thing I regret not being able to teach you, is how to drive a plane and a tank, as I never learned it, but all the other specialties are in my memory"

"..." Looking at the smiling old man, Christian smiled gratefully "Thank you..."

"You don't have to thank me" John smiled kindly, then stood up and shook off his clothes, "Go rest for now and wait for your books, tomorrow you start having a lot more work"

"..." Nodding, Christian watched as John slowly left the place, then put his hand to his heart and murmured "Is this what it's like to have a father?"

...

Thursday, April 04, 2013. (4 months later)

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

Looking out of her office window with a cold, blank stare, Eva picked up her cell phone and casually answered "Who?"

"Hi sis"

"Victoria, it's been a long time since I've heard from you" Resting her chin on her fist, Eva speaks emotionlessly.

"Yeah, I've been really busy these past few years, you know, handling so much money is so chaotic"

"Yes, I understand"

"..."

"Do you need anything?"

"Yes... Mom wanted to talk to you"

"I'm not interested in talking to her. Do you need anything else?" Turning her chair towards the desk, Eva clamped her cell phone with her shoulder and started moving papers.

"Eva...we're your family after all, you can't ignore her"

"I was thrown out on the street with a baby in my belly at 14, that's what a family would do?"

"..."

"Do you have something to talk about or are you just going to run errands for mom?"

"No... that's all I wanted to say"

"Then that's all, talk to you later" Hanging up the cell phone, Eva threw it on the desk and continued working. "Leslie, call Sara, tell her to prepare some legal document that removes any possibility for my mother or my sisters to take any of our assets, also tell her to prepare a will, if I die everything will be in Christian's name, he will know how to handle everything"

"Ma'am, do you suspect your family?" standing still by the office door, Leslie asked.

"Maybe, it's never too much to have a plan for case the worst... you know what? Call Sara, I want to talk to her"

"Right away"

"Hello, Eva?"

"Sara, prepare me some paperwork to make sure that neither my parents nor my sisters will be able to touch any of our assets, also prepare a will and leave everything in Christian's name"

"Did something happen?" Sara asked with concern in her voice.

"No, everything is going well, but I want to make sure"

"Good... I will personally prepare those papers"

"How's the buffet going?"

"Great, every day we have more high-level clients. We also got an agreement with Harvard and their graduates will start coming to work with us"

"Nice" nodded Eva "How are we doing with Uber?"

"We already bought Kalanick's shares and almost all of Camp's shares, we have more than 70% of Uber"

"Did that woman give us a lot of trouble?"

"She kept threatening us for blackmail, but ended up giving in anyway"

"I found inconsistencies in Uber's assets, I'm studying what happened to the money and I see embezzlement by Kalanick, sue her publicly"

"Are you sure? We promised not to sue her"

"I don't care, screw her"

"Fine, we'll set everything up"

"How's Instagram going?"

"Everything great, we already have over 100 million users and Tik Tok has 130 million users"

"Good, tell Jayden to find the new servers fast, I don't want to rely on an outside company to keep our files safe"

"Already on it"

"How's the plan coming along?"

"We already have several properties and the bubble is growing"

"Will we get splashed?"

"Impossible, we'll be the one to burst it, so we'll be out before it all goes down"

"Good, let them get on with it" Eva nodded, then stopped her work and showed an expression for the first time in many days "How is everything going with Christian?"

"He looks healthy and he's looking better every day, I took a picture of him, I'll send it to you when we finish the call"

"How is the lawsuit going?"

"They keep giving us problems and postponing the appeal..."

Clenching her fists tightly, Eva nodded "Well.... we can't do any more for now"

"How's Hailie and Alan, have you talked to them?"

"Yes, I called them in the morning, they sounded good"

"Are they coming for the vacations?"

"Yes"

"They haven't had any problems? It must be hard being so far away"

"Alan looked happy, and Hailie went with Maya, so she must be doing well"

"Eva... are you absolutely sure about keeping them there? Le Rosey High School is surrounded by children of powerful people, some of them tend to be very cruel..."

"It's the only safe place for them for now, we have to cement ourselves in the country. I don't want them to suffer something similar to Christian, besides I sent them with security, so they won't have major problems" Biting her lips slightly, Eva answered.

"Do you think Christian will like that decision?"

"Of course not... that's why won't tell him" Eva spoke with concern.

"*Sigh* Okay..."

"That's all Sara, I'll talk to you later"

"Talk to you later"

Hanging up the cell phone, Eva looks at the picture of Christian on the side of her desk and smiles softly, then clenches her fists and returns to her nonchalant look.

*Ding*

Quickly grabbing her cell phone, Eva opens the messages and comes across Christian's picture, causing her gaze to soften into a loving one as she caresses the screen, "My boy is getting more handsome every day, even his smile seems to be more beautiful..."

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Edited By: Joy_a