The morning light touched the city gently, but Aiden didn't feel its warmth.
He stood across the street, hidden in a crowd, eyes locked on her — Elena Rivers. The girl he was sent to end.
She walked out of a bakery holding two paper bags. One she gave to a homeless man sitting near the corner. The other, she gave to a little boy with a torn shirt and dirt-stained face.
And then she smiled.
It wasn't fake.
It wasn't practiced.
It was the kind of smile Aiden had never seen in all his life — the kind that reaches the soul.
His heart... flinched.
"Why does she do that?" he muttered under his breath.
"Does she not know the world is cruel?"
But she did.
She just chose to be kind anyway.
That night, back at his rented room, Aiden sat silently, staring at the small silver blade on the table. His hand hovered over it but never touched it.
"One day is gone," he whispered.
"Six more to go…"
But inside… something had already started to change.
---
End of Chapter 2
To be continued...