Lila
The Next Morning
Rain slid down the tall windows, blurring the city into silver streaks. Lila hadn't moved in a while since she freshened up, she just stared aimlessly at the wall. Her coffee had gone cold beside her laptop, a faint brown ring bleeding into the wood. She didn't care.
The apartment was silent except for the storm's soft hiss. She'd taken the day off. The air still smelled faintly of antiseptic and guilt.
Joel's face wouldn't leave her alone. His body on the table, pale under the morgue light. One of hers. One she should've protected but failed.
Her phone buzzed.
Camille sent her a message.
Camille: I saw you behaving weird so I decided to check for clues on Joel's body. Pulled this from the encrypted chip I found on his watch. I don't know how the police missed it.
Camille: It's a message, not a file.
Camille: I haven't read it yet but I won't recommend opening it with someone else around.
Lila frowned as she opened the attachment. A string of symbols filled the screen—numbers, slashes, nonsense. Then a familiar pattern: LO/52 – OBQ.
Her heart skipped once. Les ombres
The shadows
She entered a few quick commands. The code unraveled, line by line, until words took shape on the screen.
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Recovered Message - Joel Marin's Device
If you're reading this, it means I was right and I'm probably dead now. I don't want you to feel guilty as it isn't your fault cause we all knew what we were getting into and your father did save us. We owed him our lives.
Les ombres ordered the hit on the Boss, your father, Jacques Rousseau. I found the contact in their private archive
He wasn't supposed to die that night, he was supposed to hand something or someone over. When he refused, they killed him.
The man who carried out the order worked for them as a spy and an assassin. His alias: Durant.
They know I saw the files and I knew the truth. I heard them say I was next.
If this reaches you, Lila. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner.
—Joel.
For a moment she couldn't breathe. The letters blurred as if the rain outside had leaked through the screen.
Durant.
Her pulse screamed loudly in her ears.
Jace Durant.
Her father's killer.
Her knees hit the desk chair and before she realized it, she'd stumbled. The mug crashed to the floor, shattering across tile.
He'd been beside her all this time—calm, amused, pretending to care while he carried her father's blood on his hands.
"Great" she muttered, voice cracking into a bitter laugh. "I can't believe I was so stupid to let him get so close. "
Her fingers found the edge of the desk and she steadied herself.
No tears fell, just the sharp, bright telltale ache behind her ribs that always came before she wrecked something.
She grabbed her jacket, slid her gun into the waistband of her jeans. The movement was automatic, mechanical.
Outside, the rain hit harder. The city looked washed-out, too clean for what was going on in her heart.
She didn't call Matthieu. She didn't tell Camille. She didn't even tell R
Adrien. Not yet. She needed to deal with this first.
Instead, she opened a side app—one of the quiet networks her father had taught her to use. A favor owed here, a camera feed there, an old contact who still answered to La Rousseau.
Lila: Track Jace Durant. Last seen near the river district.
Unknown: Copy. Sending coordinates.
Within minutes, a blinking dot appeared on her screen. Not close but somewhere else. She didn't bat an eye.
She drove fast, wipers beating against the rain, her reflection ghosted in the windshield—jaw tight, eyes hollow with pain.
The rain came down in sheets, turning the streets of Étretat into rivers of silver and dirt.
Lila didn't mind. She'd always liked the quiet that followed a storm, the kind that made people hide indoors and leave the world to the wolves.
By the time she reached the district, the storm had thinned to drizzle. Puddles mirrored the pale daylight. She cut the engine, slipped out of the car, pulled her hood up.
The tracker pulsed again. A narrow street, a door marked by peeling numbers. She listened—footsteps, faint music, a laugh that twisted her stomach.
Her hand closed around the gun.
One steady breath. Then another.
She kicked the door in.
The sound slammed through the quiet apartment.
Inside, the light was dim, the smell of coffee faint in the air and the low gum of a speaker sounded in the apartment. A jacket on the chair. His gun on the counter.
He was here.
Her father's killer.
Joel's killer.
The one man she should've killed on sight but didn't.
"Jace." Her voice was low, steady, dangerous.
Somewhere deeper in the apartment, the footsteps stopped.
His head snapped up when the door banged against the floor.
He didn't reach for his weapon. He just looked at her, calm, too calm.
"Lila Rousseau." he said, her name rolling smoothly off his tongue as if he'd practiced it severally. "Took you long enough to finally visit my abode"
"Didn't take long," she replied, stepping inside. Her gun was already drawn. "I just wanted to make sure I'd enjoy this."
He raised his hands slowly, a mocking smile flickering at the corner of his lips. "You found the message, didn't you?"
"I did" she said flatly. "It was encrypted, but Joel was smart. He left the truth buried deep enough that only I'd dig it up."
"And now you know" he said, voice quiet.
"I had an inkling." she snapped, moving closer. "I just didn't think The Shadows would waste their best assassin on an old man and his student."
He tilted his head, watching her. "Orders, Lila. You of all people should know how this works."
She laughed, short and sharp. "Don't insult me with that."
Her voice turned to ice. "You killed my father like he was a name on a file. You killed Joel because he saw too much. Tell me, did you enjoy it?"
His eyes flickered. " I only enjoy it when it's personal and it wasn't "
"It is now."
The next second, she fired.
The shot hit his leg, dropping him instantly. The chair behind him crashed to the floor as he bit back a groan, his hand pressing against the wound.
"Goddamn it." he hissed.
Lila walked up to him, her steps slow and deliberate. The gun stayed steady in her grip.
"Don't flatter yourself " she said. "If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't be breathing."
Blood pooled beneath him, a dark smear spreading across the wooden floor. He looked up at her, "You're angry at the wrong person."
She leaned forward slightly, eyes burning. "No. I'm angry at myself, for letting you live this long when I could have just killed you."
For a heartbeat, neither moved. The rain outside grew louder, pounding against the roof like applause for a tragedy.
He tried to meet her gaze, but there was nothing there to find. No guilt. No forgiveness. Just the kind of emptiness only vengeance could fill.
"Go ahead" he muttered. "Finish it."
She tilted her head. "You don't deserve that mercy. Death would be too easy for you"
Her finger hovered on the trigger — but she lowered the gun. Not out of pity, but disgust.
"You'll live with what you did. Every breath you take will remind you I didn't finish the job."
He exhaled, shaking his head. "You think this makes you better than me?" He tsks " It doesn't, Lila. We're killers, killing is what we do and we never disobey orders-"
"I don't care about being better and all that shit." she said interrupting him. "I care about balance."
"There's no balance anywhere, Lila."
Lila turned toward the door, his words falling on deaf ears. The rain had started to lighten, the horizon bleeding into a dull gray.
As she reached the doorway, she paused as she spoke.
"When they find you, Jace… tell them La Rousseau sends her regards."
And then she stepped out, rain swallowing her figure as the door creaked shut behind her.
Jace slumped against the wall, blood still flowing. He stared at the hole she left in the floorboard — small, clean and precise. Just like her.
Outside, the sea roared against the cliffs, and somewhere far away, thunder rolled.
By the time Lila reached her apartment in Rouen, the storm had followed her.
The streets were slick, lamps flickering weakly through the fog. She didn't bother turning on the lights when she entered — just dropped her keys somewhere on the counter and kept walking.
Her boots left muddy tracks across the tiles. Her gun was still in her hand.
The metallic scent of rain and gunpowder clung to her like perfume.
She walked straight into the bathroom, set the gun on the sink, and stepped under the shower fully clothed.
After scrubbing her skin raw in the shower, she came out of the bathroom.
Lila picked up her phone and dialed an unknown number
RING RING
RING RIN-
"Uh, what the fuck do you want?" Adrien's hoarse voice came through
Lila sniffed lightly as the sorrow and pain all came crashing down as soon as she heard his voice making it hard for her to breathe.
" Lila??!You good? Why aren't you saying anything??" Adrien's voice came through again but more urgently this time
" I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I'm such a fool, I'm never good enough an-"
" As much as I love to hear you finally admit you're a fool. I'll need to stop you right there. You need to tell me what's going on or else I'm just gonna be stuck in the dark, lil sis"
Lila sobs " You know how I always thought dad's death was related to the Shadows?. Turns out I was right and the person who killed him was around me all this while and to think I actually thought of him in a good way and as a good person. I feel so incompetent and I miss you so much but you wouldn't come see me, is it cause I'm useless that's why you're not coming to see me? " Lila questions, years of bottling up her insecurities making her emotions burst out"I know you probably hate me now because of how I talk to you but I love you so much and I don't want to lose you too. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry"
"It's not your fault, Lila. I don't hate you, I never have and I never will. And concerning me coming to see you, I had that planned as a surprise for later this week and I was gonna come with Julien. I'm sorry, I neglected you. We'd talk better when we see, okay? " Adrien says softly as if coaxing
"O-okay. Just so you know, you're not allowed to use this against me okay? " Lila grumbled
Adrien chuckles " I won't, I won't. And Matthieu? "
Lila pauses for a moment " I didn't tell him about the person visiting me almost every time but he probably knows already "
" You just keep making this guy worry. He might die early cause of you"
" Oh puhlease, that ain't gon' happen. If anything, I'm the only reason he's alive" She rolled her eyes.
Adrien stills for a moment before replying awkwardly" Yeah, you're right. You're good now right? Cause I wanna go back to sleep"
" I'm okay. But don't you think you're slacking off as a-" Lila pauses in shock. He really did end the call.
Cocky Bastard.
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