"I've contacted James." Mother announced as she entered the den where Murphy, Conner, and I were trying to nail down a plan for getting Bastian away from his body guards. "He said we can use the vault in his office building, it's only a few blocks from the hotel where I'm meeting Bastian."

"Fantastic." I exclaimed as I set down the hotel blueprints I was studying. "So now, how do we get him out of the hotel and to the office?"

"I can put a drug in his drink to knock him out for transport." My mother suggested.

"But what about the body guards? Won't they get suspicious if he suddenly passes out?" Conner inquired.

"Well need to take out the guards almost as soon as he passes out then." I mused out loud.

"But how if Albina is in the room alone?"

"What if I'm not alone?" My mother suggested simply.

"What do you mean? I obviously can't be there with you, and I'm sure he knows what the twins look like." I objected.

"What about Boris?" Mother asked casually.

"Boris? Mother you must be joking."

"I most certainly am not." She insisted as she kneeled down in front of where I sat. "We could use his help, Valentina. Having him there without having first warned Bastian will throw Bastian off his game and he won't be as alert. And he has plenty of men, men he trusts who can help us take out the guards. And whatever men accompany him, will never even have to know you're alive, as far asthey know we're simply getting revenge on Bastian."

"Revenge?" I lingered on her words for a moment, looking down at her trying to figure out what was going on inside her mind. She did not speak but the look in her eyes said it all, "You want to frame Bastian for father's murder?"

"Exactly." My mother smirked with a sense of pride at her own genius. I had to admit, I was impressed by her plan. "We tell Boris you are alive, that you had a change of heart and wanted to leave the business and that you had befriend the MacManus brothers and faked your own death, even if he knows you killed Vladimir he will not care, he never liked Vladimir anyway. Then we will tell him that after your father was murdered you came to me grief-stricken and together we discovered that Bastian was responsible for your father's murder. We'll say it was because Bastian blamed your father for causing you to break up with him."

"That is some evil genius kind of thinking right there." Murphy spoke up, obviously impressed with my mother's plan.

"And we tell Boris I want revenge on Bastian for murdering my father, but express that he doesn't tell his men that I'm involved or even alive." I continued.

"But won't Boris knowing you're alive cause an issue?" Conner interjected.

"Boris has always believed that if someone wished to end their time in this line of work then they deserved to walk away without issue. He would often help those he knew that wanted a new life disappear. And for his beloved niece, he will be no different." My mother insisted.

"Well then it sounds like we have a pretty solid plan." Murphy commented. "But once Bastian is drugged and his guards are down, how do we discretely get him from the hotel room to the office?"

"We have some contacts, allies who employee some low level grunts at the hotel. They'll let you in the back, give you their uniforms, and you can present yourselves as room service. Underneath the room service cart we'll keep a hidden case that we can use to smuggle Bastian out." My mother explained.

"Well this certainly is turning out to be a proper plan." Conner admitted.

"Well then, I guess there's really nothing left to do then, except call Uncle Boris." I looked to my mother who smiled excitedly. She then stood back up and left the room without another word, leaving us three to go over the blueprints once again. "One of you needs to stay in the truck," I started to explain, "The other will pose as room service, and take the cart down to the laundry room. From there you can dump his body into a laundry bin and roll it out to load up into the truck."

"Won't he recognize us if one of us goes in the room?" Conner pointed out.

"If mom drugs him and we time it right, it won't matter." I insisted.

"Well, honestly to me it sounds all like a pretty solid plan. So, if you don't mind I'm going to go take a shower." Murphy proclaimed as he rose from where he had been seated across the table from me. I gave him a look of distress at the fact he would be leaving me alone with Conner, who could barely seem to tolerate lately, but he just smiled reassuringly before he left the room.

"Asshole." I thought to myself as I pretended to still be looking over the blueprints after Murphy was gone.

Conner then took it upon himself to sit down in the seat that Murphy had previously been occupying, I didn't look up at him, but then he cleared his throat as if to get my attention. I pretended not to notice. Then he spoke, "Listen Val," He began and finally I indulged him and looked up. "I know I've been acting like a bit of a jerk lately."

"Really, I hadn't really noticed." I said sarcastically.

He just chuckled for a moment; it was sort of good to hear him laugh again. "I just wanted to say I was sorry."

"Don't worry about it Conner." I reassured him as I leaned back in my seat. I had already made up my mind that I would distance myself from Murphy romantically, so there truly was no need for Conner to apologize since he was merely lashing out due to the fact I had come between him and his brother. "I know really it's my fault. You had every right to be upset that I was messing things up between you and Murphy. Honestly, that day at the airport when I left Ireland you were right, everything between you two was fine before I met you but then I messed it up."

"Val…" There was concern in his voice as he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and shifting his weight forward against them. "What are you saying?"

"Once this is over," I began, "I'll be out of your lives for good."

"Val you can't mean that."

"I do."

"Val, I didn't know what I was saying then, I was just angry, I didn't really mean any of it."

"But you were right Conner, look what all has happened because of me. I can't cause any more trouble in your lives because I'm not strong enough to walk away. Trust me, it will be better this way. Things won't be so fucked up anymore, and you and Murphy can return to your lives and be happy."

"Do you honestly think at this point Murphy could really be happy without you?" I wasn't sure what to say to that. I had put a great deal of thought in to it actually, but to hear Conner question me like that sort of threw everything I had told myself to justify this decision out the window. "And does he even know about this?"

"No." I quickly answered.

"Well when the hell do you plan on telling him?"

"I haven't really decided that yet,"

"Well damn Val, you can't just lead him on like this, he thinks everything is fine. He thinks everything is going to work out great and that you two will finally get to really be together like he wants. You can't toy with the man like that."

"I'm not trying to toy with him, I'm trying to make the best decision for everyone."

"Everyone?" Conner leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest now, his eyebrows raised. "You only keep saying how this is better for us, how Murph and I can go back to being happy, but what about you Val? Is this what's best for you? Can you truly be happy with this decision?"

"I've never been happy before so it won't be that hard for me deal with it."

"So that's a no then." Conner insisted.

"Why do you care anyway? I thought you hated the fact that Murphy had feelings for me?"

"Because I want my brother to be happy Val." He snapped. "Yeah, it sucks for me. It's been just us all these years, but it's good for him to finally find someone who can make him happy, make him feel loved and wanted in ways I can't. And I love my brother too much to try to come between that, I've realized that now."

I was stunned by everything he had said. I had spent so much time convincing myself that this was the right decision, but now Conner made me feel like I was wrong. I didn't know what to say to him, so I stared at him completely dumbfounded.

"Don't leave him Val," He spoke up once again, "Just give it a chance, you both deserve that."