THE FACADE

CHAPTER 1

Author's Note:

Spotify song list for this chapter:

1. Donna Summer- I feel love

2. Shawn Mendes- Wonder

3. 5 Seconds to of Summer- She looks so perfect

4. 24kGoldn- City of Angels

5. Harry Styles- Watermelon Sugar

Warnings:

violence, cursing

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Ivy's POV

After the third alarm clock snooze, I groaned, covering my face with a pillow, trying to ignore one of the most annoying sounds on the Earth. I definitely shouldn't have gone to bed so late yesterday, but since I bought a new camera for myself, as a very early birthday gift, I couldn't resist walking around New York City after work, playing with settings and light, just to shoot a perfect picture for my business portfolio. Although my job takes almost two-thirds of my day and it involves different styles of photography I miraculously always find time to put my talent into a more artistic way.

Last night I was lucky enough to shoot a photo of the old couple standing under the umbrella at the bus stop. They were looking at each other with so much love, which made me envy them for a split of a second. I wasn't jealous of the fact that they were together, because I've also had significant others in my life. It made me jealous because I've never been truly in love. I've been in a few relationships before but they all ended up for the same reason. I've never been on the same page of taking the relationship seriously as the other half was. It always felt fake and very overplayed to me.

When the alarm clock started playing again, I finally crawled out of my bed and turned it off. I looked up my phone. Fuck, 5:20 am already. I've just lost 20 minutes because of my laziness, which thankfully is a rare quality of mine. But this time it was well used for 20 minutes since I've slept for only 4 hours.

I got up, opened my Spotify account to put I feel love by Donna Summers and started to stretch in my usual ballet manner.

I remember when I was little I was forced to take ballet classes. At the beginning I hated it. All the poses and dancing, and the fact that I've been constantly pushed and pushed more to be better, to be the best. It didn't make it as enjoyable as I would like to. There wasn't a week when I didn't miss a single ballet class. Of course, my escapes had their consequences. Each time, I was treated more and more harshly. But one day, I've decided to take ballet more seriously. It was after one of my weekly escapes, my mum said to me "Ivy, why don't you try to look at it from a different perspective. What can you actually learn from it? Is it really about the ballet itself? Or is there something much deeper in it?" That's when it hit me. I saw the beauty of it- the strictness, the discipline and the fact that every move has its own role to play in the whole routine. Exactly the same rules apply in fighting, which my parents were teaching me my whole life.

Yes, as a child of both ex spies you would definitely expect to be trained in different styles of fighting. And you're right, I was trained since I was a little kid. I had a very strict childhood and never been treated lightly. In my early years I was taught discipline, cold rational thinking, and strategy. Of course let's not forget about the combat fighting, knife fighting, even spear fighting (which was actually my idea). As I mentioned earlier I took ballet classes for almost 10 years, not only to train my discipline but also to come across as a normal kid to the society because of my parent's past.

You must think that it was very hard for me, but I've rarely felt that way. Of course there were times where I felt annoyed or misunderstood, but I've always hidden all those emotions and put a facade that nothing bothers me or nothing can hurt me. I knew I won't achieve anything in my life by being emotional or irrational. I've always been very distant towards people. Very quiet and observant. The kids in kindergarten were scared of me, because I never played any games with them, never eager to socialize. Always sitting in the corner and observing them. Watching every move, any slight changes in expression on their faces, what or how they were talking. After some time I knew exactly when someone lied or what their signature gestures were. There was only one person who actually wanted to hang out with me, even though I tried multiple times to push her away, to some point even literally.