Sigh

She had been on his mind for almost two weeks now. The young detective with those piercing eyes had been haunting his thoughts unrelentlessly - behind his desk, during groceries shopping and even in the shower. He had stalked her to her home multiple times, observed her routines, memorized them like a mad man. The girl was smart. Perhaps too smart. But then again, she was his daughter. He should've expected a bright mind from his own blood. What he didn't expect was the girl, raised an orphan, becoming a detective as soon as she turned 18. Not only that, her first case was him. Her first case was her own father.

The evening air felt cool against his skin as he walked down the tree-lined sidewalk toward the grocery store, head lowered and a phone held to his ear. He wasn't actually calling anyone - the device was just a shield, a barrier against unwanted conversations. It was as if the universe hated him even more than he thought, placing obstacles in his path at every turn. Not that he was actually fond of the girl. He grumbled softly at recalling the day he discovered her mother had become pregnant. The woman had been nothing but trouble from the start - a whore, plain and simple. A whore and a bitch, he'd realized when she gave birth and abandoned the infant on his doorstep with no explanation.

He'd really tried to take care of her, for the first few months at least. But between his ambitions and the danger of his activities, he'd made the only logical choice. Before her first birthday, he'd left her at the nearest orphanage, a decision that still occasionally haunted him in quieter moments. That was also when he'd truly begun planning his grand schemes, determined to reshape a world he found so令人失望.

The small local grocery shop's bell jingled as he pushed open the door, the familiar scent of fresh bread and produce filling his nostrils. The same old lady stood behind the counter, eyes half-closed as she flipped through a magazine. He nodded slightly in her direction before walking through the aisles, his fingers scrolling absently through his phone while his mind focused elsewhere - on the brute force attack his computer was running back at his apartment. The first two digits of the security code had been cracked, but that was only the beginning. It would take patience and processing power to break through the remaining barriers.

Lost in thought and the glow of his phone screen, he suddenly collided with something solid. When he looked up, he found himself staring directly into those eyes - the same eyes he'd seen in old photographs of her mother. The detective stood right in front of him, her expression a mixture of surprise and professional alertness. Caught completely off guard by the unexpected encounter, Victor felt a brief flash of panic before schooling his features into a neutral expression. He silently prayed she didn't recognize the notorious criminal standing before her in such an ordinary setting.

"Excuse me, Miss. Are you alright?" he asked, his voice carefully modulated to sound like that of an ordinary, slightly annoyed citizen rather than the criminal mastermind she was hunting.