Disclaimer: I do not own Agents of SHIELD, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, or any of the MCU. I only own Anna, and her family.

Prologue
Secrets

Secrets.

Everybody has them. Little secrets from sneaking into the cookie jar and eating the last chocolate chip cookie, looking over the shoulder of the student seated in front of them in class while taking a test, to much larger, hurtful deeds: cheating on a beloved, faithful spouse, murdering the prostitute that walk below the underpass.

Secrets are like the cancer of the soul, eating away and spreading the bad, taking over the good until there was nothing but destruction behind. Good intentions may have been the reasoning behind it all, but then again, hell was paved with good intentions.

Because little secrets always grow into big secrets if left to their own devices. They roll out of control, often hurting not only the holder of the secret, but those closes around them.

Unfortunately, Anna found that out the hard way.

Several times.