Chapter 44: The Twins

After being informed of the situation at the factory, Ian's first task was to figure out who oversaw the rival group. With his best friend Zane in place as the acting CEO of the Lee Group, Ian was at ease and planned to use this trip to release his frustrations properly. Just like a little vacation.

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Somewhere in a dark warehouse, dozens of men, women, and children were tied up and held at gunpoint. They were not being mistreated, but a group of men who had tried to escape were shot down right before their eyes and the bodies were left as a display for the rest. A tall beautiful woman entered the room closely followed by a man who looked so like her in features that it was no doubt they were related. The pair possessed the same grey eyes, the same sharp nose the same dark hair and even the same lip shape. It was if they were clones of the opposite gender.

However, while the man seemed to be refined and sophisticated, the woman was a bit rough and curt. She gave off an aura of indifference and out of the two, the hostages feared her the most. The woman commanded silence as she began to dictate orders to her subordinates. Just then a young boy broke into a coughing fit. The woman glanced in the boy's direction just once before casually walking over to his direction and kicking him across the room. The boy's father had been one of the men who was shot earlier, and he was alone. No one dared to help him, they all had their own families to care for.

The woman was a skilled fighter, and she reckoned that she kicked the boy hard enough to break a few ribs. Satisfied that this action was sufficient to keep the others in check, she continued barking at the hostages. When she finished speaking, her male doppelganger took his place by her side and whispered to her.

"Mills, don't you think that was a little too harsh?" The man asked.

"Milo, you've always been soft hearted, but if we show restraint today, President Lee won't take us seriously in the future." He nodded his head in agreement.

Milo was always this way, his twin was more dominant than him and she called all the shots since they were young, but so far, she had not led him astray. Mills had a tough outer exterior, but she doted on her brother endlessly.

When they were twelve, the twins lost their parents in a car accident and were taken in by relatives. At the time, the twins did not know that their parents had left behind a hefty inheritance. The catch: the money could not be touched until at least one of the twins completed university or they reached the age of twenty-five. Being that Sani was a poor nation, the prospect of raising the children became a lucrative investment. Pretty soon there was in-fighting among their relatives that turned deadly fast. The children were bounced from home to home as their family members dropped dead one after another. Not long after, their remaining kin became afraid of them, and no one wanted to take them in. Thus, leaving them unwanted and alone.

The twins soon became a local pariah. They were shunned by everyone as rumors started to swirl that they were the reincarnation of destruction and death. The turmoil around them combined with the twin's foreign features and gray eyes, seem to give these rumors weight. Mills was smart enough to use this to her advantage.

In Sani, the legal age for a child to live on their own was just fifteen, so on their fifteenth birthday Mills went in search of a job. She was not interested in school or books like her brother, and in a male dominated society, she had foresight enough to know that his education was the key to their combined success. What she did not know was that no one wanted to hire 'destruction'. Eventually, she turned to crime. She ran amuck beating 'this person' and 'that person' all while expertly extorting money from others. Her name was known locally, but the police refused to touch her, afraid that they would bring calamity down upon themself.

All the while, Milo studied hard and was a top student in the local high school. On the surface, it appeared that he and his sister were total opposites, but the truth was that he often masterminded many of her heists and schemes. They had even invested money into having her professionally trained in one-on-one combat and weapons skills and she excelled at it. This, however, was not Mills' dream. She wanted to live as an ordinary girl, but life had left her unable to do so.

Now, at the age of twenty-five, the twins were financially stable, but they were not satisfied. Mills was one of the lucky street rats who did not end up being sold to the highest bidder. However, there were many other young girls she knew were not so lucky. She knew that the unusual circumstances surrounding her family's mishaps helped to spare her, and as for Milo, he was unable to study in peace knowing that each and every exam he took was another step into the future that he and his sister were still carving. After living a tough life in Sani, they knew the terrible state of the country firsthand. They wanted to make changes from within.

After leaving the room her instructions, Mills called a subordinate over and asked him to fetch the child she had kicked. She too felt that she had been too harsh on the boy. Surprisingly the child was uninjured when he was brought to her. Seeing her surprised face, he explained that he learned how to protect himself from his father's kicks at three years old and knew how to defend himself properly. Mills pitied the boy, that is just how the poor were. They would have children, then blame them for their poverty.

Mills reached out to shake the boy's hand. The action meant he was now one of her subordinates. Mason reluctantly reached out to shake the hand of destruction. He had heard about her from his friends, but he pushed back his fear and shook her hand anyway. He knew that his handshake meant more than a greeting, but he had no better alternative.

In the future, Mason would become a powerful and just political figure in Sani, all thanks to the kindness of a criminal and her brother.