Chapter 693: Actual Monster

Troy closed his shift and stopped at Sadie's favorite restaurant on his way home. If anyone told him that he would be taking public transit to and from a dead-end job when he was a teen, he would have laughed at them, but that is where his life ended up, and it was nothing like he thought it would be.

Back at home, he had a beautiful and strong wife, and they were expecting their first child after years of trying. Sadie had gotten on birth control the moment they left Pan, and although she stopped taking it when they had gotten back together, it took a long time for her body to carry a pregnancy to term. Their doctor told them that the prolonged birth control use had done damage to her fertility. They thought they might never be able to conceive, but they were surprised, just as they had given up hope.

The couple had plenty of money saved; money Troy hated using because he knew it was stolen from Mina, but Mike and Adley assured them that the woman was doing well with Ren, who she must have married because she had suddenly become an actress. She had even gotten herself involved in dating scandals, something Troy knew his family was big on forcing because that is how they learned to make money. The Mires' may have gone straight on the surface, but he knew they had not changed completely.

For as much as he hated his family for how they treated Sadie, He was also grateful to them for sending him and his cousin to New Providence after Ren went after a girl from a family with enough influence to actually cause a stir. For whatever reason, they were sent together, and while his wife would never know, they played a game of heads or tails to see which of them was going to try dating her.

Pushing open his apartment door, Troy shouted out for his wife, who was in the nesting stages of pregnancy. He would always come home and find her cleaning something that did not need to be cleaned and when she was not doing that, she was sitting by the door, waiting for him to come home.

Because Mina did everything when they were younger, Sadie had not picked up many homemaker skills, and it was something that was a sore topic for her now that she was pregnant. Anytime she cleaned, she would ask him if he thought it was the way Mina would do it, and when she cooked, she was always chasing a flavor that only her sister could achieve.

Troy loved Mina just as much as Sadie did, so leaving her behind was a struggle for them both, but only his wife mentally tortured herself with guilt for years. It only got better after they caught her with Ren, and even then, she would sometimes wake up crying about fears that Mina would find her and kill her. He always tried to tell her those feelings were conjured by guilt, but in reality, he too feared the consequences of getting caught.

"Ba- Oh, you have a-" Troy froze. He rubbed his eyes exaggeratedly then he slowly put the bag in his hand onto the floor. "M-Mina… Please, we don't want any trouble."

----

Mina stared at her sister who confessed to dreaming about an encounter where she was killed after being discovered. However, the thing that stood out the most to Mina was that her sister seemed to think that was a normal reaction. It made her wonder what sort of person Sadie really was, and who among them was actually a monster. She had stayed behind to take care of her family, and had it not been for the burden of caring for them, she would not have been so poor that she barely ate; while Sadie did not think about their parents at all.

"So, you actually fell for someone who tortured you?" Sadie questioned. She had seen movies about things like that, but she never thought it was real.

"Truthfully, it was no different from what mom and dad did to me." Mina's mind had often visited that topic, and each time she arrived at the same conclusion; she was cracked before she went behind the bookshelf, and after months of living with President Lee, she was finally broken.

"I hate that I didn't speak up for you," Sadie said. She had laid her head on her sister's lap, much the way they used to do when they were children, and while she thought the sensation would be foreign, it felt just the way she remembered.

Mina was always gentle and sweet, and while she may have grown claws, she was still the same girl who would help anyone. If the shoe were on the other foot, Sadie had no doubts that she would have killed Mina, regardless of the situation, but that was something she would never say aloud. The only person who knew what she was capable of when pushed was Troy, and she wanted to keep it that way.

While they were sitting, Sadie heard her front door chime, and she knew that her husband had arrived. One part of her wanted to run to him, but another part of her was afraid to walk away from Mina, who she still feared was a phantom. She chose to stand and wait for the man to fully enter the sitting room and when he did, his reaction was so similar to hers, that it almost made her smile.

"M-Mina… Please, we don't want any trouble. We-"

"She isn't with Ren," Sadie interjected. She had seen the look on Mina's face when she asked about her 'husband' and the last thing she wanted was for her sister to point her weapon at the man she loved because she was not certain she would not fire. Even for cousins, Ren and Troy had extremely similar features that only became more pronounced as they aged.

"Please don't tell him where we are, we can-"

"No Troy, she was never with him."

"But-"

"That wasn't her." Sadie explained the situation to her husband, every now and then glancing at Mina whose expression had gone cold. "She was never with him; ever."

----

Drax and Ian sat in his study, where the man literally stripped down to his underwear and inspected his clothing for bugs before speaking. Mills was adamant about sparing the woman who was running the slums, but Ian did not want her dead, he wanted her interrogated. She always seemed to be one step ahead of them, and since their visit, she had been scrambling all cell phone signals around the area, making it impossible for Ian's men to enter the slums without going dark.

"Find anything?" Drax held up a small device that he dropped into a cup of water before replying.

"Sorry about that," he pointed to the cup as he redressed, and Ian could only chuckle. "Mills is really excited about the changes in the slums, and she doesn't want us messing with it."

"How do you feel about it?"

"That Hunter woman is a damn liar. She said the judge was a collection of people, but one of my men said that a child told him the 'gift lady' was the judge. The real problem now is that the President of Sani has taken credit for cleaning up the slums."

"Is he working with whoever is doing this?" Drax shrugged. Whoever was behind the changes knew how to hide well, and even the shed homes were untraceable purchases that made narrowing the person down complicated. "All I know is that Sani's military enlistment has gone up by twenty percent in the last few months; all men from the slums."

"What's driving them?" Ian asked.

"A three hundred dollar sign on and completion bonus." Ian was familiar enough with the country to know that with a currency exchange, that amount could be equal to a month's salary, but it was not worth six months basic training with the possibility of jail time if you desert.

"There has to be a secondary incentive," Drax nodded while Ian stared at the man, contemplating if he should share his opinion with his friend.

"How are you doing?" Drax suddenly asked, snapping Ian out of the fog he was in.

"I'm fine, and before you ask, they still haven't found the woman. I know you think she was sent by reporters to spy on the ceremony, but journalists don't get driven around in unmarked cars."

"I don't know Ian; Ashlynn is a journalist-"

"Ashlynn was raised in a special ops family that was mostly wiped out after a mission went wrong and placed in a protection program. She was already in training by then, and while she may have leaned toward sociological journalism, we both know what that woman is capable of. Her identification papers don't even have her real face on them." Drax chuckled at the statement. Everyone wanted to know what the woman looked like, but only Cam had seen her without prosthetics. He claimed that it was better for the woman to keep her identity a secret, and no one questioned it.

"What's on your mind little bro?" Drax could see that Ian had wandered off again, and while he claimed that his obsession with Mina was not affecting him, it was clear to everyone else that the man was in serious trouble and needed help.

"I know this sounds crazy but, I think Mina is the one behind the slums."

----

After getting over his initial shock, Troy finally warmed up to the idea that Mina was not there to hurt them, or with Ren. He did not know how the woman found them, and while that was concerning to him, his main issue was knowing if he and his wife had to flee again. When they spotted Ren with his Mina look alike, they quit their jobs and moved miles away from the area. It would be difficult, since renting in The Four Cities was hard without citizenship, but to protect his wife and unborn baby, he would do anything.

"I'm sorry Mina, I don't mean to spoil the reunion, but Sadie and I worked hard to get to this point, and we don't want-"

"Any trouble," Mina finished. "Sadie already told me, and like I told her, I'm not the same girl I used to be. A lot of terrible things have happened to me, and I've learned from them."

"Worse than Ren stalking you?" Mina did not want to go into detail about what happened between her and President Lee, and since she knew the man was likely going to hear it from her sister anyway, she changed the topic.

"I see you stopped at Stir Fry Pan, do you like my menu?"

"I told you," Sadie whispered, making Mina's eyes snap to hers. "I told you that I recognized the flavors." Mina made a confused expression, but she was given clarity by her sister, who told her that the soup reminded her of home. The statement put Mina's parents in her mind, and she suddenly felt guilty for putting them through the pain of losing two children.

"Speaking of home. Do you want to go back? I promise you that Ren will never hurt you; either of you." Mina rested her hand on her sister's belly in an assuring manner, but she could see that the woman was torn.

"Can we have time to think about it? My mother helped us a lot, and if her involvement is found out, my relatives may arrange an accident for her." Mina knew that Troy's mother was widowed, but she did not know that the woman risked her safety to help her son.

"I have resources. I can arrange for your mother to be brought wherever you want; we can literally go anywhere."