The Sweet Nothings || ✓

'HE HAS A TWIN'

The helicopter landed swiftly and Lana slowly came down. She was in the very town of Sierra, at the very place were Maia was captured. She stood still for sometime, trying to absorb the sight.

This location was different, considering Dean's plans. It wasn't really a mansion. It was a combination of buildings. Shiny white building gleaming as the light struck their various windows. If it was some other time, Lana would have been admiring the infrastructure. The cascade of water from the golden statue of Poseidon in the middle. The perfectly trimmed plants, sweet-scented flowers. The shining cars parked in the open area. And lastly, the big wooden gate that she was supposed to walk through and enter.

Lana walked slowly, her fingers itching to grab her phone and call Damien one last time, to tell Daria that she saw herself in her. But Lana refused to do any such thing. This had to happen. Now. And if saving Maia meant dying herself, Lana was more than ready. Better early than late.

Lana moved ahead and reached the microphone near the door. She knew what she had to do. She switched on the microphone and spoke up-
"I'm here alone. You wanted to negotiate. Let's do it." She said with an unwavering exterior confidence.

Just then the door clicked open automatically. Lana moved inside cautiously, one step at a time. Her eyes scanned her surroundings.
She was standing in a hall rather lobby of a huge house. She could see the chandelier up on the third floor ceiling, illuminating the room with white and gold. She looked around more closely.

Three Dan Wesson M1911 pistols. Five 2mm Kalibri. Ten laser beams, two in each corner of the lobby. Four automatic knives hidden behind the sculptures. And two Thermo-bombs, attached to the chandelier.

Total fifteen CCTV cameras installed at all edges of the ceiling and railings.
She was being watched.

And Lana already knew what she had gotten herself into. A buzzer went off as soon as she reached the center of the hall that she was in now. She turned around only to see the doors shutting close behind her. She sighed internally. No backing out now.

Suddenly a voice boomed from the speakers set all around the big hall.
"Leave your weapons Andrea. I can see that silver gun of yours." Lana clenched her teeth and removed her gun from her waistband and put it on the floor and stood up straight.

"The knives too Andrea." Lana seethed but bent down to take out the three knives that she had hid in her boots. She looked around again, expecting to show the man who was watching her, that she wasn't afraid.

"NOW WHAT?!" She screamed.

"Oh. I first want you to watch something. Then we can talk." Lana scowled but nodded slowly, not exactly knowing from where he was watching her. Another door to the right opened. And Lana walked in.

Inside, Lana saw two television screens and a steel chair in the middle. She entered in, suspiciously, eyeing the two TVs. She did not like this situation, this set up. But anyway, she turned all around again, to scan the room. And the door closed again.

The room had the wooden texture to it but it was cold. The only furniture in the room was a chair and the two televisions. She could see the hidden CCTVs in the four corners of the room and the fifth one hidden well above the TV screen, as if to watch her. She was impressed that Dean tried this hard but he still couldn't fool her.

"You can sit down Andrea. It's going to take sometime." Lana went closer to the chair and slowly sat down. "And take note, there are ten gaurds lining either sides of the room which you are sitting in right now, so don't try anything." And slowly the television on the left came on.

It showed the face of a very familiar looking man. He looked slightly old and he was strikingly familiar to Lana's eyes, but she couldn't guess why. The man on the screen sat on a leather chair behind a wooden work desk. He smiled softly at Lana and for a second, she forgot that he was Dean Kingsley, the man who wanted her dead.

Lana scowled at him.

"So Andrea, I guess you already know what you are here for." He said, to which Lana nodded curtly. Dean's smile widened.

"And that's where you are wrong. There are change of plans now. More like, change in the plans you know." He said. Lana frowned. She did not understand what he meant.

"You thought you knew what I had in mind for you. You thought you knew that I wanted you dead." He paused. "But I don't." Lana's frown thickened. "I don't want you dead. I wanted you to think that I want you dead. That its the only option to save that sister of yours. But it's not that." He paused again.

"I need something else from you." He said and twirled his chair in a 360 and faced the screen again.

"As I gather, you already know the soapy story of my past but you don't know what happened after I took up the name Kingsley." He began.
"So after Nat's death, I grieved. And grief turned into this instense need for revenge. I started my own companies and from all that money, I started my own gang. And I started looking for the Oberains. You must already know alot about what happened from Xavier and I'm afraid it's all true. I set him and his brother up. He is innocent." Lana, if she wasn't mistaken, saw slight remorse cross his face.

"But anyway. When my grandson Charles discovered about you, he took a special liking to that beautiful face of yours. I guess you have met him already." He says, to which Lana simply shakes her head.

"Come on Andrea, I expected you to do better at this. Remember, the time your friends and you went to that fair. A boy went with you on the Ferris wheel I suppose. 'I don't forget famous people with beautiful faces.' He had said. Ring a bell?" And Lana realised. The day of the fair flashed in her head. The boy who had warned her to watch her step. The one who had told her that he wanted her.

'People call me Charlie.'

Short for Charles.

"I see. You remember now. So, yes. An idea came to me." His eyes lit up like a bulb. "My gang is huge, it spreads across all the countries that Xavier travelled. But I want something bigger. Something more powerful." He looked straight at Lana, eyes gleaming with greed.

"I plan to merge our gangs together. What is better than the Kingleys' and Oberains' coming together again? Family united again. I'll take away the one thing that Oberains' really loves. You." He paused, an evil smirk taking over his face.

"I want you to marry Charles."

Lana nearly gagged at the incest that Dean was talking about. But she controlled herself.

"You do know that Damien and I are both the leaders right?" She asked.
To which Dean smiled.

"And that's where you are wrong again. Your father made you sign these documents right after you agreed to take up the merged gang. You agreed to take over the gang as a whole from both Arthur and Damien. Meaning you are the only gang leader Andrea." He said and Lana took in the information.

"Okay. But we could have done this without you taking away Maia. What does that have to do with any of this?" She asked and Dean laughed.

"Oh that? I needed to know your capabilities. I wanted to take away both the daughters from that filthy Oberain family. And Charlie had been having his share of fun too. Of course, he liked to see you dancing. And I
agreed with him." He said, getting up from his chair and walking towards the camera screening him. Lana felt confused.

"What do you-" Dean smiled coldly.

"Tsk-Tsk. Wait and watch Andrea. Have patience." And the screen went black again.

Two bodyguards came inside the room and hurriedly tied Lana to the chair. She didn't protest. She knew there was no way to back now. They went out, the door closed and the two TVs came on.

Just then Dean's voice echoed again in the room.

"And. Did I forget to tell you? Xavier Black has a twin." He paused. "Have fun watching Andrea."

And the vision cleared on the TV screens. This time, Lana didn't hold back the heart-wrecking screams leaving her chest.

__________________________________

Loads of love,
Mia.