Book One : The Devil's Toxic Queen.

"She's just a girl you can't possibly hand the empire to a girl? It's never been done. Jeffery's supposed to be your heir, he's your son, your only son" a female voice said. "But Aanya is my first child. She's trained for this her whole life, I know she's ready for this. Jeffrey isn't ready yet" He said in an almost pleading voice "You just want to leave everything to that woman's child. I know we didn't get Jeffrey through the right means but he's still your son. Why do you always prefer that woman's child over our child, your only son. It's alright, I understand you still love her. I don't care if you don't love me but please don't let our son feel neglected" she said with tears in her eyes. " You're right, I don't want Jeffrey to feel left out, I'd call the lawyer" She stood back in shock as she listened to the conversation between the two of them. There was no way she was going to allow that to happen. She wasn't going to stand back while her step mother had her dad willed everything to her step brother. She was going to get back what was rightfully hers. Having made up her mind, she left the place making sure that no one detected her presence. Going into her room she showered. When she came out of the shower her dad was sitting on her bed waiting for her. Seeing him made her furious but she never made it show on her face. She sat down and waited for whatever he had to say. " Aanya darling, you know how much daddy loves you. You know I don't have much time left since the doctor said the tumor keeps growing." He went silent as his face grew dark. "Everything your mother and I worked hard for was because of you. Managing the empire without your mom was never an easy task. She was my secret ingredient" He paused as a bitter laugh escaped his throat. "You're a perfect replica of her" he said as he stroked her hair. "On her death bed I promised your mom to leave everything in your hands and I know you've been training yourself for the day when you'll finally take over but it's been a tradition for generations to hand the empire over to a male. I really wish I could do otherwise but it'll not be fair to your brother Jeffrey if I do that. He's my only heir and thus the rightful owner of the empire. I've decided to hand you the group of companies since they'll be no danger involved in that. We both know handling the empire is a messy affair and I don't want you involved in anything that'll harm you" A loud silence engulfed them as he finished. "Dad, I'm not going to sit back and watch you hand everything over to some stranger" "Aanya, watch your tone, Jeffrey's no stranger, he's your brother" "No dad, he's not my brother. He can never be my brother. He's the reason mum's not here both he and that w***e you call a wif..." A hand landed on her cheek before she could finish her statement. She looked at her dad as he spoke. "Eliza might have not been the one who gave birth to you but she's still your mother. She's my wife and I would not sit back and have you talk out of line. I've made up my mind and nothing would change it. The empire's going to Jeffrey whether you like it or not" he said furiously walked out. Aanya couldn't help but laugh. He was kidding to think she'll fold her arms and allow this to happen. ☠️ "Arghhhhhh" a scream tore into a dark chamber. "I'm going to ask you one more time, who do you work for" an existed voice spoke The prisoner couldn't help but let out a creepy laughter. He knew there was no way he was going to make it out of there alive. They'll still kill him even if he spoke so he decided he'd rather die than give them any information. "Give it your worst short. I'm not going to say anything" he said. " You seem too confident for a dying man" someone said from the outer room. "Charles Banks, married to Mona Banks. You have two kids, both boys who are now in highschool and your mother suffered from stroke and is receiving treatment from Enternity Hospital in the capital" the person added. Hearing all these made the prisoner shiver, they know about his family, if he didn't give them what they want they'll go after his family. " I'm sure you already know how this work, no need to go through the normal boring formalities. Now for the last time, who do you work for" "The Wood family. I work for the wood family. They wanted to know your next hive. Everything about it. Please spare my family. I'll be a spy for you if you want, just don't touch my family" he said in a quivering voice after a while. "That was a bit too easy, I was hoping to have more fun with you, the initial person who tortured him said with a sullen face. " Don't worry Mark, they'll be more opportunities in the future to have fun with." the second guy said as he gave Mark a pat on the head. "But Atticus I wanted to try my new play toys on him, now that he's spoken what do I use them for" Mark said with a pout. "You work for the Wood family but I don't see their symbol on you, do you take me for a fool?" Atticus said with a relaxed tone. "I...I....I... have...t...t...the symbol" Charles stuttered as he pushed his hair forward revealing the tattoo of a Raven on his neck. It had a sword pierced through it with six stars around the sword. Every camp had their own symbol, each symbol had stars around them and the stars signified how strong the camp was. The maximum number of stars were ten and only two camps in the entire country had them. It was previously three but a family suddenly disappeared over night. The more stars a camp had, the more territory it had under it. Atticus pulled out his phone and made a phone call. "President Fugerson, he's finally spoken. He is a spy of the Wood family. Yes sir, okay sir" Ending the call he turned to Mark. "I guess you'll still get to try out your new toys after all. The president said clean up this mess" With that he walked out leaving an extremely happy Mark behind. "Atticus, thank the president for me" Mark said in a childish voice as he turned to face his new found play thing. "This is going to hurt I promise" He said as he turned to a table arranged with different torture instruments. Charles knew what that meant. He was right after all, they were still going to kill him even after he's given them what they want. At least his family was safe, it was better he died here because even if he managed to escape, the Wood's family would hunt him down and killed him. He's heard all about Mark. The guy had a mental disorder that made him act like a kid. That didn't stop him from being the most ruthless assassin there was. It was never his style to kill his victims instantly, he prefered to make them suffer by ripping out their body parts. He looked at his ripped out finger nails and clenched his teeth. If only he could fight back but attempting to do so would result in an even painful death. "Where should I start?" Mark said as he approached him.