Chapter 1
My twin sister and I looked exactly alike, but our personalities couldn't have been more different.
She was gentle and kind. She couldn't even bring herself to hurt a stray cat on the roadside.
I was ruthless. I made sure anyone who crossed me wished they were dead.
On the night of our coming-of-age celebration, our family had to choose one of us to take over its arms-smuggling operation.
The family had already gone legitimate, so to keep the family completely insulated from the arms-smuggling operation, whoever took it over had to become officially "dead" and cut every visible tie to the family.
Smuggling was dangerous and bloody. I refused to let my sister get involved in any of it, so I had to be the one who "died."
My family staged a car crash and made sure I disappeared without a trace.
Before I left, I made only three demands.
First, the bodyguard unit the family had trained had to be handed over to my sister.
Second, whoever she married had to come from a family of comparable standing.
Third, if anyone ever hurt her, I had to be told.
My family agreed to everything without hesitation.
They promised that if I took this mess off their hands, they would find my sister an arranged marriage partner from a family just as powerful as ours.
I thought that if I took on all of the family's dirty work myself, my sister would be free to find someone who loved her and live without fear for the rest of her life.
3 years later, an excruciating pain ripped me out of sleep.
I knew something had happened to her.
I had a false identity prepared overnight and rushed home, only to discover that my sister was gone.
A bride and groom I didn't recognize were getting married at the Mitchell estate.
My parents sat among the guests, smiling from ear to ear.
Apparently, 3 years had been long enough to make them forget.
Without my sister there to hold me back, I was nothing but a bloodthirsty demon.
*****
By the time I reached the Mitchell estate, a lavish wedding was already underway.
An elegant welcome sign stood at the entrance, its message impossible to miss.
Congratulations to Sophie Bennett and Adrian Collins. May you share a lifetime of happiness!
Seeing my sister's arranged marriage partner marry a woman I had never even heard of made me even more certain that something had happened to Nina Mitchell.
Sophie Bennett, dressed in a wedding gown, sat beside Adrian Collins.
My parents sat among the guests, smiling as if the bride were their own daughter.
I watched them from across the crowd and didn't make a move right away.
'Killing them outright would be far too easy on them. Finding Nina comes first.'
I avoided the bodyguards and slipped through the hidden garden passage into the side wing where my sister used to live.
Before Nina married, I had my people send her countless valuables and famous paintings with a combined value of more than 100 million dollars.
Now every valuable item was gone, and the paintings had vanished from the walls.
Even the portrait I had personally painted of Nina had been thrown into the mud.
A maid was using the frame to scrape mud off her shoes.
She froze when she saw me, then sneered.
"Nina Mitchell, how dare you escape from the storage room?"
She had mistaken me for my sister.
My gaze dropped to the pink-diamond bracelet on her wrist.
I had given it to Nina as a coming-of-age gift.
"Where did you get that bracelet?" I asked.
The maid shook her wrist at me with a smug smile. "Miss Bennett gave it to me, of course. All the jewelry and clothes you used to own belong to Miss Bennett now."
She smirked. "Get on your knees and wish the newlyweds well. If Miss Bennett is in a good mood, maybe she'll toss you a little something."
"I see." I nodded. "Give it to me."
The maid looked as though she had just heard a joke.
She raised a hand and shoved me. "Today is Miss Bennett's big day. Get back to the storage room. If Mr. Collins sees you showing your face here on his wedding day, you'll be in for another beating."
I let the shove carry me half a step back.
"Another beating?"
The maid's expression turned gleeful. "Last month, you crossed Miss Bennett, and Mr. Collins personally gave you 30 lashes. Those wounds are still festering, aren't they?"
Last month, I had spent an entire night keeping watch at a deal site while my back burned in agony.
'So that was why my back had hurt all night. Nina had been whipped 30 times.'
When I said nothing, the maid assumed I was afraid.
She raised a hand to slap me.
I caught her wrist but didn't strike back yet.
"Why was she locked in the storage room?" I asked.
The maid struggled in my grip and spat, "Because you were jealous of Miss Bennett and killed the baby she was carrying! Mr. Collins was merciful enough not to turn a murderer like you over to the police."
Several bodyguards heard the commotion and rushed through the courtyard gate.
Their captain pulled out a stun baton and barked, "Nina, are you trying to cause trouble again? Let her go and apologize!"
The maid immediately regained her nerve.
With her free hand, she grabbed my hair and shrieked, "You're lower than a servant now, and you still dare put your hands on me? You still think you have Miss Bennett's standing in this house?"
She raised her hand again, her nails aimed straight at my eyes.
This time, I smiled.
I tilted my head aside, caught her arm, and flipped her over my shoulder.
Before she could scream, I planted my foot on the back of her head and pressed her face into the mud.
"Since you like playing in the dirt so much, stay there for a while."
I ripped the pink-diamond bracelet off her wrist and gripped her chin.
"Lick the mud off that frame. Every patch you leave behind will cost you a tooth."
The maid shook her head frantically.
I broke one of her front teeth.
"I don't like repeating myself."
The bodyguard captain charged at me with the baton.
I stepped aside, broke his wrist, then drove the baton handle hard into the back of his knee.
He dropped to his knees.
I planted a foot on the back of his neck and forced him down beside the maid in front of the frame.
"She'll lick it clean. You'll wipe it clean with your face."
The bodyguard cursed, "Mr. Collins will never let you get away with this!"
I slowly pressed my foot down harder.
The rough stone scraped his face raw and bloody until he finally fell silent in fear.
I bent down and smiled at him.
"Now tell me. Where is Nina Mitchell?"
