PROLOGUE
Kira entered the office of her contractor. She was still sleepy, but she had to pull herself out of her bed as she had an urgent meeting with the person that she was seeing today. It was a goddamn 7:00 in the morning. There could have been a lot of other time next to it. 9:00 am would do. It was the starting hour for her.
"Kira, take a seat, please." Shirk offered the seat adjacent to his desk. "I already prepared a warm milk for you." He said with a sheepish smile. He clearly knew he crossed the line of her patience for calling her too early.
She gave him a sharp look but reached for the cup of milk as she sat down. She doesn't like drinking coffee. Milk was her preference.
"I'm really sorry for calling you here, but it's urgent that my life depended on it. I mean, I feel like our lives could depend on it in the future. This is too hard to pass and too great to be true. But—"
"—Spill it already before I spill this on your face." She growled after taking a sip of her milk.
"Oh my God." Shirk uttered under his breath, rubbing his temple. He was already thinking that it seemed to be impossible for her to do what he was about to say. Just from her temper. But he had to convince her since he had already given his word.
He picked up the folder on the top of his desk and pushed it her way. "There's a new contract. It's perfect for the final job before you retire."
That got her brow scrunched up. Somehow, she found it strange what the job could be about.
"It isn't an assassination, nor an extraction. Not planting, neither stealing. You've never done this before. Not even close to your past contracts. This is totally different. You don't have to use guns or your punches and kicks." He eyed her, and she stared back with brows forming a single line. He ran both hands to his face. "God, not even your sharp tongue should be used."
She stopped drinking her milk and grabbed the folder in front of her. She had to see it for herself, what it was exactly. Shirk kept on bubbling, and her patience was already on thin ice.
Kira opened the file, and she instantly saw her face clipped on top of the paper. Her brows furrowed again. No. It wasn't totally her. The longer she stared, the more she noticed the slight differences that she was certain most people wouldn't recognize enough.
The girl in the photo almost had the same resemblance to her. Same face shape, cheekbones, lips, nose, and eyes. They could totally pass as identical twins. But as she looked closer, the girl had a little baby fat in her cheeks; as for her, she had high cheekbones. The girl's eyes were vibrant blue, while hers was stormy, grayish-blue. The hair in the picture was light brown; hers was a shade darker.
"You could be twins. But I already checked her family; she's the only daughter. But she had an older brother."
She put the cup on the table before it slipped from her fingers. Her jaw was set hard. She nodded. "That makes me the doppelganger then." She read the other information below. Her name was Brianna. 27 years old.
Kira is a year older than her and an inch taller.
"She's from the other side of the world." She uttered.
"Yes. Though her family had a lot of wealth, Brianna liked having a low profile. Brianna Jenkin is a sweet, gentle, and kind girl. A filial daughter. The type that reads for the children in an orphanage, donates to charities, and visits elders to cheer them up. She could be a living saint." Shirk moved around the desk and stopped right in front of her. "Every. Single. Thing. You're not."
She snorted. "Well…someone, somebody has to do the dirty work to make the world go round." She leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs as she looked up at him.
Sweet and gentle? Nah. The only soft things about her were her skin and organs. Literal organs. Thought her heart was made of stone. Metaphorically. A filial daughter? Kira? She wasn't raised by her own mother. She was raised by her godmother instead, her mom's best friend who wasn't even treating her kindly. Read books to children? She'd rather sleep and train to make herself more competent, not that she wasn't. Donate to charities? Nah. She was working with her life on the line to save money for her retirement and future plans. Visit the elderly to cheer them? Pfft. She might even hasten their lives to death if she connects to a lot of people. Because her line of work brought a lot of enemies behind her. So, she'd rather remain far from interacting like a normal human being.
Her identity could be compromised anytime by her enemies from her job. She wasn't even counting anymore. They were also hidden in the shadows and could just be waiting to pounce on her whenever they wanted.
Kirandel Astin Radley or Kirstin Radley. Or Kira, as she was called. Her job involved getting a contract from Shirk to do special missions from different clients. Wealthy people. She doesn't care as long as the pay is exactly as the contract states.
"Ms. Brianna Jenkin was about to be wed in two months." Shirk eyed the calendar across the wall.
Kira's eyes turned into slits. "So? Are we invited for you to tell me that?"
"Yes. But only you." He sat at the other chair in front of his desk. He leaned closer to the edge and faced his body directly towards her.
"Don't tell me I'm gonna be a bride's maid?" She was being sarcastic about it. As she swallowed, there was a lump in her throat. She dreaded what was she was about to hear. Somehow she knew it already.
Shirk gasped a sharp breath and pursed his lips. At least she got the part that she had never done it before and no violence was required. He decided to stood up and move away from her before dropping the bomb of what she had to do exactly. She could kill him and he wasn't being dramatic.
"No. You're going to be the bride."