Armani.

"Too late for the introductions now, am I?" I entered the all so familiar room and my eyes fell upon my mirror image. He stared back at me, a delightful smile on his lips.

If only he knew the reason I was here.

After taking in the untidy room occupied by a brown couch and a flat screen TV, I stepped closer to Ms. Hazel. And that was when I noticed she had frozen. She couldn't even blink. Her brown eyes three inches wider and she looked like a comic book character.

If we were in another situation, I'd have taken a picture to show her later in life and laugh about it. Oh! there wasn't going to be any 'later in life' because after this, we'd both go our separate ways and I'd treat her like any other ordinary person working for me.

That was not a problem with me, I just needed to know she'd keep her mouth shut. I wouldn't let anyone tarnish the reputation of my company. It had held up to its perfect reputation for years and I wouldn't let a person I met a few days ago ruin it. Not her and definitely not my brother.

"Are you okay?" I slowly touched Hazel's shoulder. As expected, it was rigid. She did not flinch nor blink. Too shocked. To be frank, anyone in her shoes would be astounded.

Slowly, I laced my fingers with hers and grabbed the briefcase from her sweaty hands.

I leaned into her ear and whispered, "Breathe."

Then she snapped out of her hypnotized state. She realized I stood closely behind her, and her breath's became more ragged. I could feel her back press against my chest and to say it did not even affect me for a minute would be the right thing to say. All I wanted to do was wipe my hands, hers were too sweaty.

"You never told me you had a twin," she whispered, as though she didn't want Victor to hear her.

I rested my chin on her shoulder. None of this seemed to bother Ms. Asa, perhaps she was too shocked to even consider this a problem. I was far too close and this would be considered as harassment on any other brighter day.

"He..." I trailed off, wondering what to tell her.

"She does not talk much about me," Victor butted in.

A painful chuckle escaped my lips. "You've been missing, what could I possibly tell the world?"

"Put a poster with my face and write 'wanted' on it." He smirked.

Did I look that smug when I smirked? I found annoying. For a second, I wondered how he felt about this situation. Did it give him headaches as it gave me? Or was it just me, overthinking everything and wanting to be responsible and have control over every situation?

"Anyway." I sighed, moving from Hazel's back to her front, I lifted her chin. She finally blinked. Quite rapidly that I did not see the slap across my face coming.

Fucking wow, talk about crossing boundaries?

"Ouch," I grunted before turning to her, with as much wrath and anger in my eyes. How dare she? I glared at her and she had to start talking right away.

"What were you trying to do?" she spat with so much disgust.

I rolled my eyes, did she think I'd kiss her? In her dreams.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Ms. Asa," I blurted out. "I wanted to tell you to excuse us."

"You didn't have to touch me!"

"Don't be too dramatic." I turned to Victor who was amused by the five seconds drama. "I don't have all day, go and wait in the car."

She seemed to want to spit something out, but she bit her lip savagely and made her way out of the apartment. But that wasn't before she spared Victor another glance.

With a sigh, I turned to face my brother. My stomach turned when I realized we were just the two of us in this room, suddenly the walls felt like they'd close in on me. I hated to admit it, but he made me feel uncomfortable. It was as though I was getting to know this person for the first time.

The fact that we shared the same blood and face, as well as every other tiny feature, did not even matter. He had turned into a total stranger and what he was capable of, scared me.

"I never took you for girl drama." He chuckled, patting the space next to him on that untidy couch. Signaling me to sit.

With another thick swallow, I settled next to him. Our thighs brushed against each other and goosebumps stretched everywhere on my skin.

"I'm not." I forced a chuckle. "I have no idea why she did that."

Seriously, why did she do that?

"It's really good to see you again. When you left me at the orphanage, I thought I'd never see you again. When you came back, I was very happy that you'd get me, but you asked others to take care of me. I thought you did not care about me anymore. But now that I'm here, I hope we will work something out and be a ha-"

"Victor." I placed a hand on his shoulder. I hated to be the one to demolish his dreams but none of those things were happening. There wouldn't be any family reunions because I was sending him away. "You can't stay."

He looked at me, eyes suddenly turning sad. How could he fool me with that? I gave him the small briefcase which he opened slowly. Laying silently under our eyes were three clean passports, bunches of money, and a pendant necklace. He looked at me before grabbing it and slowly opening it.

On the right side was our mother, we took her smile and her blonde hair. On the other side was our father, only his eyes that we took. They seemed happy in those small round pictures and I wondered what had brought them so much happiness.

"My boys will drive you to my cabin, in the countryside. You will be safe there, you will be provided with whatever you need." I got to my feet and slowly ran my thumb over his cheek. "I love you, but you can't stay."

"You're leaving me...again."

By his voice, he was a second away from wailing. For no good reason, he turned out or be the fragile one. And it was up to me to be tough for both of us.

"My decision is final." I blinked away a tear as I turned away from him, he did not need to see me cry. "Goodbye, brother."

"Armani, please," I heard him call after me but as stated, my decision was final and there was no going back.

##

And here I thought they'd reunite.

Do you think Armani did the right thing by sending Victor away?