Chapter 14

The Hidden Twist

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So, here's the situation of this story so far:

First, our hero is desperate to break off his engagement. Still, both his hard-headed father and his persistent fiancée refuse to let him walk away. With no other options available, he secretly hires a fake lover (online) to sabotage the relationship and force the upcoming engagement to fall apart.

But what our hero does not know is that his fiancée is far from the innocent soon-to-be bride she pretends to be. The truth is, she's the real villain of this story. Her plan was to marry her fiancé, kill him, and avenge her father's death. But our protagonist's sudden insistence on canceling the whole engagement ruins her entire plan.

So now, with no other options available, the evil fiancée aggressively skips her plan to the second phase; and that is to hire a professional hitman to eliminate her troublesome groom-to-be, who dared to claim he was gay just to dodge the wedding.

But here's the twist neither of them sees coming:

The hitman the soon-to-be bride hires...

And the fake lover the soon-to-be groom hires...

They are actually the same person.

And now this poor, ex-hitman, now working as an exterminator, who just also wanted to have an everyday, quiet life with his rescued cat, has no clue that he's about to be offered a contract to kill the very same man he's pretending to date.

Well, almost.

"I'm sorry, dear customer, but as we mentioned before, Tooth Fairy retired from us a long time ago."

"Then tell him to come back!" Annette snapped angrily as she spoke on the phone with the secretary of Unseelie's Cradle—a black-market agency famous for providing the world's most elite professional killers, including the one that Annette particularly wants, the hitman known by its code name Tooth Fairy.

"But again, dear customer," the secretary replied as politely as possible to Annette's ranting despite her eardrums begging for mercy, "...our records clearly state that Tooth Fairy has been officially retired for five years. He no longer accepts any projects and—"

"I DON'T CARE if he's retired!" Annette cut in angrily. At this point, Annette was running out of patience just talking on the phone alone. "Find a way to get him back! I don't care how your fucking agency does it—I want him! Is that really so hard to understand?!"

The secretary pinched the bridge of her nose, doing everything in her power not to let the irritation leak into her voice and throw the phone across the room. "Ma'am, we understand your frustration. But with all due respect, we cannot do what you're asking. The only advice I can offer is that you choose another hitman from our available list."

"Hey, lady...listen to me..." Annette's voice suddenly dropped, not because she calmed down, but because she wanted her disappointment to hit harder. She marched back and forth across her room, squeezing a poor rubber duck like it owed her money. "Do I look like someone who settles for second-best?!" she hissed, practically daring the secretary to say something stupid.

"Ma'am, I never said you settle—"

"Exactly!" Annette snapped triumphantly, then she threw the poor rubber duckie straight into the wall like it personally offended her. "So WHY are you offering me a basic package when I CLEARLY asked for the premium one?!"

"Ma'am," the secretary said slowly, articulating every syllable like she was teaching the alphabet to a toddler with anger issues, "He. Is. Retired."

Then, from her seat, she subtly motioned to her colleague and mouthed: Transfer this woman to the boss before I lose my sanity!

Then, she returned to the call with the remaining thread of professionalism she had left and added, "Tooth Fairy no longer accepts clients."

Annette inhaled sharply. She suddenly remembered what her therapist had taught her regarding the benefits of breathing in controlling her anger. In through the nose, out through the mouth, all that nonsense. She tried it, then she spoke calmly and said, "Then, would you mind connecting me to someone who actually understands words like urgent and important, because I am this close to losing my patience talking to you people. Pretty please?"

And that's exactly what the secretary did. Without breaking eye contact with the blinking phone line, she made a frantic "please take this issue to the boss" gesture to her colleague, who immediately rerouted the call to the one person in their agency who was paid enough to deal with this level of chaos. None other than the founder and CEO of Unseelie's Cradle, the one whom everyone called the Fairy Godfather.

In fact, Fairy Godfather had been listening to the customer's complaints for quite some time, quietly observing from behind the wide glass window of his office while casually rolling a dime between his fingers. After a few moments of silence, he pressed a green button on his desk. He spoke to the operator with his usual calm authority.

"Please connect me to Tooth Fairy," he said.

Then right after that, he pressed a red button that would enable him to transfer Annette's call to himself seamlessly.

"How may we serve you today, dear customer?" he asked Annette with politeness.

Annette was momentarily taken aback by the unexpected voice on the other end of the line. It was husky, slightly aged if you listened closely, yet the voice carried an unmistakable tone of someone in authority. Clearly, she was speaking to the boss.

"Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush anymore," Annette said bluntly but with emphasis. "I'm willing to pay just to have my soon‑to‑be fiancé eliminated on the day of our engagement. This is personal to me. I'm avenging my father, and I don't want any amateurs touching this job. I've heard plenty of good things about your man, Tooth Fairy, and he's the one I want."

Fairy Godfather leaned back in his chair as he listened carefully to the call. "I understand your sentiments, but tell me, my child..." he asked smoothly, "...what will you do if he refuses? How exactly do you plan on convincing him...?"

"I know no one would say no to money," she answered confidently. "I'm sure people like him always have something in return. If it's money that he needs, then I'm ready to double it,"

Fairy Godfather let out a soft, insulting laugh. He said, "Money is convincing, yes," he agreed, "But Tooth Fairy is different. He's not after the money that's given to him. How much is paid has never been an issue for him."

Annette gripped her phone tighter to steady her voice as she responded, "Then that's exactly why he should take my request," she said firmly, "Because unlike money, revenge actually means something, especially to me. I lost my father because of other people's negligence and greed. If he really didn't care about the money, then I want him to help me get the justice my father and I deserve."

Fairy Godfather just smiled, then he pressed the red button to mute Annette before hitting the green button.

"Did you hear that? What do you think, will you take this client?"

On the other end of the line was Tooth Fairy, now living as an ordinary citizen, as Allen Flynn, listening through the headset on his right ear as he finished his coffee.

"Do you need my answer right away?" he asked his former boss.

"Not really," Fairy Godfather replied. "But I'll understand if you don't take it, considering you made it clear long ago that you wouldn't accept any more clients."

Allen didn't respond immediately. He just stared at the money Eric, the person who had just recently hired him as a fake lover, had left on the table. Allen is just finishing the last sips of his coffee while planning to leave the café soon anyway.

"Give me three days to think about it," he finally said.

Fairy Godfather was surprised by Allen's answer, though he kept his expression neutral.

"Are you considering accepting this?" he asked.

"Maybe..." Allen replied, placing the empty cup on the table, sugar lumps at the bottom. "But I want to think it over first."

"Okay," Fairy Godfather said gently. "I'll let her know."

Then the call finally ended.

Just as Allen was about to leave the café, his phone buzzed with a new message. He glanced at the screen and saw it was from Eric.

Eric25: I thought about what you said earlier, and I think we should practice being realistic about being lovers as soon as possible. When can we start?

Allen blinked. For a moment, he was taken aback, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little spark of admiration for the young man's unusual way of thinking.

After a brief pause, he typed his reply:

Tooth Fairy: Let's start tomorrow.

And just like that, Allen's quiet, ordinary life as an ex-hitman was about to get a lot more complicated.