Chapter 52: Let Me Have It
Another person responded, “They probably had them marked with tattoos to know which one is which.”
The two of them chuckled at the suggestion. Arianna’s fatigue had vanished. Nevertheless, she could not help but look back at the genius who proposed the idea.
Upon noticing Arianna’s eyes, the young man lowered his head immediately and whispered to the others. “There are probably differences in their bodies. Maybe birthmarks or something.”
Travis Cooper let out a cough, and his followers became silent immediately.
He stared at the two children, watching them play carelessly with each other. When Arianna noticed his creepy smile, she had a flashback to his suggestion earlier that day. Her back instantly became damp with a cold sweat.
The two kids continued to play for quite a while. Their guardians were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, one of the twins began crying, and his brother tried to comfort him. But the one that was crying pushed the other to the ground. Both of them were weeping quietly now.
Arianna stood up instinctively, planning to wipe the tears off the children’s faces and cheer them up, but she withdrew and sat back down immediately, thinking of Travis. She could never let him see her go soft on children.
But Travis continued watching the children as if he was watching a show. His followers were puzzled by him. After a minute, Ryan went forward and helped the children stand up and gave them a pat on the head. He took out a tissue to wipe their tears and asked them to come over to Travis.
Now Arianna could take a good look at them. The two boys were thin with black curly hair, honey-colored skin, and deep dark eyes. They were very beautiful. They looked exactly like each other; even their expressions were indistinguishable.
It turned out that the first boy cried because the woodcarving commemorative badge that was hanging on his chest was broken. He was unable to put the two pieces back together.
That thing was not expensive. Arianna had a similar one stored in her handbag, so she pulled it out and gave it to the boy. He instantly switched from quietly sobbing to smiling with glistening eyes.
The other boy checked his brother’s new badge and said in poor English, “We had the same badges. Now this one is different from mine.”
Upon hearing this, Ryan quickly ran to the airport shop and bought the same badge as Arianna’s. He returned and handed the badge to the boy.
The twin boys saluted the group with a strange gesture. Then, they switched their old badges and put the new ones on. The second brother gave his old badge to Arianna before running away with his twin.
After a while, someone finally came to supervise the two children. The twins followed after the man, but he did not look like the boys. Travis turned to tell Ryan something quietly. Ryan and one of the assistants went forward to stop them and asked the man a few questions.
Ryan did not let them go until the stranger took out the supporting documents. They came back, and Ryan said to Travis, “I think they are fine. The man is the uncle of the boys, and they are heading back to Mexico.”
Arianna did not expect this kind of care and kindness from Travis Cooper. She watched the children walk away. They even turned and waved to her. When she couldn’t see them anymore, she looked down and examined the badge that one of the twins gave her. Her hands suddenly felt like they were burning when she saw the carving on the badge. She instantly threw it away.
Travis caught the badge in the air.
The two badges that were given to the children were carved with flowers, but this badge had a large serpent on it.NôvelDrama.Org © 2024.
Arianna was very embarrassed to take it back from Travis. She did not know what to do with it. It was genuine kindness from a sweet child, but she knew it would bring her nightmares if she kept it.
But Travis held on to the badge and said, “I like this one. Let me have it.”
She nodded instantly. Relief washed over her body.
****
Their plane was delayed for fifteen minutes. After the children had left, Travis lost his interest in reading the newspaper. He asked Arianna, “Which one do you think is the elder of the two boys?”
“The one that gave me the badge.” She replied.
“I think so too. Have you heard of this before? When someone is born, there will be another person in the world who looks exactly the same as him or her. The two might not have the chance to meet each other, though. Twins are a special case in this law, seeing as they spend their whole childhood together in most cases.”
“I’ve never heard of such a law. And it sounds completely unscientific. I know that twins are related to genetics, but what you told me isn’t.”
“Are you saying that having twins runs in some bloodlines?”
“I think so. I have a colleague that has a family full of twins. And she is a twin herself.” After saying that, Arianna felt it was awkward to discuss her daily life with Travis. Especially doing it in a foreign airport with all of his followers around.
Earlier in the day, she had decided that she would not respond to him on any topic whatsoever, but she also worried that he would take revenge on her for not being pleasant.
Travis’s phone began to ring. He stepped away from the group and answered, “… Don’t worry. I will be there soon. Don’t think too much and have a good sleep. I’ll be back by dawn.”
When he returned, Arianna took the newspaper he was reading to hide her surprised look. She glanced at him before burying her face in the paper.
Once more, she didn’t expect Travis to show such patience and gentleness to someone. The person on the other side of the phone must have been someone important to him. She thought she could see the tenderness on his face, but he looked normal at the moment.
Travis did not say a word after he returned.