Michael’s POV.

“We should go to the Mickeys,” Matt said.

Buying Alejandro was huge for me.Another step towards building my empire. The club was always the perfect place to have fun after deals.

The music,the drinks,the women.

I sat in the VIP section of the club with drinks scattered around the table.Two women dancing around the seat. Matt danced in the crowd.

As I stared into the buzzing crowd,my mind moved back to that night,the night that changed me.

Days after graduating high school,I had taken Bella to an exquisite restaurant outside town to celebrate. It had a serene atmosphere,polished furniture and countryside music.

“You look really amazing tonight,” I said anxiously.

She sat there glorious in the blue dress I had picked when I took her shopping.Her long blonde hair as perfect as usual.

We sat there for ten minutes for our orders.As I looked at her, all she did was look at her phone all through. She was probably giving her girlfriends the tea about our date.

“Baby, I need to use the restroom,” She said letting out a warm smile,the one that always melt my heart.

It could buy me more time to put my mind together.I thought about getting on one knee before finally popping the question.

Yes, I was going to ask her to marry me.

As she walked away with her heels clicking against the floor,my heart pounded faster.I was thinking about forever. Building my life with her.Our kids.

I waited. Ten minutes passed.Then twenty.

She didn’t return.

Then I walked to the restroom.

As I walked through the corridor,behind one the closed doors,I heard sounds of muffled moans. I always wondered why people found it comfortable having sex in public rooms.

The last I witnessed,I walked in on a man and his wife at the yard on one of my father’s properties. Something I considered gross.

I walked further,checking the other opened rooms.I turned when I heard the door creaked open.

My chest tightened and for a moment,it felt the floor had just shifted.

It was Bella.

She came out,her hair tousled,and her dressed half way her thighs.A guy followed from behind.

Some razz looking guy. His shirt half buttoned, cheap gold chain hanging around his neck,his pants half worn around his waist. I felt insulted,because she had just cheated because this was what she picked over me.

I turned to Bella again, she did not have a glimpse of remorse on her face.I was too stunned to speak. Something in me broke immediately.

I turned and walked away,staggering all the way to my car.

And then I drove to the Mickeys club.Where I met Matt.

“ Come on Michael. You are rich! Money can buy you any woman you want,” He said.

And he was right. That night changed me. I could afford any woman I wanted.Whatever I thought love was,died within the walls of that corridor.

Matt and I became best of friends.Plus,he ran a business like mine. The club was where it always ended each time sealing a deal pulled through.

The day I finally returned from abroad to fully run my father’s business, was the day I met Suzanne.

I went to celebrate at Mickeys.

Suzzane was a stripper.

Her long brown hair reached her waist, her curves moving in rhythm to the music.She had confidence in her eyes.

I had found what I was looking for. Not love but business.

Women like this carried power.Power to tame men who thought with their pants rather than their heads. I needed her.

When the music had died down, I walked up to her.

“You have been staring at me,”she said even without turning to me.

“Well, you must have been staring too.Call me Michael.”

“Suzanne.”She said turning smoothly.

We talked a lot that night.I told about business,without disclosing the shadows yet. Suzanne was dancing to make a living. She was in college but dropped out after her father was diagnosed with kidney failure a year ago. Their savings were not enough to cater for the dialysis and their upkeep Her mother ran a spa but she had to sell up everything. Then she resulted to stripping.

She was studying to be an attorney but things were different now. The kind of money cartels spent at the Mickeys every night was what she wanted.

She had bigger dreams. Money,business and influence.

She was perfect.Perfect to keep close.

And It has been like that since then.

The next morning after celebrating my victory over Anna and every other bidder who wanted Alejandro,I drove to mother’s.

She stayed in the family estate,that had become a shadow of itself. It used to be lively when I was much younger. My father would always make sure we had routine family dinners with all workers included.

I went down the stairs and met my mother styling her hair.She looked as radiant as always. She used to be a model,one that appeared on front cover magazines.She met my billionaire dad,Don Enzo Alonzo and they got married. A perfect blend of money and influence.

“Hey Mother,” I said as I hugged her.

“You remembered me today,” she said putting the last pair of rollers into her hair.

“Mother,I have been busy.”

“Busy? It’s been a month you dropped by.What is keeping you busy? ” She asked.

“Finding justice,” I said, pouring a glass of wine from the bar.

“Justice.I have told you this time and time again,focus on building a family. Carry on your father’s legacy.What ever justice you seek will not bring him back.”

“I cannot sit and watch his killers thrive and make name.I will get justice,for him.For you.” I pause,taking a sip, “I bought Alejandro.”

She turned to me,her eyes darkened in disbelief, “You bought Alejandro?”

My mother had chosen to live in solitude after my father was assassinated.She kept away from the media and everything that took her close to the chaos our world brought.

“Yes.”

“Son we don’t need this. This life took your father from us,”She said holding my hand.

“But I can’t stop now. I can’t give up this life until I get my pound of flesh.”

“You are being irrational,”She said sinking on the couch.

“Mother,I swore on the day dad was laid to rest,that I would bring them down.No matter what it takes.Even if it is the last thing I do.”

“Look Michael,you are all I have got now. You don’t have to do this.Just keep a low profile,build a family.” She said with her voice cracking.

I moved to her holding her hands, “ I will be fine.Just trust me.”

It was my father’s birthdayJust my parents and I had a celebration outside town.A private property we often went for closeup family events. Where he had the chance to be just a husband and a father.Not Don Enzo Alonzo.

My mother made our favourite pozole,the one she usually made for special occasions.We sat to eat with me leading the prayers. “God bless the hands that made the food and the stomachs about to eat them.Amen.”

They both laugh.

Suddenly,

I heard a shot,my father fell to the ground.

I stood there,watching him in the pool of his blood till he took his last breathe.

I have carried the image of that night every day that passed.I was not going to stop. Every move I made was for a purpose. To watch his killers burn.