CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

17 Years Ago

Alexander. (15-year-old)

          The burial day arrived and it was like a sense of closure for me to close my father’s aspect of my life.

The past two weeks have been like a blur in my eyes; once my father’s death was confirmed, the families under the Familia all wanted to have a piece of what they can never have; the position as the Don of the Familia.

The day after the burial, I was called upon by the allies, the allies are sort of like board of director in the Familia, they have the power to install a new Dom and also to uninstall a Dom, but not complete power.

During the meeting, the old goofs asked if I killed my father and I just shrugged my shoulder, let them keep wondering because I know that they can never find anything linking me to my father’s death, I had wiped all evidence cleaned and covered my tracks that evening.

The punishment for killing a Dom without making an official challenge known is death so that had immediately put me in a tight spot until I remembered my father told me how he killed the Dom before him.

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“Alexander, I hope you’ve learnt your lesson son” my father said spitting on the corpse of Manny, the stray cat I had been keeping with me for a month.

My father had found out that I was keeping a stray after he had warned me severally of been attached to anything with life and unfortunately for Manny, his life had to end in my hand as punishment.

“I had known immediately that thing came into this house but I just kept quiet because I thought, my son would heed my warning but after a week and the week little thing had not been killed…” he trailed as he walked towards where I was, raising his walking stick and hitting me on my back, the first of many to come I knew.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to get attached to anything especially not something this weak eh” he spoke hitting me right across the face for the fifth time this evening and I dared not make any sound.

“You don’t listen just that whore of a mother you have” he gestured to Gomez, his personal bodyguard who brought a chair for him to sit beside where I stood. He made sure he was not blocking my view of Manny and I’m not even sure I could take my eyes off his corpse.

“Do you know what killed Marcello?” he asked, when he saw that I wasn’t going to answer, he rose his rod again against my cheek. I nodded negative.

“A pet fish… he loved his pet so much that it killed him Alexander…” he trailed again with a suspicious smile on his face. I had always known that something was not right regarding the death of the previous Dom because why will a death not have cause.

“That pet fish… what was it called again Gomez?”

“Nigh boss” Gomez came out of the shadow where he stood to answer my father’s question.

“Yes, Nigh. You see Marcello had the habit of feeding mutt himself every evening and sometime, he would even bring it out of it tank to showcase, I had implanted someone to work there so that his movement will always be monitored by me” he paused.

“I just had to look for a window and some window I saw; you see Marcello had always blindly trusted people, me included. The day of his death, he kept me in charge of the pet fish, told me to keep it safe and feed it because, his daughter was visiting and was allergic anything fish and even the sight could cause a reaction. You know what I did?” he questioned and I shook my head, not wanting to receive the rod again.

“I had a chemist create a chemical that can make any animal aggressive enough to spit out poison, that night when Marcello came to say good night to his pet, the pet bit him and transferred the poison I fed it earlier into Marcello’s bloodstream, paralyzing and killing him silently within minutes”

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That day, my father told the steps he took to clean his tracks and all the decisions he had to make to be installed as the immediately a week after the death of the old Dom. All what he said that evening was what I used on him too and a week after, I became the youngest acting Dom in all the history of the Familia despite not having everyone’s support.

I am going be installed as the Dom officially on my sixteenth birthday that is in 4 months.

 Now as I stood before the gathered mourners, I noticed the fake sympathy etched on their faces. They didn't truly care; they were just pretending to mourn the loss of a man they had feared.

As I gazed out at the sea of faces, I felt a spark within myself. It was a sense of dominance, of power, and of a newfound responsibility to protect those I cared about.

The family tradition dictated that the children pour sand on the barrier of the coffin. my eyes narrowed as I watched my mother and my brothers perform the ritual, my mind seething with resentment towards the man who lay inside.

When it was my turn, I stared long at the coffin before spitting on it and the crowd gasped, it was a sign of disrespect to the dead but I didn’t care, spitting again two more times, I ignored the crowds’ gasps as I walked back to my sit.

An hour later, I was called to the stage to give a eulogy but what I had in mind is nothing close to a eulogy, I plan on asserting my dominance and announce to the public that I was taking over everything.

“I’ll take over from here” I declared, my voice firm and resolute.

“Takeover what?” one of the Familia underbosses stood and said.

“His position of course…” I trailed as I shoot a glance at father’s grave and the crowd gasped again murmuring.

“I challenge you” he shouted, a smug look on his face and I laughed.

“I always knew you’ve wanted the position for a long time” I said before pulling out the gun by side and shooting him straight in the middle of his fore head and the crowd gasped again in shock.

“Any other person” I said and the crowd quieten as the cleaning crew began cleaning up the body; it looks like two bodies will be buried today.

“And to those who dare oppose me, I say: come and meet me. I'm ready” I spoke again and stared straight at another underboss that wanted to raise his hand.

The crowd murmured, sensing the undercurrent of tension. My message was clear: I was the new power, and I wouldn’t be challenged.