TIED TO THE MAFIA MAN

Not for the first time in about ten years, the thirty-year-old Alejandro Hernández, Consigliere of the Hernández family, wished humans could have the opportunity to choose which family they were born into. At first, he had been proud of the power, wealth and connections that his family held, and was determined to be the next head of the family after his father. His determination had been unshakable until a couple of years back when an event that was going to be impossible for him to ever forget, occurred. It made him question a lot of things and wonder if the future he had always imagined for himself was what he really wanted. There was one thing that he was very certain about though. He didn't want to be in this particular meeting he was currently in. The familiar smell of Cuban cigars mixed with the scent of expensive whiskey, which hung in the air of the room and had not bothered him in the past, had somehow started to irritate the hell out of him. He w

Alessandro Hernández stood by the large window of his office, staring at the city below. His thoughts though, were far away from the city view, calculating, as usual. Due to the nature of his position as the head of the Hernández family, he was a man who always had a plan and strategy for everything. He had to run all stages of a plan in his head, considering possible setbacks and proffering solutions to them before acting on anything. His mind wandered back to the early days of the Hernández family's rise to power. Giovanni Hernández, his grandfather, had been an ambitious man. He had built the family's business from scratch. He started out as a small-time smuggler working with some gangs but in time, he had grown, broken out and quickly expanded his operations to real estate, constructions and security, forming alliances with other powerful families and eliminating anyone who stood in his way. Alessandro's father, Leonardo Hernández had taken over from his father, Giovan

Gabriella dragged herself off the bed as her alarm rang and the morning sun came peeping through her window. She rubbed the weariness from her eyes as she made her way to the bathroom to get herself started for the day.As she sat down to relief herself on the toilet, the weight of her busy week came crashing down on her with full force. The endless meetings, visits to orphanages and office work had left her drained, with barely enough time for a decent meal or a full night's sleep.Yet, despite the exhaustion, her mind still occasionally wandered to the mysterious man she met at the last ball she attended.She could still vividly picture his face, his eyes and how he effortlessly conversed with her though they had only met that evening. Somehow, everything about him just intrigued her and somewhere in the quiet space of her mind, she hoped they met again."Get your act together Gabby", she muttered to herself, a familiar line she had used to chastise herself these days. "You really

The event had kicked off in full swing. The curtains opened with a solo piano piece by Gabriella to the amazement of everyone. It was the first time a live audience got to see the artistic side of her.She had walked into one of the children's rehearsals as they prepared for the event and got to know that their pianist had an emergency and would not be able to make it for the day.They were still trying to remedy the situation when Gabriella asked the director for the piece they were working on. After a few minutes of trying to find the musical notes on the piano, she started playing and the rehearsals continued.Gabriella had saved the day and the director was both thankful and amazed. He suggested that Gabriella opened the event with a piano piece but she waved it off giving a "I'm not that skilled to perform for an audience" excuse and concluded with "and besides the night is all about the children, I wouldn't want to steal their moment" as she ran off.Somehow, Rachel got wind of

While Gabriella played the piano, her eyes searched for Alejandro in the midst of the audience. In his gaze was a mixture of emotions. She smiled as she played trying to focus on her rendition but the more she stared at his direction, his gaze was moving from shock to cold and it was beginning to get unsettling.She noticed he was so lost in his thoughts that his attention was jolted back to the event by the cheers and applause of the audience. Immediately he joined the audience standing, he left shortly afterwards accompanied by a pretty looking lady she later learned was Sofia Winston, the famous museum curator."He did say he was leaving early but I never thought it would be so soon" Gabriella reasoned to herself. "Well, he also did say he had an engagement planned for the evening, maybe it had something to do with the lady he left locking arms with" Gabriella unconsciously sighedAt this time, she gave herself one of her famous call to order and she was able to drag her mind back