#11 IN ACTION
(PARIS)
Buried deep below the everyday life of our society lives a world of nightmares-of violence and murder no one dares speak about. It is called the Sinner's Society.
In the murky waters of Chicago's underworld I'm arranged to marr...
The quote I read years ago went something like that, but I never understood it. When you're in the thick all your life, living in ways you eventually figure out no one else is, you learn to sleep well in heat and eat fire. Until one day it's all you need.
It was heaven I didn't trust. High hopes and false expectations...
No, I needed the trouble.
—Alex
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It was exactly six months since I became someone's husband and I became the proud owner of Arthur's club: Le Cirque.
Arthur Grayson. I was the sole heir to the dynasty he'd secured over the years with an iron fist. But he had two conditions. The same conditions he had once given to my father, ddison: Marry a March and everything will be yours. And the second one which came before this: doing my time in the trenches of South Chicago, learning to navigate both sides of the Chicago business.
That meant deciding men's fates one minute and smoking cigars with the old money the next. Hell, sometimes it happened simultaneously. In the world of technology, a man can play poker and order a death at the same time. If he wins the pot too, it's a hell of a night.
And perhaps... perhaps Arthur knew in South Chicago I'd find the reason to fulfill my first condition.
The night my Arthur died, Addison became the Lord Dean of the guild. And I, the prodigal son—even though Addison is my biological father, Arthur was my creator— took my rightful place at the helm. The Grayson realm was mine, and so was the gold ring engraved with the family crest. Since that time, I had only one thing missing: the beloved (I used to roll my eyes every time Arthur would utter the word) worthy to share my name.
That choice was made a long time ago.
In this instant, it wasn't a choice I minded. I'd known that Paris was mine since my early teens. Born almost seven years after me, I've known his future since he was just a boy. I've watched and followed him. While Addison and Miranda instilled my belief that Paris was mine, my own grandmother was against such marriage alliance.
