My Artistic Mafia Man

Chapter 1: The New Boss

Chapter 1: The New Boss

Eltan Storm

It had been two years—two fucking years since my parents were killed in a bomb blast. Their funeral was something I would never forget; not that I would ever want to. I needed to remember exactly what I felt when I was standing in front of my parents' burned corpses so that the fire of my vengeance never dimmed.

I was their youngest child—the most adored and spoiled one. I used to be the goofy troublemaker among my siblings. I had been the only one who didn't go down the family business path. That's why my parents were protective of me and almost never let me out of their sight. Not like they would restrict me a lot. In fact, they would let me get away with stuff that they normally wouldn't allow Elian and Lance. Even when they sent the two of them out of the city, Mom and Dad made sure I was always within their hands' reach, whether it was their impromptu dinner plans or dragging me to their boring business parties.

Mom and I were like besties; we loved chatting. She loved art just as much as me. She may not have been the most skilled artist around, but she was always my biggest fan, who actually understood my art and appreciated it. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for Dad. Although the two of us would often bond over our shared love of chess. I always let him win, and that's not a brag. Because back then, I was afraid to have him discover my wits. But now that I thought about it, he probably always knew. And yet, he never pressured me into the family business.

I loved the two of them so much. I have spent twenty-two years with them, and not a single day I pictured my life without them. That's why when the news of their death came, it hit me harder than anything I could have ever expected.

However, that wasn't even the worst part. Worse was, I was the only child attending their funeral.

Elian got stuck on a business tour in France, which demanded his urgent attention. His wife Alena insisted on coming with their baby, but it wasn't safe to bring Xian, so I told her not to risk it. At least, I was rational enough to make sure the heir to our mafia empire was safe. Meanwhile, Lance had left the country for the love of his life, Ember, thus it wasn't safe for them as well.

In short, I watched over my parents' last rituals all alone with no one to put a hand over my shoulder and assure me that things would be alright eventually. There had been no one to calm the fire in my chest that was growing from the loss of the two people who meant the world to me. At that moment, it was hard not to blame the entire world for my misery. So I directed all that rage and hatred toward the two people who orchestrated my parents' death. I made their downfall the aim of my life.

Currently, the entire responsibility of the mafia 'Thunder' was on my shoulders now. I, Eltan Storm, ruled the underworld. I was the king of the world's most dangerous and feared gang.

It was funny how I never thought of becoming what I was today. I thought I would dedicate my entire life to painting. But as wise people say, you can't have everything you want in life. I couldn't manage my gallery and the gang at the same time. So I had to make a choice.

No one forced me to choose the gang, but if I hadn't taken over it, all of my dad's hard work would have gone to waste.

My brothers couldn't continue being in the mafia for their respective reasons, leaving no one to handle it after Dad. That's why I had to be the responsible one back then after spending my whole life being the pampered one, which meant shutting down my art gallery forever two years ago.

Life had been a mess for these two years. Nothing seemed to be working out. I felt so alone living in Vegas, almost every day I wished I could be in California, close to Elian and his family, especially my nephew. I was missing out on so much of Xian's childhood; it sucked.