Toys For The Big Boys ✓

(34) Mine [m]

     I took a deep breath and said, "I know, he told me."

     "We haven't found him yet but if we do I'll-"

     "He's probably dead," I quickly tell Romeo when I remembered that I left him in a moving van and even shot him.

     "I'm glad," Romeo simply says.

     I squeezed Romeo's hand tighter and said, "He hated your father you know. He said the reason why he did what he did was because Claudio Valentino killed his wife and child."

     "I know...I was actually fifteen when that happened," Romeo suddenly says, shocking me.

     "But there's a different side of that story you know," he continued, quickly making me shift from my space so I could properly look at him.

      "What is it?"

      "His wife...it's in the rules that no one in the family is allowed to make affairs, sadly, his wife did. And my father found out that the kid was also a product from the affair," Romeo suddenly explained, shocking me.

     "The board members said that my father should kill the wife, the man she's having an affair with, and the child. Of course my father could not do it, but it was tradition, and he knew bad things will come out if he doesn't follow tradition," Romeo explained further.

     "Then why is he mad at your father? Shouldn't he be mad at his-"

     Romeo cuts me off and said, "My father asked everyone not to tell about the wife's affair to the husband. So my father killed the wife and the child, without Aaron knowing the reason why."

     My eyes widened from shock as I realized why his father did it, "He didn't want Aaron to live while knowing that his wife and supposed child was just a sad illusion. He was willing to make Aaron despise him just so Aaron could continue on living with the idea that he had a happy family of his own."

     "My father is respected, and I know to myself that I will not be able to reach the level of respect his people gave him," Romeo tells me.

     So President King was right. Claudio really is a good man.

     "He's a good man. But why did your mother kill him?" I asked, shocking Romeo.

     I knew this was a sensitive question, but it was a question that I have been dying to be answered.

     Romeo takes a deep breath and surprisingly answered me, "That is the same question I have kept asking myself ever since that day."

     Romeo looked calmer about the topic; probably because his hatred for his mother lessened since she's the one who told him where I was.

     "I saw it in my own eyes; how she just ran to him and stabbed him continuously. I quickly grabbed his body, the blood on my own hands. My father coughed blood, but he was still able to touch my hand and tell me that I'd be a great godfather. I didn't know what happened next, but the last thing I knew was that I was inside a car; Johnson driving me farther away from the household," Romeo explained, shocking me since he actually told me the story.

     "I wasn't even on my own father's burial," Romeo continued, tears ready to pour out of his eyes, but nothing came out.

     I touched Romeo's hand and squeezed it.

     "Don't worry, so was I," I say, trying to make him feel better.

     Romeo forced a smile and nodded his head, then he suddenly gives out a quick laugh as he said, "Looks like we both have a lot of unanswered questions from our own fathers."