It all began with a BET(the black Rose)

CHAPTER 6

Mike POV

The man I have not seen in ten years was standing right before me, he looked a lot older than the last time I had seen him but with his physic he was still in shape and looking good. You didn't have to question it, anyone could tell that he is my father, I inherited almost everything from him, except for the grey eyes that I got from my mom, everything else, from height, physic, complexion, I got them from him. I had dreamed every night to see him again, I dreamed of the love of a complete family once again, but now that I see him here, I just hate him, not because he left me, but because he left my mother, the woman that loves him so much and keeps praying for his return every single day. Now I wonder if he has been with any other woman since then, after all, he is a man, and every man has needs. Ten years is too long a time to stay away from a woman. All this thoughts just had me going I to rage by just thinking about them.

Just as I was about to lung at him, Anna came and held me back. “easy there tiger, there is no need for all of this, I think you should hear him out first, and you did promise to keep an open mind” she said trying to calm me down but it didn’t work, it just made matters worse to think that she was involved in all of this, I just suddenly felt played. “how can you tell me to calm down? I spend ten years without him and now he appears here. Are you doing this just to mock me? You don’t know what I had to go through for all those years, you don’t know anything?” I said to her in rage and she looked sad, and somehow I knew what I said was wrong and it hurt her, but at this moment I didn’t care. I looked at my so called father who was standing there with a stoic face, he has not said a thing or even moved and this angered me even more. “and you, what are you doing here? You have left for ten long years and did not care about me and my mother all this years, not a text, letter or phone call. NOTHING!!! We got nothing from you, and now you show up here. What do you really want, I don’t think you had to stay away for that long all in the name of protecting us because I don’t believe a s**t of that.” I was yelling so hard at him and he looked pained like he wanted to say something but I just cut him off before he could utter a word. “what is it, tell me? Have you gotten tired of all the women you have been with these years and finally remembered that you have a fam...” I didn’t get to finish what I was saying before I felt a punch right square in the face. I’ll be honest, that took me by surprise. Through all my rage, I didn’t get to see my father hit me, and man did it hurt.

“you will not speak that way to me boy. I am your father and I understand what you have been going through, but that does not mean I will allow you to disrespect me in any way. I came here to explain myself to you, you don’t even know the story or anything I had to go through and already you are judging my character. Is this how I raised you? Is this what you want me to think Linda taught you all this years, because I sure can tell you that she didn’t” the man shouted back at me, he looked so angry, but I sure as f**k did not give a damn, he has no idea what I had to live through all those years. He was not there so he has no right to judge me. “don’t talk about my mother, you were not there when she raised me, all the times she prayed for you to be safe and all the times she put on a brave face just so that I would not see how broken she was. How do you think I felt? I was all alone, I know she was there but I really couldn’t talk to her about it, I didn’t want to hurt her more than she already was. It would always get worse when she would leave me alone, sometimes she would be gone for a week at most and I would be all by myself. So stop acting like you care because you don’t, you didn’t care that I was all by myself” when I said this I dropped to my knees and I was crying, and Anna was there to comfort me like all through the years, this was the first time that I cried since he left. It’s like everything I had been keeping inside came out all at once. I know its unbecoming of a guy to be crying and have a girl comfort them, but I don’t care, I am hurt. All the years of people calling me a reject because my father left us, everyone saying that he didn’t want me, I just felt like it’s my fault that he left.

My father came close and stretched his hands trying to reach me so as to comfort me but I just dodged it “don’t you dare think of touching me again, I hate you” I shouted that out and it earned me a slap from Anna, who by the way looked as broken as my father. I felt bad for saying it because I know I don’t mean it, but it came out. Just as Anna was about to speak, “Michael Jasper Collins! Is this how you behave with you father” a voice I know so well said and we all turned to look at the door, and there stood the only woman I have ever been terrified of, my mother, and man did she look pissed. She has blond curly hair, grey eyes, and is wearing a dress that brings out her curves, making me wonder how any man could leave a woman this gorgeous, she didn’t look a day over twenty-five, which is good considering that she is thirty-eight. Yep you guessed it, she got pregnant with me at sixteen, but she still looks good.

Anna pov

I couldn’t believe this jackass just said he hates his father, he has no idea how lucky he is, both his parents are alive and kicking while mine are six feet deep. I just lost it and ended up slapping him, can’t he see how broken uncle G is? Just as I was about to tell him off, a voice came behind us, “Michael Jasper Collins! Is this how you behave with you father”, we turned and there stood the only creature capable of making me freeze, ‘Linda Collins’. This woman can make even hell freeze over when she is mad and right now she was at her limit. To be honest, I was looking for an escape. “what are you doing here hunny?” uncle G asked. “well I had to be here to help you out, you were never one good with emotion, and judging by the way things are going, I know I am right” aunty Linda said walking towards us, looking as black as the bottom of a pot. “hey aunty Lindy, you look really good today, very beautiful” I said in a shaky voice trying to calm her down, and it worked, she sighed and walked over to Mike and hugged him, then lead him to one of the tables and gestured us to follow.

After we sat, we waited until Mike was in a good enough state to listen. When he had calmed down, uncle G began his story “as you may or may not know, ten years ago, the black rose began their journey to take over the Asian underworld. With Europe in our hands, taking over Asia would be a lot easier. We had all the data we needed to take them down. We practically had everything, from weapons, drugs, manpower, well practically everything you can think of. We had started taking over it slowly, starting from all those weak organisations but climbing our way up the ladder. We practically had everything under control and we had acquired half, more or less, of their underworld, and they were loyal to us. How we got to make them loyal, you will learn about that during your five year stay with me. Well moving on, this took us about two years to achieve, which was an improvement considering that we didn’t want to start a war without living the Asian king almost powerless. But during the third year, he got word of what we are doing and he began a war with us, he stole a huge bunch of our information, including that of our members and began using it to kill them one by one, inclusive of their families and children. That’s when it all started. We did everything to get back the data, people left their families in order to keep them safe should they have to die, the entire organisation was in panic. I had to leave as well, along with James, Anna’s father. We needed to protect everyone, but most importantly, I had to protect you. Your mother helped me in getting the info back but it was not enough, some of it could not be retrieved, even by her, despite being our best hacker. She…” he was interrupted by Mike shouting in shock while pointing at his mother “her?” aunty L just laughed and gesture uncle to continue. “yes her, she was the best, and forever will be” he said with a smile and a wink then continued

“well, that was when I left, but with all our efforts to protect our members, Casey got kidnapped by the king and that left James a mess, he was ready to kill anyone, we spend months looking for her but with no luck. He was like a crazy man, but luckily he was able to get us out of deep s**t. We got our info back but with a sacrifice of our two best spies, this happened six months after we left but there was still no sign of Casey. Around after a year since then, we had given up hope of her being alive and James had given Anna off to an orphanage, he deemed himself unworthy of being her father and thus never talked to her again and just told her that her mother died during an accident. Well after that we got two videos from Feng (king of Asian underworld), the first showed around five men raping Casey then torturing her until she died, this drove James into madness but it was nowhere as terrible as the second video, it showed Casey giving birth to a pair of twin boys then all the way to them being brutally killed, with their heads chopped off. It seemed that she was pregnant by the time she was kidnapped. All of that just made James snap, I saw my best friend become someone he always swore to never become. A man who swore to never kill or hurt a child in anyway killed hundreds of them. After we received those video, two days later we received the heads of all three of them, it was a present from Feng, telling us to leave. But we went into war, it took all five long years but we managed to kill everyone from Feng’s organisation, including their families and extended family, practically anyone associated to them. I watched as my friend turned into a monster, all because he did everything he could to protect everyone else and I still blame myself for it, I couldn’t protect his family like he did to mine. He had information of you and your mother erased, should anything happen, you two would still be safe, but I failed to protect his wife and children. That’s why I stayed away for so long, but two years ago, he was careless on a mission, got shot then died, I had to stay to protect the Black Rose from going into ruins, at least to keep it and Anna safe. They are the only things I have left of him.” He finished his story while in tears and everyone looked at me in pity. I couldn’t believe that this is how the truth really is, all I know is that my mother died when I was nine due to a car accident but the car exploded leaving only her ashes behind, which we buried, the dad left saying he will be gone a while because there are people targeting me, he really can’t be with me. I understood because I knew our family business. He didn’t talk to me at all until two years ago when he introduced me to the organisation and showed me how it worked, I was so happy and thought things are getting better but then I lost him a couple of weeks after and that’s when my world fell apart. But now listening to how things went down, I really can’t take it, so with tears streaming down my face, I ran out of the restaurant and make my way to my car. As I was driving down the road, I saw Mike from the review mirror, chasing the car and shouting for me to stop, but I did not care, I had to get to the only place where I can find peace, so I drove a lot faster.