Chapter 453 - Four Hundred And Fifty-three: The Successor
The third point of view:
Emerald turned and tossed all night, he couldn't sleep. He glanced at the wall clock and fuck! Neither was time going any quicker as well; it was two in the morning. Shit, how long was he going to remain like this?
His gaze rested on the women snuggled up to him and a special kind of peace washed over him. This was what he wanted; a family he could go out and return to every day; a woman he could call his own; a child he couldn't wait to meet eight months from now.
In fact, with Cecil's approval, they had asked the ultrasound technician not to reveal the sex of their baby. They wanted to guess the sex of their child by themselves, it was fun and a challenge as well.
Emerald had guessed the baby to be a boy else the child wouldn't disturb Cecil this much, but then, Cecil wanted a girl child - the testosterone around the house was suffocating her. She needed a cute little angel that would bring warmth into their little family - melting everyone's heart with her cuteness.
A smile crossed his face and he propped up on his arms, beginning to run his hand through her blonde locks. He didn't need all the money in the world to be happy, Emerald was contented as he was.
"Why are you still awake?" Cecil startled him the instant she opened her eyes.
"You're not asleep?" he was honestly surprised.
"How can I sleep with you turning and tossing," Cecil sighed, "In one word, you're too large to be ignored," she gestured to the dip on the bed Emerald created currently as he turned to face her.
"Sorry," He apologized.
"What's bothering you?"
"Nothing," He said too quickly which means that it was a lie.
Cecil smirked, "Really?"
"Fine," He gave in, "I have something to tell you,"
"Well, that makes it two of us since I have something to tell you as well,"
His eyes shone, "You do?"
"Yep, but you should go on. Men first this time," Cecil gestured to him comically.
"Well," Emerald took a deep breath, this was it. He had to say it out. It was now or never, nor could he afford to hide it from her. If there was anything he'd learned from Sakuzi - who's become a love specialist lately - it's to never build your marriage on lies and secrets.
"I know," Emerald began, "I promised you that I was going to leave the gang to build our family, you know, be a good father and protect my family from the danger that surrounds my line of work. To be truthful, I tried my best Cecil, but then, fate always seemed to have our lives planned for us…" He licked his lips before he went ahead to reveal,
"Sakuzi wants me to be his successor,"
After he disclosed that, Emerald held his breath. Yes, he knows Cecil loves him, but she wasn't a fan of violence and there was nothing he could do about it. He loved her and sometimes love involves sacrificing something for the betterment of one's relationship - just as he was sacrificing his root.
Emerald expected Cecil to be disappointed and burst out at him, but to his shock, she said calmly, "I know,"
"What?" His ears must be deceiving him.
"Sakuzi told me all about the offer,"
"He did?" His expression must be funny right now - Emerald imagined his jaw dropping to the ground.
"Yes, he told me at the party that day,"
"That sly fucking old man!" Emerald intentionally didn't curse out loud. He heard that even kids in the womb could pick up on things people said, he wouldn't want his child to pick his foul mouth. But then, he was sure Sakuzi must be having a good laugh at him wherever he was.
"And what do you say to that?" Emerald asked cautiously knowing her answer held his future.
"Does it make you happy?"
"What?"
"Your job as a mafia lord, would you be happy doing it?" Cecil asked, staring him in the eyes. She needed the truth from him.
"Honestly, I don't know,"
"What?"
"At first, I went into this business because I wanted to eat - my parents choose to sell me for a bag of flour,"
Cecil felt her throat constrict and her hand went to his arm, rubbing it affectionately and as well, urging him to continue. She has been with Emerald for a few months now but this was the first time he was opening to her on a deeper level like this. He had never told her about his parents and Cecil did not force him either, hoping he would open up on his own especially now they were about to get married.
"At first, I despised them, no, I hated them. Out of all of my siblings, why was I the only one being sold? Of course, it was obvious because I was me. With my height, my metabolism needed more food than your average human which they couldn't manage. My parents were the poorest of poor that even the poor proudly called us poor.
"So when for making me work for Sakuzi wasn't sufficient, they sold me to him. And trust Sakuzi - he's a shrewd businessman - the man bought me after knowing at one glance that I was going to be useful to him. Shortly after that, we left my village and I have never returned there to date.
"At that time, I disliked Sakuzi for taking me away from my family - even though I knew inwardly I would have starved from hunger if he hadn't done that. But then, that dislike turned to gratitude to him, he fed me quite well and gave me the commodity I needed to live with. Living in the gang then wasn't easy, it was competitive - I wasn't the only kid that had been bought as well,"
However, Emerald added when he saw the way Cecil distorted in disapproval, "Mind you, Sakuzi doesn't deal in human trafficking. We might be outlaws but we have our own moral code," He cleared the misunderstanding.
Emerald went on, "To save the kids from dying or going into uncharted waters, Sakuzi would rather put them to work - not that his work was honorable - but then, we had food to eat, a roof over our head. And so, a group of strangers was merged to become family.
"What am I trying to say? I had numerous times tried to imagine how it would be to live normally? But until recently, I realized I'm not normal and would never be. I'm a seven feet plus giant people stare at any time I'm out; I'm a gangster and an assassin and even your normal society isn't even normal anymore. The Sakuzi Clan and the Falcon Gang are all I ever know. Here, I have roots, annals, family, plus the ability to protect the ones I love and who are precious to me. What more could I ask for?"
For a moment, silence reigned as his words sank into Cecil's head.
"Then you should take it,"
"What?"
"The position of course, duh," she rolled her eyes.
"Cecil, you don't have to force yourself?-" his words were silenced when Cecil placed her finger against his lips.
"Listen to me, Emerald," She told him, "It was wrong and selfish of me to ask you to quit,"
"No-"
"Listen to me for once, big man!" She silenced him again, "Just as you said, this is not just a job to you, they're your family and the only thing you had growing up, and as someone who's also living her own dream - her job - it's unfair to try to take away your happiness. So go ahead and do what makes you happy, be the successor Sakuzi wants you to be, "
"Really? "
"Yeah, really," Still she added, "But on one condition,"
Oh boy, he should have known.
"What is it?"
"You keep our family from the violence. The fact that my baby boy Pedro could handle a gun still shocks me. So we have a deal or not?" was her condition.
"Deal," Emerald agreed.
Although he would have to hide the secret about guns being in diverse areas of their cars for now. Nor does Cecil know that as far as he becomes the successor, they're inevitably exposed to the life of violence - whether she wants it or not. Well, he'd reduce their amount of exposure and keep them safe at all costs. He was sure she would get used to everything with time.
"Although there's a catch to me being Sakuzi's successor," He revealed to her now
"What now?" Cecil groaned. She honestly wanted to get asleep.
"I might have to change my surname to Sakuzi's, you sure you don't have a problem with that since you'd be taking my surname as well,"
"Cool, as far as I have a share of their inheritance," She joked.
"You don't have to worry about that, I have some properties I gathered over the years, if you want them, I'll have it moved to your name,"
"What? No! I have a lot of my own properties I want off my hands as well," She had not spent the past years doing anything else she wouldn't have raised Pedro comfortably.
"By the way, you said you had something for me," Emerald reminded her.
"Well," Cecil sat up excitedly, "Emily heard we'd be getting married and since they'd be doing the same as well, we suggested having it together in Lincolnshire just like Reina and Camille did,"
"Oh, that, Judy told me already," Emerald revealed and her enthusiasm died off immediately.
"Seriously? You agreed to it already?"
"Nope, I was waiting to break the news to you, my darling," He said, pushing her back to the bed.
"Hey! Get off me!" She giggled as he wrapped his hands around her Cecil felt so little.
"Go to bed," Emerald kissed her on the neck as she snuggled into him with a contented smile.
Together, both couples went to bed, sleeping soundly until Cecil was awoken sometime in the morning by a phone call.
"What?" She groaned into the phone, still sleepy. Emerald must have woken up since his side of the bed was empty, not that she could blame him - he was an early riser.
"Cecil, check the news," came Emily's voice
"News?" She muttered groggily yet ended the call and entered her phone's browser.
That was where she saw it. No way.
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