VIII - Blood Ties
After enjoying their meal, the Dragon reserved an apartment at the top floor of a hotel, one that had an outdoor pool with one of the walls made of glass. After that, he called their driver and asked him to tell the butler to pack their bathing suits for them, as the two enjoyed the dessert. Because he had been holding back from alcohol for years and because the memory of wine tempted him from time to time, the Dragon eventually let himself be talked into ordering one glass of wine. Caterina wasn't old enough for that yet, so she had some ice cream with red fruit.
"Have you told Anastasia where you were going?" the man asked.
"Out, in town. It's not a lie, is it?"
"...That depends."
"We're not leaving Tokyo, so it's not a lie."
"But a vague answer…" he began. "That can be the equivalent of a lie."
"What would you do if I gave you that same answer…?"
"To you? Nothing. Though it would burden me greatly."
"What would you do if someone else gave you that answer?" The girl continued to force her luck, aware of the man's love for her.
He showed her a half-smirk, trying to put a decent answer into words. "They would not dare. But if they did… Well, they would become an example for everyone else to not give me such vague and easy to interpret answers."
Caterina smiled. "I understand. But what if that wasn't an option? What if someone is being disrespectful because they have something you need or know something no one else could tell you, so they're taking advantage of that?"
"In this world, nobody can keep an important secret to themselves, unless they are either amnesic or dead. People confess even in their sleep or in a coma. They talk about it on their death bed, or after too many drinks with 'friends'. There will always be someone who knows the same thing or someone who knows where to find the treasure. People are like that…"
The girl nodded. Immediately after that, his phone received an automatic message that the driver was just 100 meters away from the building in which they were.
"They're here. Let's go." He didn't sound demanding and it was one of the rare occasions he was merely suggesting something. The man seemed more relaxed than usual.
"We should, yes." She took her father's hand and stood up. The Dragon had already paid in advance for what they had just had, perhaps a little more than that.
The man found himself looking at his daughter with a love beyond that of a parent. His eyes went down her skinny back to her small hips as she went into the water first. The girl loved swimming and that was the first thing she did, opening her eyes underwater and watching the trembling lights of Tokyo through the glass wall of the pool. She jumped up and leaned on the edge of the pool, reaching for her ice cold juice and looking up at her father.
He had some scars on him, but they looked too old for the girl to worry about them. One of them looked a little ugly, his right leg being covered in long trembling lines of scar tissue. Besides that, a few round scars from where he had been shot a few times and a few cuts, longer or shorter. The man sat on the edge of the pool and drank some tea, avoiding any thoughts of alcohol he still got more often than he would have liked to admit.
"You wanted to talk…" he said in a calm and almost defeated voice.
"I want to know of your past, so I can understand your present."
"Caterina… I am not someone you would be proud to have as your parent."
"But I am, anyway. I doubt there's something you can tell me that could change that."
The Dragon sighed, sliding into the water and swimming to the other end of the pool so he could look down over the city and avoid her eyes for a few moments.
"I am not Italian, at least not fully… My mother was Chinese, but she abandoned me at the backdoor of a hospital. I could never find her, I'm not even sure if she's alive nowadays," he began. His voice was cold, but Caterina still noticed the sorrow he was trying to hide.
"Were you adopted, then?"
"I was. I stabbed him twenty times because only days before my twentieth birthday, a woman came to our door with a child."
"Why? Did you know her?"
"No… But my adoptive father did. The child looked very much like him. I believed the woman when she claimed my adoptive father was not faithful. She had no reason to lie either. We were poor, he was an alcoholic and had nothing to gain from lying. Your grandmother was a bit old at the time, too. She was fifty-three the last time I saw her. That was twenty years before I met your mother."
"Is she still alive?" the girl asked, swimming over to her father with her eyes at the dragon tattooed on his back.
"She is. I was too ashamed to face her again, but we kept in touch through letters and after she wrote to me her eyes were weakening, I hired a woman to look after her for a few years. She's now at a private facility, with medical assistance, food, running water, clothes, and anything she may need."
"Really? Where is that?" Caterina leaned on the edge of the pool, her arm against his.
"In the south of Sicily." He smiled. Truly, genuinely, peacefully, he allowed himself to smile. "She always wished to see the Mediterranean, but never could afford it. Now she can walk on the shore any time of the day."
"What happened to the other woman? The one with the child."
"She was murdered a few years later." When he saw the look on his daughter's face, he decided to clarify that. "She was a lady of the night, if you understand… She most likely got involved with the wrong men. Like so many others got involved with me around the same time."
"What do you mean?"
"I had a night bar. I'm a self-taught, my adoptive family couldn't support my school for more than four years." The man gestured with his hand over the city and beyond. "Everything you see here, I can buy. And I've worked for this money with my two hands and a fully loaded gun."
"You mean you slaughtered your way to the top."
"Slaughtered, stole, and burned my way to a golden throne. People don't believe in threats anymore, the world today only fears the power of examples. Burn ten families and end their bloodlines, and a continent will bow down to you."
"I don't believe in this."
"Because you're a woman. Or you will be, soon. But you are not as weak as most, you are stronger than any other I've met."
"Padre…" she began, "I have nothing against punishing the traitors and the deceivers, but why go after their families too? What are they blamed of?"
"It's not about blame, my dear. It's about ruling out the risk of revenge. One baby spared can grow up to overpower me and conquer the world. And women, they are weak and annoying. They will try to push the authorities to go after my men and many will eventually go insane. In some cases, death is a gift."
"I still don't believe you."
"I had men working for me who raped. I ordered the execution of their victims, because women who go through pain can either go insane or rise above anything and anyone on their way towards revenge."
"You're afraid…" she mumbled, earning herself a cold glare.
"Caterina…"
"You are! You fear revenge, you are terrified of the thought of losing part or all of what you've built. It's why we are here, in Japan, right? So you can tame a rebellion before it can become a real threat. Is this why there are so many fires all over the country? And on the coast of China, too?"
"My love, it's got nothing to do with fear. I am simply being cautious, like I've been ever since I can remember."
"Is this why you have so many guards looking after me and Anastasia? You fear somebody else might want to hurt us to reach you… don't you?"
The man sighed heavily and laid on his back on the water. The night was chilly, but the pool was heated.
"You say you love me, but it's not that… You love your power, your empire, you love ruling the world from the shadows of many companies that are in fact one. That's it, isn't it?" she spoke in a low, cold voice, glaring at her father with the look of utter betrayal the man remembered from the face of her young mother.
"Caterina…" he sighed as he stood in front of her.
"No more 'Caterina'. You never tell me anything. Are you so afraid of how weak I am? Because I had the chance to be born a woman. Did you want a son? Why didn't you just leave my mother alone then? You could have gotten any other woman to give you a son."
"I never would have left you, my only child, at the mercy of some strangers!"
"But you would have rather had a son. An heir. One to be respected, to continue your business. Look at me and tell me you wished for a girl this whole time-"
Her words chocked her as the man caught her wrist and pulled her closer, splashing warm water on their cold shoulders and chests. She looked up at him, fighting the angry tears threatening to spill from the corners of her eyes. Caterina refused to appear weak at all costs, even if her throat burned with pain from holding back. She watched her father showing emotion for the first time in years. The man looked hurt and angry, and she could only hope he wouldn't let his aggressive nature overpower his judgment.
"…If you want the truth, I never wanted a child..."
Author's Note:
Story proofread by Eat4Fun.
I keep telling you this and I keep waiting. Favorite, follow, review, message me. That means faster updates because I know someone is still reading this. Come on, people! If there's any life in this fandom looking at my story, step out of the shadows.
