Temptation

Chapter 31 - The ceremony

I walk down the long flight of stairs with my arm hooked onto Marcus's arm making sure I don't fucking bust my ass right now, that would be absolutely humiliating.

"Damas y caballeros Todos de pie por favor para presentar la princesa de esta noche, fuerte aplauso para esmeralda Stella santos."

(Translation: Ladies and gentlemen, please stand up  to introduce tonight's princess, loud applause for Esmeralda Stella santos.)

Everyone starts to clap and whistle, God this is so awkward, I look at Marcus for a second and he gives me a subtle smile which make me smile. He's nervous I can tell, who wouldn't be? The most dangerous people in the world are in this room, I'd be fucking scared if I were him.

As we hit to the bottom of the staircase me and Marcus part ways then my uncle leads me to the middle the ballroom to do the traditional dance. it's like a quince in way but instead of going Into womanhood I'm getting ready to receive the crown, to become the leader of the next generation of the santos mafia.

When my uncle is ready to retire he would leave everything to me, this is one hell of an important job. With one wrong move you can start a war that you definitely don't want to start.

My uncle hands me two picture frames of my father and mother, I start to tear up then fall to the ground hard. I haven't seen what they looked like in a really long time, it's like they disappeared from my memories.

My uncle and Marcus goes over to help me up and I wipe away my tears to start slowing dancing with the two pictures of my parents. I wish they were here, I miss them more than ever.

After I dance with the frames, i dance with Jayden then my uncle gives Marcus a signal to give him permission to dance with me. Marcus nods his head and offers me his hand.

I take it and we start to do the waltz, surprisingly he's a good dancer, who knew? I feel him stepping on my dress but at this point I just want to live in the moment.

After all of that dancing, I go around greeting people, there's one in particular that stood out to me, he was like two inches shorter than me. He had black hair, dark brown eyes and kinda looked like me. Weird, I haven't met him yet but from time to time I see him talking to my uncle sometimes looking at me. He pulls us into a private room.

"Esmeralda i want you to meet someone. This is Mateo.... Your brother."

My hand drops from his, the smile on my face just drops. All these things are going crazy inside my head, what the hell is going on?

"What? That's impossible, this has to be some sick joke! M-my brother is dead."

"No he's not, he is standing right in front of you-"

"How do you know he's even my brother? He could just be some con artist, I watched my mother die in front of my eyes. How could he have made if my mother was lifeless on the ground. Wait how long have you known?"

"A week ago, one of my long distant friends were giving him sanctuary. When your mother was found his heart was still beating, then he was born, they didn't tell me because it was dangerous. Once he found out he had a sister, he wanted to meet her. I got his blood tested, he's 100% percent your brother."

"Can I talk to him in private?"

"Of course."

He leaves and my brother gives me a big hug and we both start to cry.

"I'm so sorry about mom and dad, it's all my fault, I-"

"It's not your fault Esmeralda, you couldn't do anything, you were only a little girl. Now I'm so happy that I got to meet you, I heard a lot of good things about you but can I ask you a question?"