Joy And Pain [COMPLETED]

Preview: Echos of Betrayal

How it all began...

"So you tellin me that you want to propose to her? To get married?" Damon asked looking directly at his son.

Andre stood with a serious face as he nodded to his father.

His father did not like the idea, but it was obvious his mother was elated by the look on her face.

"I think that after two years of dating and then finding out that its the someone to spend the rest of your life with is a beautiful thing." Madeline encouraged.

Damon loved his wife, but she could be vain, and he knew it.

He knew she loved the idea that their son's girlfriend was pretty, tall, modelesque even and mixed just like her. That wasn't the reason Damon had fallen for his wife, but over the years, the small ugly things about her seemed to make her less pretty but he still accepted the,. Madeline was a debutante and beauty queen, she was well known for her pretty face and tall and slim stature. It didn't surprise him that she wanted their son to end up with someone like her.

"After a year of dating." Damon said, reminding everyone that Andre kept his relationship a secret, but that was his preference.

His family wasn't the easiest to deal with, and the last thing he wanted was for the love of his life to get caught in the storm of whatever was going on in or because of his family.

Andre had learned on his 20th birthday he was destined to take over the family empire. That was after the death of his older two brothers, one of whom shared a different mom. He didn't even take what he learned seriously, that was until all the self-defense classes he learned when he was younger came in handy, and he had to fight for his life.

That's how it had been since his sophomore year of college, fighting, surviving, and killing when necessary.

Andre, aka Dre, was about to graduate but not without its feats and losses.

Even so, he was walking out a legit businessman with a degree and the love of his life in his arms.

"Dad, it was two. I told you I kept it a secret, and now I'm not. I want to marry her. I want to grow old with her." He said, and his mother looked at him with admiration.

"Grow old with her? She doesn't even know who you really are. What you've been through. Hell what you'll go through. Do you think she's just going to jump for joy knowing what you'll really be doing?" Damon said, standing up.

"What if I don't want to ?" Andre said, and his father scoffed.

"It's not about what you want. It's who you are." He reminded him.

"After this drop, I'm done." Andre said before storming off.

Damon was going to go after him, but Madeline shook her head.

She knew the two would bash heads a lot, simply because out of all his sons, they were the most alike.

"Let him go." Madeline said, pulling Damon back to the dinner table.

Andre continued to storm off.

He was now 22 and a boss in his own right.

Andre busted his ass going to class Monday through Friday and even played on the basketball team. The thing as his nights were filled with money counts and moving his father's product. He was introduced to the nice side of things growing up, he never knew how he got them, but now he was completely in a war zone finding out the whispers he heard was true.

Damon had made many friends, but as many friends he made, he made nearly the same amount of enemies. He had shot down all the small local spots, and he was taking over the nation a city at a time. Damon had always opted not to do business close to home but with more money and more territory, he had.