Secrets Of A Shadow

Chapter 3

"When are you leaving for Las Vegas mi hijo?" Mamita asked me from across the round table.

I finished swallowing the food in my mouth and wiped my mouth with a napkin before replying, "In the morning."

I watched as her face turned sad and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Alessia pouting beside me. Apart from the two unhappy women, my father was unfazed by my early departure. I guessed it was because he was used to me always leaving soon whenever I visited, but my mother and younger sister always had hope I'd stay with them longer. Women and hope were like best friends.

We were at the patio, having lunch while enjoying the California sunshine and the view of the breathtaking gardens, the pool and tennis court. Not only did the terrace overlook the garden, we also had a view of the sea beyond.

My parents lived in a Spanish Colonial mansion located in Bel Air. The house was
completely private and secluded from the street behind iron gates. They moved us from Oakland, my birth place, to Los Angeles when I was fifteen. I didn't spend much of my teenage years in the house, as I moved out when I was nineteen. My brothers followed a few years later and now it was only Alessia who lived with them.

"Can't you stay a while longer?" Alessia asked in a hopeful tone.

I turned to face her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "I can't Lexy. There's a big event happening at the hotel in two days. I have to be present to make sure everything goes well."

Big events happened at my hotel all the time and they were in the form of people spending lots of their money and making me richer. The big event I was talking about had nothing to do with the hotel, but a coke shipment that would be arriving on Sunday. I was a high-level drug dealer, I started selling cocaine when I was eighteen.

Growing up I was rebellious and restless, always fighting at school and getting into any trouble I could. Some said I was 'troubled', but I was just a wild kid who sought adventure and hated being ordinary. One day, I got into a big fight at school and to teach me a lesson, the principal sent me to juvie.

My mother had been terrified and didn't want me to go, but my father agreed with the principal. They thought that sending me there would help me come back to my senses. That's where I met a kid my age by the name of Reed Davidson, we bonded for the two weeks we spent in the same cell.

Reed got me interested in selling coke and now ten years later, we were best friends and business partners. We ran coke in parts of Vegas and LA and used the hotel as our laundering business.

My family had no idea that I sold cocaine, to them the hotel had just been another rebellious act. After I dropped out of college, my mother gave me some cash to start a business of my own. Reed and I added the cash to the one we already had from selling coke and opened a small casino that later down the years had turned into a five star resort, casino and hotel; The Millennium.

We believed that millennium was the period of universal happiness, peace and prosperity; a utopia. That was why we named our resort The Millennium, it was a place where one could find happiness, peace and prosperity.

"If you really have to go..." Mamita sighed.

I met her warm eyes.

Antonia D'Alessandro was a kind and giving woman whose primary concern was taking care of others, both physically and emotionally at the expense of her own well-being.

She didn't only have a beautiful soul, but also possessed graceful beauty. She had long caramel brown hair that was silky straight and currently in a mid-parted hairstyle. Her olive skin was wrinkle free and didn't look forty-nine.

My gaze shifted to my father, who was silently eating his food.

The relationship between my father and I wasn't like the normal relationship a father and son should have. We were formal with each other and far from being close or friends. My father didn't approve of how I lived my life, to him being a hotel owner wasn't a profession. It didn't help that I'd turned out a billionaire, he wanted me to be like my two brothers, who both had degrees and were hard workers.

In my father's eyes, I was the black sheep of the family, it didn't bother me though, I loved the way my life was wild, fast-paced and the rush I got from it. I was addicted to the crazy life style and I was never going back to no basic shit.

There was a light tap on my arm, I shifted my body so that I was facing Lexy.

Satisfied that she had my attention, she asked, "How do you like the food hermano?"

"The paella de marisco is exquisite." I praised with a smile.

She grinned. "Wait 'til you taste my vanilla flan. TBH it beats mamita's."

Mom laughed.

"I wouldn't be so sure, mamita does make a mean vanilla flan." I mused.

"OMG, no way!" She shook her head, "Mine's so extra."

Thick dark brown hair gently hanged over a round, cheerful, baby face. Dancing, dark brown eyes set delicately within their sockets, met mine in a challenge. Lexy was just as beautiful as her mother, in fact she looked like the younger version of mamita.

"I'm dying to taste it." I told her.

"Let's not keep you waiting." She shot up from her seat and began clearing up the table.

Mom and I looked at each other, a smile played at her lips. She knew her daughter was something else.

I stood up. "I'll help."

Out in the real world I was J.D, the tough and heartless drug dealer - a real motherfucker and nobody fucked with me, but when I was with my family I was an entirely different person. I was Venanzio, sweet and loving, the calmer version of myself. I could say that I lived two lives, lives that I wouldn't trade or change for anything.

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A/N: And that's chapter 3, what do you think of James Dean? There's so much of him to reveal so stay tuned. Don't forget to vote, comment and share. I'll really appreciate it.

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