The Chosen Son

Chapter 1

I met her for the first time when I was six years old. My parents took me to a park to meet up with some friends of theirs. The playground had two other children playing on it. There was an older boy, close to my age and a younger girl with golden blonde hair. She was crying as the boy stood in front of her laughing, taunting her with a doll. My parents and their friends weren't paying attention to me, so I took off running to where the two kids were. I was ticked off at the little boy for teasing her.

When I reached them the boy was still laughing. He was a few inches shorter than me and had a squeaky laugh that really bothered me. I shoved him hard, and he stumbled back and yelped , falling down. I quickly bent down, picking up the doll he dropped and brushed off the doll turning to look at the little girl who still had tears falling softly down her cheeks. She seemed slightly scared of me, so I just reached with the doll but made no move toward her. She snatched it out of my hands quickly, hugging it to her chest. Suddenly, I felt hands on my back push me forward and almost lost my balance, almost falling on top of the little girl. She moved quickly out of the way. I turned to see the small boy glaring angrily and fuming over my actions.

"Why did you push me, you stupid head!" The boy shouted at me.

"You were making her cry," I replied rather proudly, folding my arms as I stepped closer to him to show I wasn't afraid of him.

"She's a stupid girl," the boy said. I couldn't stop myself. Anger got the best of me and I punched him hard in the center of his petulant face.

He fell to the ground and started to cry. Blood trickled from his nose, and my hand was throbbing. He quickly got up and ran away toward the house that was across the street from the park. I don't know why I acted that way, I just hated the idea of any girl being hurt like that or any other way, especially when he was picking on someone so much smaller than him. The sound of sniffing brought me out of my thoughts and I remembered the little girl was behind me. She was still crying, but not as bad as she was when I first came over to the playground. I took a step closer to her. She clenched the tattered doll tighter to her chest, and I remembered not liking the look of fear on her face. I had returned her doll, did she really think I was going to take it away again? I kicked at the sand under my feet trying thinking of something to say when I noticed she had a scrape on her knee.

"Does your knee hurt?" I asked looking at her scraped knee.

"Uh huh," she said in a small soft voice, and it gave me the courage to look up at the small girl. She had bright blue eyes that were puffy and red from all the crying, but in a way I could see she was pretty if she wasn't upset. I knew my mother would tell me she was beautiful, she was always doing that in front of every girl I talked to, trying to embarrass me.

"My mom has some band ­aids, do you want me to get one for you?" she nodded her head and when I looked over to where my parents were, It shocked me to see they were staring intently at us as were their friends, they must have seen the incident.

I was afraid that my father would be angry at my actions, that I could have disappointed and embarrassed him in front of his friends. I looked up to my father ,and wanted nothing more than to please him and make him proud. I felt a small gentle, soft hand wrap around my hand and I was shocked to see the little girl holding my hand walking toward where my parents stood. I looked at my mother as we approached and she and the women beside her were both smiling. I stopped a few feet away and the little girl followed my action.

"Mama, she hurt her knee and needs a band aid " I said as we both came closer.

"Jane, what happened to your knee?" The other women said as my mother pulled out wipes and band aids.

"That other boy was mean to me, he pushed me and I fell," Jane said as tears started to fall from her eyes again.

"Okay will take you to the restroom and clean you up" The women said as she picked up Jane and started walking away with my mother beside her.

I stood there a little confused about what had just happened, and tried to figure out if they were her parents. I looked over at my father and the other man stood with a hard expression on their faces. I couldn't tell if I was going to get in trouble or not, but I didn't see why I would ,I helped the little girl.

"It's nice to meet you sir" I said as I shook his hand.

"I saw what you did for my daughter, you protected and took care of her, why is that?" he said giving me a questioning look.

"My father always told me to treat girls like you would treat your mother, I wouldn't treat my mother that way and I don't like seeing a little girl cry," I said as he nodded and smiled at me.

"You raise a fine young man here Gino, he will do well in our family," Dante praised.

"Thank you" my father said as he sent a small wink to me and I relaxed a little knowing I wasn't in trouble.

"River how would you like, to come work for me when you are old enough?" Dante asked kneeling down to my level. I glanced at my father who gave me a small smile in reassurance.

"I would like that very much sir," I said and he smiled as he offered his hand to my father.

"We'll talk tomorrow about getting him into a proper school," As he said that he walked away toward the restroom where my mother was coming back from.

My father became more unpredictable as I followed him to our car once my mother approached us he whispered something into her ear. He was driving us home when we stopped and he bought my favorite dinner that I only ever got on my birthday. When I asked why we got this, I remember his words perfectly clear to this very day,

"River, you made me proud and brought great honor to our family today."

I cherished that feeling I had in my darkest hour of the next 14 years because what I thought was good put me through a long tough journey that many could not handle. My father sent me to a school where I was trained in fighting, educated in general practices of this new lifestyle, and learned its history, but I strive and worked harder than I ever had, so I could be the best of the best. I wanted to and needed to be the best because I eventually found out that Dante the man I met in the park was one of five of the most powerful Mobster in the world and he had chosen me. I wouldn't let him or my father down, so I worked to be the best I could, with other children that had been born into this life. Some had higher power and were born into power ,they didn't work as hard because of it.I worked to be the best and when my schooling was done I was the number one student and had the highest degree in fighting in every field I could.