Chapter 3

"Our world is based on traditions which we can't break. The rules are still the same, Liam. If you want my chair then you have to get married."

Liam Knight clenched and unclenched his hand on the paperweight trying to control the rage busting inside him while listening to his father, the current Don of Vancouver crime family.

His hands itched, to kill someone, anyone, His anger was perking up with every word his father was saying. If it had been anyone else instead of him, Liam would have killed him by using the same paperweight he was clutching to calm his rage. But he reminded himself that the man was his boss and father. Liam knight might be a twisted man but even he had certain limits. He respected the man sitting in front of him, he was his father after all. It's just that he didn't like what his father was suggesting.

"You will turn thirty this year. Time is slipping Liam. Find the girl or let me find one for you?"

Liam eyed his father. "You found one for yourself, she ended up six feet under the ground, I think I will pass on that offer."

Ryan only chuckled, a glint came to his eyes. "Jealous that you couldn't say goodbye to your mama one last time."

Liam only raised a brow. As if it mattered to the man who killed his wife brutally. Liam understood it, clearly. The woman deserved to die, no one could remain alive when you fed information to cops. She wanted to run away from them, from this life, but she forgot the rule that you enter this world alive and you exit it only when you are dead. Liam understood it better than his brother, Ralph. Because it was Liam who for the first time saw sadness on his father's face. That drunken night he told Liam that she was cheating on him. In the end, She got what she deserved. Death! By the hands of her husband.

Liam learnt an important lesson that day which was: that stupid emotion can turn a strong man into a fool, he decided then, that he would never love anyone.

Ryan laughed hearing Liam. Liam was not fooled by his father's joyous laughter, he could see that the man was still not over it. His wife still lives in his mind rent-free even after eighteen years of her death. Why else would he not have married another woman? Simple, he couldn't give her place to anyone else.

Even dead, the woman still plays with his mind.

"I have something for you," Ryan said.

Liam frowned, his fingers drumming the black mahogany desk, waiting for his father to proceed. He then placed some pictures on the desk, in front of Liam.

Liam's eyes stopped on the pictures of a girl, a beautiful girl with blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, sharp cheek and that luscious curvy figure of her. The girl was pure perfection. Liam could feel the blood rushing into his male part.

Liam knight desired her, he could feel himself drowning in her warmth.

Ryan gave him another crooked smile." calm your di*k, son, she is not that easy to get! Don't you want to know who she is?" He asked, gesturing at the pictures.

"The only thing I know is that she is going to be my new mistress…" Liam said, darkly. His eyes fixed on those pouty lips. He could imagine himself in her mouth.

"She won't be your mistress but your wife, Liam. You have to marry her to get into her pants."

Ever so slowly, Liam raised his eyes and settled them on his father's face

He leaned forward, "I won't marry only to f**k a girl…"

"I wish there was another way son but you see, this girl is Ethan King's daughter. Aurora Kings and the only way you can control Ethan and his territory. You are lucky that she is pretty to look at, she could be an ugly duckling." Ryan jabbed. He could see the wheels running in his son's mind.

Ethan king's daughter. Liam knew what that meant. She was off-limits. Her father was a cruel man. It's not like Liam feared him, oh, not at all, he just respected the man as one should be respected in the mafia world. He was also aware of Ethan's influences and power. He was someone who could not be taken lightly but the main reason was sitting in front of him. His father considered Ethan his friend.

"There is another way to rule the territory…" Liam still jibed, just to see his father's reaction. Liam was not against friendly relations. He too had it with the brother of his biggest rival but he was against it when it started hurting business. His friendship was helping his business with a status quo with Russian pakhan.

The smile on Ryan's face vanished. "Don't even think about it. He is a friend, there are things you don't know and I want them to remain that way." Ryan sighed, calming his beastly anger.

"I know you want to rule the mafia world, for that you need to win the heart of it. Why spill blood when you can win it with a girl. This is your chance, Ethan had no better choice than you. He would agree to the alliance, I am sure of it. Make your decisions calmly, son because your time is running away," Saying that Ryan left.

Liam gritted his jaw. Time was certainly running away. Getting married was never in his mind but now the only thing that stood between him and that don's chair was his marriage.

He picked the picture of that blonde temptress, his eyes sharpened as they took in every single detail of her body. That curvy body, that's exactly how he liked his woman. His feral body was throbbing with need, need to claim the temptress.

The girl was the wet dream of every teenager.

He put the picture back on the desk when a knock sounded on his door.

"Enter," he ordered, his brother Ralph entered with a fuck-off look on his face. Liam's mind stiffened. Again, the bad news as if it would ever end. He was losing shipments in the west, the masked man was testing his patience.

He waited for his brother to recite the reason for being in a spoiled mood and then his hands twitched. They twitched for violence.

"Who denied the access?" Liam knight asked his brother Ralph once again even though he never did that, asking the same question twice.

"Who other than Ethan King? This is the third time he denied access to our shipment, Liam. He wants us to pay him fifty per cent of our profit to import dr**s in his territory," Ralph muttered.

Liam fisted the paperweight in his hand. Tightly, so tightly that his knuckles turned white and why not when he was seething in a hot raging fury. He needed to calm down because Ethan king was not someone who could be dealt with lightly but he couldn't let him take Liam lightly.

If it was anyone else instead of Ethan he would have gone to that ba**ard's territory and killed that man for denying Liam knight but no, Ethan was not someone else. He was the strongest man in Churchill, the man who even at the age of fifty, still ruled over his territory like a king. His name certainly justifies his character. He was truly the King of Churchill and he ruled like one.

But Ethan forgot one thing that in every story the knight has the power to overthrow the king. So, better one must not mess with the knight and certainly not with Liam knight.

"If he is asking for war then who am I to deny it to him? He denied the access when I gave that man the respect he deserves but now I will give him what he wants!" Liam chuckled as his one lip tugged upward.

Liam would himself go to Churchill and deliver the drug, personally. Now the question arises why would he go there himself when he had hundreds of people under him to do the deed.

The answer was simple. To prove his point, he would go into Ethan's territory to warn the man that his actions would lead him to trouble. The trouble with the Vancouver crime family of which Liam is going to be the next king. Second, he still respects his father enough to give his friend one last chance to stop the war. But there was another thing, Liam knight was interested in Ethan's most precious thing.

His daughter, Aurora King!

On the other hand, Aurora was trying to sketch her new design for the next Jewellery catalogue but her mind was not into it.

All she could see was Gabriel's face and hear his words.

Was I a rich snob? The question kept running through her mind.

She Put her pencil and sketchbook with a thud, stood up, wore her flip flops and went to the other side of the house where her father lives.

It took her seven minutes to reach her father's portion of the house. It was practically seven in the evening and her father had yet to come home. She knocked on the door, her housekeeper and used to be nanny, Mrs Dolan, opened the door with her warm smile.

"Aurora! What a pleasant surprise, my darling. Come in, dear." She said in her soft voice.

She walked inside, her lip wobbling

She wanted to cry badly. "Mrs Dolan…" she whispered.

"Jesus! What happened to you Aurora? Why are you crying?" She asked, shocked seeing Aurora's crying face.

Aurora gulped. "It's nothing Mrs Dolan, I am just missing mom."

Her brows pulled together thin lines formed at the corner of her eyes. She looked at Aurora sharply, "Stop lying to me, Aurora Kings and tell me what the matter is?"

Aurora loves Mrs Dolan. She was the mother figure after her mother died. Even her father fears her sometimes. She still remembered the day of her twelfth birthday. It was her first birthday after her mother's death. She was missing her but Mrs Dolan prepared everything like her mother used to do. She told her that her mom was always with her in her heart. She died in this materialistic world but she was alive in her memories.

Aurora accepted the reality of her mother being dead that day. Mrs Dolan called all Aurora's friends from school to celebrate her birthday but she was still lonely because her father was busy at work. After her mother died, he was forever busy. But Aurora was always this stubborn. She refused to cut the cake till her father came back.

All her friends left waiting, Aurora cried and slept without cutting her birthday cake and the next day when her father came from work Mrs Dolan was making breakfast, he asked her about Aurora and the woman threw a spatula at her father in anger.

It hit him on the shoulder leaving him dumbfounded by her actions.

She started scolding but when she told him how Aurora slept crying for him, her father apologised to her and spent the whole week with her just like they used to when her mother was alive.

"Speak, Aurora!" Mrs Dolan's sharp voice penetrated her mind bringing her back from the memory lane she went through.

Aurora sat down on the sofa and told her what happened. "He called you a snob?

" A rich Snob, Mrs Dolan." Aurora sighed and raised her eyes, "Do you think I am a rich snob?" She asked, scrunching her nose in question.

"Well, I won't say anything about it. You need to ask yourself this question, Aurora. Do you think what you did was wrong?" She asked, crossing her hands to her chest and raising her brows.

Aurora looked down with an angry pout. "Now, come in the kitchen and help me with the dessert, your dad will be home in ten minutes."

Aurora was whipping the cream for the cake but all she could see was his face. "Aurora kings, come out of your La-La land right now!"

She gasped when felt a sting on her hand. "Mrs Dolan!!" She cried and rubbed her hand where she had hit Aurora.

"Stop ruining my dessert and go to your dad, he just arrived. That man didn't drink water without seeing your face."

Aurora sighed and walked out of the kitchen in search of her dad. She found him in his study, talking to someone over the phone. "Dad…" Aurora called him.

He raised his eyes and looked at her.

"Love," he walked towards her, apprehension was clear on his face. "Come inside."

Aurora went and hugged him. "Is there any issue? You look distressed about something and Mrs Dolan also said that something happened?" He asked, patting the place beside him on the leather sofa.

Aurora sat beside him and put my head on his shoulder. "Dad, I don't feel good today."

He touched her chin in affection. "Why? What happened, Love? "

Her father asked, hugging from the side. "I went to this restaurant and bumped into a man. No, he bumped into me! I scolded him and asked him to apologise to me. He didn't, on the contrary, he scolded me and told me that I am a rich snoot. I don't respect people around me…"

Ethan chuckled. "Dad," she raised her head and looked at him shocked. "You are laughing, this is a serious issue!"

"Well, he was not wrong. I spoiled you too much," Ethan said, touching her nose lovingly. His daughter was too pure for his dark world. Even small things affect her badly.

Aurora's mouth hung open. "Dad…"

"Aurora, You are lovely but sometimes you behave like a brat." He patted her back. "If you feel this bad about this incident then go and apologise to him. That's all you can do."

Aurora thinned her lips. Everyone was indirectly telling her that it was her fault and the man was right. "Okay, now stand up and let's have dinner." He called Mrs Dolan and asked for dinner in the study.

Her father served her dinner by himself. "Here…" he said, offering her a piece of tofu. Aurora's eyes went to his knuckles.

"Dad, what happened to your hand? It's bruised." She was worried about the condition of his hand. She remembers how her mother was always worried about him when he used to go out for business and the course didn't change after her death except for one thing, now it's her who was always worried about him.

In Aurora's eyes, her dad had always been a perfectionist. He didn't like making mistakes and hated when someone else made them. The bruised hand was just a minor reflection of his anger.

"Dad, it looks as if you have punched someone in the face."

She said touching his hand, winced when she saw how badly his hand was bruised.

Ethan stiffened under her hold and snatched his hand away. "It's nothing, I bumped my hand on the table in anger, a meeting went wrong."

"Dad, please try to control your anger," she said, pinching her lips in a thin line "Let me bandage it."

He shook his head. "No, I will do it, you go and sleep."

"Okay. Goodnight then." Aurora kissed his head and walked out of the study and walked back to her part of the home.

Laying on the bed she closed her eyes and decided that tomorrow she will go back to that restaurant and apologise to him.

"Yes! I will do that," deciding that Aurora closed her eyes to sleep but her thoughts lingered on one man, only.

Gabriel!

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