“Selfish is what you are.” Mr. Zhou huffed a cloud into the air.
“Mr. Zhou, Mr. Yang, you are overwhelming him,” Mr. Chen interrupted. He turned his chair, facing Aiden. “Hui Lang, can I call you Xiao Hui?”
Aiden nodded with tears brimming in his eyes.
“Xiao Hui, this isn’t about you. This is about Infinite. We have built our wealth from scratch, and we deserve to have it continue. I know Americans like to stress on individuality, but this isn’t the way we live. We live always thinking of how to benefit everyone.”
Aiden’s heart sank as Mr. Chen droned on. A hole of despair swallowed him. With every fiber of his being, he forced himself not to shove the chair and run as fast and far away as possible.I don’t want this.Aiden wanted to scream at them. His body teetered against the chair.I’ll go insane if I do this.
“Hui Lang doesn’t understand how Infinite works at all. His brother coddled him and wouldn’t let him know even when Hui Lang asked. I tried to explain to Hui Ye that he was being overprotective, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He resembles his father too much.”
A hand steadied his body not to fall back in his chair. Aiden stared with mouth open as his stepmother stepped forward. “Please be patient with Hui Lang. He will learn, and perhaps, he will be even better than Hui Ye.”
“We don’t have time.” Mr. Zhou tapped the table.
“Then I will take over the businesses. You are okay with that, aren’t you, Hui Lang?” She smiled. “I have been a housewife, yes, but I can do what needs to be done. In the meantime,” without waiting for an answer, she turned back toward the other men, “you can work Hui Lang. Have him learn through experience.”
“Have him work what? He’s useless,” Mr. Zhou scoffed.
“Whatever you want. Whatever you think is necessary for him to learn as I temporarily take his place.”
Whatever protests Aiden had for the situation, he kept them sealed. His acute awareness of his immaturity boiled over onto his face in reddening heat. He lowered his head but felt the eyes of the other men hanging over his neck like daggers. A chill rose through his body at the unworthiness of stepping into his brother’s position and the inherent anger that his brother would even engage in such disgusting acts of business.But I knew. I just chose to avert my eyes.
He needed to listen to his stepmother. These men would kill. They could kill even her and her children for his mistakes.
He swore then and there to obey her every word for the sake of protecting her children, grasping onto the last vestiges of his morality in the black business of the mafia.
Chapter Seven
“Heads up!”
A bag crashed onto Aiden’s chest. Heaving, he leapt up and reached for the nonexistent gun. “River—what in the world?”Did the families decide to kill us? Did I screw everything up?He scanned his surroundings, itching to find anything to use as a weapon.
He Bao smirked, shoving a mountain of boxes to the ground. “You start working today. Don’t do anything stupid. For our sakes.”
The blood roaring in his ears calmed. With a sigh, he dropped to the ground, reached for the bag that fell off of his chest, and opened it to see clothes already prepared for him. Silently, he pulled them out.
He Bao remained in the basement. “You know you can’t run away from this, right?”
Aiden tossed the clothing onto his tiny bed. “I’m not trying to.”
“You sure?”
Aiden sighed.I really don’t have anything down here to protect myself if the other families attack us, do I?A dim lightbulb hung over his bed. The walls were, unsurprisingly, bare wooden boards propping up the rest of the home. The floor was covered in a wasteland of storage boxes. The basement was a landscape of nothing and everything smashed together, and he saw an image of himself drowning in the boxes with no one around to hear.How long will I be down here?However long until he proved himself to Infinite he feared, and upon that shivering notion, his stomach lurched. Swallowing, Aiden began changing. “I’m here, aren’t I?” he murmured.
“Yeah, not by choice. Why do you keep running away from your heritage? You should be proud to be part of Infinite.”
Aiden clenched his teeth. “Are you proud of what we do?”
“Obviously. Anyone with our history would be proud. We came from nothing, and now we’re rich.” He picked up Aiden’s wallet from the floor and tossed it at his head.
Aiden caught it before it landed between his eyes. “You’re proud we kill people? That we manipulate the masses to fill our own pockets?”
“God, the virtue signaling,” He Bao scoffed. “Don’t pretend to be a good guy. You sure didn’t complain when your brother paid for your college with that blood money, did you?”
He could only stare at the floor.
“Or maybe you’ll try to excuse yourself with some bullshit story about how you didn’t know the extent of the bad things we did. Get over it. You knew. You chose not to know is all. Which makes you complicitanda coward. It’s pathetic. So don’t screw up like Hui Ye did. I’m not planning to let you dragmyfamily down. Make sure you last long enough until I’m initiated into Infinite.” He Bao stomped away.
