Victor de la Cruz

The name Cross came from my family name, De la Cruz, which means 'of the Cross' in Spanish. My grandfather had started this business to make a name for his family in the new country of Anmya that was born from a decade old war. What better way was there to make your family name known than to name your business after it.

Milo always told me my grandfather would be proud of the woman I have become. My grandfather died a few months after I was born. Milo was on his security team before and my grandfather had assigned him to my security detail before he died. Without that one crucial act, I would have grown up the meek little woman that my father wanted me to be. I would be forever grateful to the old man I never knew.

I came from a family of assassins and mercenaries but I also had a grandfather who did what was best for his family and changed the ways of his ancestors. A lot of my family members were against my grandfather's decision to bring our family into light but none of them were strong enough to stand against Victor de la Cruz. I had decided to make a similar decision for our family. I wanted to completely shut down the commercial part of the mercenary business and distance our family from our criminal past by the time Ari grew up. He still won't be able to live a normal life till all the grudges of our family with our enemies faded and then there was Miraj's side of business too. But maybe Ari's kids would have a choice. I wanted my descendants to have a choice that I didn't get.

That is why I had worked so hard on making Cross Security one of the biggest companies in the world, in anything related to security. I hoped that its success and profits were enough to convince my family members to let me do I as I pleased.

I made my way into the building finally and boarded my private elevator. Before I went to my office, I made my way to my Vice President's office. Her secretary let me through and as I entered I saw Siara talking on the phone. She looked at me to check if I was okay with waiting and I told her I'll wait on her couch. I checked my mails on my phone while I waited. But my thoughts wandered back to my family.

My grandfather had decided that every Cross would work for the family once they turned eighteen but we were all trained to fight ever since we were five. My father had changed the way of his father when he made women an exception to this tradition. I was lucky enough to have people supporting me in the dark and showing me the way to defeat my father.

I had reinstated the old ways by making sure every Cross was offered a post at one of the subsidiaries according to their interests and qualifications, regardless of gender. They would all make their way up if they wanted to, in a fair way.

The twenty years under my father's rule had made most men in the family ambitious and most women resentful. I had been cleaning up my father's mess all this time and strengthening the foundations of our family. I could only hope it worked and my family was happy with the things I had offered them. The ones who showed their dissatisfaction early on were already dealt with so as to stop them from influencing the others.

Siara finally ended the call and said to me, "Hey! Good Morning! Sorry about that I was talking Mr.Garcia about the meeting in London next week."

"No problem. Actually about the London meeting, I am going. You have to stay back."

"But I thought you wanted me to go because you wanted to stay with Ari. You told me you need to make sure he is fine after the last kidnapping attempt. So what changed?"

"Nothing changed. It's an important deal. We'll be acquiring that company soon and it's good to go meet the staff that will be working for us."

"Eli, we have done this too many times for me to know you don't care about this deal enough to leave Ari behind."

"I am not leaving Ari. I'll take him with me."

I got up from the couch and walked to her office door as I said, "Please send over all the documents pertaining to this deal to my office. And Siara, let's have lunch together. It's been a long time since we did something together. I need some girl time."

Siara just nodded her confused head and then I left.