Chapter 7

"What situation could it be dad that I have to sacrifice my freedom of marrying someone of my choice, uhunnn" she cried out. "I really don't like seeing my princess like this I wish I had another option", Andrew thought.

"They are coming sir" Maria notified and Andrew looked up at her and said "Okay you and the others can all retire for the night then". "Alright sir good night", Maria said and left.

"Mom,dad what's wrong" Julius asked when he got downstairs

"Baby why are you crying, weren't you watching your favorite TV show a while ago" Justin asked and sat beside Alicia.

"Brother please tell mom and dad not to get me married i don't want to, I am not ready", Alicia cried into her brother's chest.

"Alicia we know you are sad but can you hear us out first" Julie said to Alicia.

"Mom, dad I thought you guys went to call off the alliance so what's this" Julius asked wiping his sisters tears. "We couldn't reject the alliance Julius, in fact we didn't tell them about Alicia's refusal" Julie said and the three children looked at her in shock.

"Let me tell you all a story once you have heard it you can tell us what you would have done if you were in our shoes", Andrew said.

"The story is dated around eighty years ago. Its about my Grandfather Lewis James, back then Lewis James was America's biggest gangster he was also the head of the American Largest Syndicate and also the leader of the American and Asian underworld he had a very versatile network in the underworld and everyone knew him as "The devil". Andrew looked at his three children making sure he had there attention before he continued

"He was an extremely wicked and evil man people called him a psychopath and a maniac because his favorite hobby was killing and torturing people, human lives meant nothing to him, he was involved in every single illegal act you could think of. My grandmother didnt know the kind of work he did before she married him because he had told her he ran a small business and she believed him. My grandmother was a simple girl from the countryside, she was an orphan who moved to the city after her parents passed and she fed her self by doing small jobs".

"She had met my grandfather while working as a waitress in a hotel he frequently visited and she fell in love with him, he courted her for two months before they got married. After they got married she found out she couldn't go anywhere without an array of bodyguards following her around when she asked him why so many guards had to accompany her, he told her it was for protection but he never told her why she needed it".

"Six months after marraige she found out the kind of work he did and she was disheartened, she tried to persuade him to stop but he wouldn't listen and at a point he completely stopped her from going anywhere. When she couldn't take it anymore she tried to run away from him a lot of times and she had even succeeded once but he still found her. After her last attempt of trying to run away she found out she was pregnant and she begged him to stop his work because of their unborn child but he refused and being the maniac he was he promised to hand over his business to his child whether it was a he or a she".

"My grandmother then realized there was no redemption for the man she had married, in order not to let her child get involved with her husband cruel and vile life she planned to run away again but after she had put to bed since he put her during huge surveillance during the pregnancy. Two months after she gave birth to her son she planned her escape again but she knew she could never do that on her own so she exposed some of my grandfather's secrets that she knew about to his rivals in exchange of helping her escape from him unscathed".

"Those people agreed and after they got what they wanted from her, they kept their word and helped her change her identity and leave the city as they had promised. My grandmother came to California from Connecticut and she hid in an orphanage until she accidentally met the Collins family after she saved the old madam of the Collins family from an accident that could have taken her life".

"In order to repay her kindness the Collins family took her in along with my three months old father, she didn't want to take advantage of their kindness and live with them without paying or doing anything so they made her the old madam's personal help and they helped her save her salary in a trust fund for my father. They also helped her sponsor my father to school along with the old madam's Grandson Raymond Collins".

"My grandmother and father were happy with the Collins family until five years later, when my grandfather came back into their lives again. The secret of his that my grandmother had exposed caused him a lot of problems and he couldn't stabilize until after three years. Immediately he did he started searching for her and he finally got an intelligence two years later that she was living with a military family in California. All his attempt of meeting or talking to my grandmother and father proved abortive because the Collins family was a military family and they were highly protected not even a fly could enter or leave their house without proper search".

"My grandmother most times never left the mansion unless the old madam had to go out and my father always went everywhere with Raymond Collins well secured by several soldiers so he couldn't meet him either. The Old madam's late husband was a Major general in the American army before he passed away and old Madam's son,Raymond's father was a Colonel. My grandfather tried his best to meet my grandmother and father but it never worked out. After a kidnapping attempt orchestrated by my grandfather and his gang where teenage girls where kidnapped, Colonel Edward Collins was tasked with the mission of arresting my grandfather and eliminating his syndicate".

"My grandmother overheard Colonel Collins discussing with his wife about arresting my grandfather's and how difficult it was since his tracks were always covered, that was when my grandmother confessed her relationship with him and promised to help them arrest him in any way possible only if they could promise her that they would take care and raise my father in case anything happened to her".

"The Collins promised her they would do just that, my five years old father had no idea of what was going on at the time, he didn't know why his mother woke him up in the middle of the night one day and bid him goodbye for a long time leaving behind a letter, a locket and a statement he could never forget " Johnathan, no matter in what situation you find yourself in life don't ever be like your father. Love humanity and be a person that can be proud to say "even though I am a crminal's son, my name is Johnathan James and I am far better than my father could have ever been" after saying that she hugged him for a long time and the next time he saw her she was wrapped in white in a coffin lifeless".

"Apparently my grandmother helped Colonel Collins and the American army locate all my grandfathers's hide outs and nab him and she also helped them rescue the kidnapped girls but she was killed in the encounter. The Collins family fulfilled the promise they had made to my grandmother and raised my father as their own along with their own son who was the same age as my father".

"Raymond Collins and my father grew up together and became best of friends. After Colonel Collins and his wife passed away Raymond Collins took over his family business and he helped sponsor my dad's business as well. Twenty three years ago, my grandfather's godson and his gang tried to avenge my grandfather by trying to kill my parents, me, your mother and you Julius, we were all locked up in an abandoned warehouse surrounded with bombs, we would have all died if the Collins family had been even a minute late that day, also In a terrorist attack at a park your mother had visited twenty years ago, your pregnant mother was kidnapped by a group of terrorist, at that time the business was failing, my ailing father was in the hospital and we barely had enough money, the Collins family had paid the ransom to get your mother and unborn you back from those people".

"The Collins family has always been there for us Alicia and they have done a lot for our family if not because of them you would have died along with your mother twenty years ago before you were even born. Upholding the promise my father made to them is the least we can do to repay their favors. We are not sacrificing you to repay their favors baby believe me if their son wasn't good enough for you I would never allow you to marry into their family no matter what but we have been associated with the collins family for more than eighty years Alicia and I can vouch for them, please baby think about it " Andrew pleaded with her.