Free Web NovelChapter 599: Yes, I Failed
"Who else wants to beat me up?" Christian yelled. "Come on!"
Of the four bullies who had been beating him up, with one being stabbed, the remaining three just scrambled away as fast as they could while screaming in fear.
Christian stood his ground, with the knife in his hand.
Using his hands as support, the student who had been stabbed tried desperately to back away, screaming for help at the same time.
"Do you now know what it’s like to be screaming for help?" Christian jeered.
Still holding the bloodied knife, he walked closer to the stabbed boy and glared menacingly at him, saying coldly, "I have been calling for help every single day. Why didn’t anyone help me?
"I recall you saying that there was no use screaming for help in this isolated area because no one would hear me. And even if they did, no one would dare help me.
"So now, I am repeating what you said to me."
"You... you can’t do this to me. My... my dad is..." he stopped mid-sentence because Christian had stabbed him again in the thigh this time.
Once again, an ear-piercing cry of pain rang through the air.
Christian looked at the steady stream of blood spilling from the wound and laughed suddenly.
"Spare me, please. I beg you... Spare..." He knew that being injured and left on his own, he was no match for Christian and his only option now was to beg for his life.
However, Christian had just had his first taste of revenge and he loved that exhilarating feeling.
Regardless of the consequences, he relished the high of the moment.
He had finally found a release for all the bullying and humiliation that he had had to endure in the recent past.
And so, he mercilessly stabbed his victim a few more times.
Very soon, footsteps could be heard as people began running towards them.
Christian made no attempt to run away because he knew that he would not be able to escape.
He had already psyched himself up to perish with his bullies from that first stab.
That was why his last stab was directed at his heart before help arrived.
After that, he smiled as blood spewed from his mouth and the knife in his hand fell to the ground.
"Hey, kid..." Someone called out to him from nowhere.
Turning around, Christian saw a man in his forties standing before him.
Grimacing, he stared icily at the man.
That was his first encounter with Alberto.
"I saw everything that had happened here. And I like your guts. Will you consider coming with me?" And that was the second thing that Alberto said to him.
Christian looked even more confused when he heard what Alberto had just said.
"Like my guts?" Christian asked incredulously.
Speaking slowly, he enunciated each word to remind Alberto, "I just killed someone." ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"Yeah, I saw it all," Alberto replied.
He glanced at the boy lying motionless in a pool of blood and said, "You have only a few seconds to decide. If you choose to come with me, I believe that, with my guidance, you will become a highly capable... drug lord."
Christian’s eyes lit up instantly when he heard the words ’drug lord’.
Despite his young age, he knew very well that his future was bleak. After all, he had killed someone.
What awaited him was a lifetime of hell behind bars.
There would be no escape even if he were deported.
Besides, he did not want to live in the shadows anymore.
Without hesitation, he accepted Alberto’s proposal, "I will go with you."
On his part, Alberto had not expected this boy to remain calm even after hearing the term "drug lord" being mentioned.
This boy, who had just mercilessly stabbed a person to death, was obviously unfazed by what he had done and talking to him very calmly.
This was the person that Alberto had been searching for to be his successor.
And that was how Christian became involved with Alberto.
During the next five years, the darkest period of his life, Christian went through hell as Alberto put him through the toughest orientation and training.
Fortunately, he persevered and as Alberto had predicted, he became highly respected and was the most-feared drug lord. freewebnovel.cσ๓
...
Alberto checked Christian out from head to toe.
When he noticed that the pinky on Christian’s left hand was missing a segment, he asked, "Does it still hurt?"
Christian shook his head and replied, "Not anymore."
"How long has it been since we last met?" Alberto looked up slightly, pondering his own question.
"Three years," Christian replied.
"I heard that you fell in love with a woman?" Not wishing to beat the bush, Alberto cut to the chase and asked Christian. He added, "You know the rules."
"Yes, I do. That is why I’m here to accept my punishment," Christian responded. With his head hung, he struck a posture of being willing and prepared to accept any form of punishment.
"I’m curious. Why did you want to leave the organization in the first place?" Alberto asked, his expression turning darker and visibly more menacing.
"You should know, better than anyone else about the huge amount of time and effort I had spent developing and coaching you.
I had transformed you into the world’s youngest and most feared drug lord, second to none. You had everything under our feet.
And yet, three years ago, you suddenly turned on me and said that you wanted to break away from the organization; that you no longer wanted to deal with drugs.
At that time, you never told me why. But now, since you’re asking to come back, you owe us an explanation."
"You were the one who taught me to only look at the results and not fret about the process," Christian replied.
"The outcome that I have to face now is punishment according to the organization’s rules."
Alberto was visibly enraged by Christian’s response.
Infuriated, he stomped his cane aggressively on the floor and bellowed, "When you decided to up and leave the organization after having built your power base, we did not stop you.
However, it is unacceptable that you are still refusing to explain your sudden departure three years ago, even though you have come back to us "May I remind you that you are where you are today because of me?!"
Indeed, it was a fact that Alberto had been instrumental in elevating Christian to where he was today.
If not for Alberto, Christian might not have survived to this day.
But Christian was also aware of the reason why Alberto had chosen to groom him into who he was today. It was because he wanted to leverage the intelligence and killer instinct that he saw in Christian.
In all fairness, Christian had indeed taken the drug organization to greater heights, transforming it into the biggest drug cartel in the world.
So, strictly speaking, he and Alberto had been using each other to achieve their own goals.
Nevertheless, since he had asked to come back into the fold, Christian decided that it would not be appropriate for him to be too calculating.
Keeping his head low, he explained, "After my return to Lake City, I realized that I had a newfound social standing and was respected and admired by many.
"It was what I had yearned for and I wanted to hold on to that lifestyle and social status. That was why I decided to start over."
"Ha ha ha, start over," Alberto laughed. "And this is the outcome of your quest to ’start over’?"
"Yep and I failed," Christian admitted to his reality grudgingly.
"So, if you had not failed, we would never cross paths again in this lifetime?" Alberto asked.
Christian kept quiet.
Supported by his cane, he walked back and forth a couple of times before saying suddenly, "Look Christian, I know that you’re not being honest with me.
"That woman was the reason why you wanted to start over. Right?"
At that, Christian’s head shot up instantly.
When Alberto saw the panic in Christian’s eyes, he knew that he had hit the nail on the head.
"Now, let me try and recall that woman’s name. Wendy Stewart?" Alberto pondered over it.
"I think she went by another name as well. Was it Corinne?"
At that, he looked across at Clement and probed, "Oh right. Weren’t you also attracted to her?"
Clement immediately clamored to deny, "Oh no, of course not. I’m not attracted to her."
...
Feeling a sense of foreboding when he saw Alberto’s face darken, Clement kept his head low and stammered, "Erm, I... I did take a liking to her at first. But I lost interest when I realized who she was."
Then, trying to further convince Alberto, Clement added hastily, "That’s the truth."
"I am very curious about this woman who has managed to capture the hearts of two of the senior members of my team," Alberto murmured.
"I heard that you have brought her back here. Why didn’t you bring her here to meet me?"
Christian knew what Alberto meant.
He wanted Wendy dead.
In their line of work, she was considered a weak link.
"Don’t worry, Alberto. She will not be my weak link," Christian assured him.
"I brought her back here to torment her because she is my brother’s woman. You know about my acrimonious relationship with my brother, right?
"Besides, she’s not the only woman I brought back here."
"Now, if I had not looked into your relationship with that Wendy, I might have bought what you just said," Alberto said coldly.
"Do you remember what I said when I first started grooming you? Did I not say that you should never, not in this lifetime, get involved with a woman?
You should know that long ago, when I realized that I had fallen in love with a woman, I killed her with my own hands.
We deal with violence for a living. A weak link could cost us our lives.
You, of all people, should know very well the challenges that you had to overcome to get to where you are today.
After all the hardships, do you think it’s worthwhile if you end up dead by a woman’s hands, or killed because of a woman?"
"Neither of that will happen," Christian said resolutely.
In the past, he had indeed intended to kill Wendy.
Unfortunately, she had defied death and lived.
Wendy had always been protected by Michael so it was difficult for him to try to harm her again.
But now that she had been captured by him, he no longer wanted her dead.
Because he felt that she would never be able to escape from him.
"Judging by how desperately you’re trying to protect her, I can deduce that you like her very much," Alberto said.
"I had always assumed that you, of all people, would not be caught in the game of love.
But I never imagined that, not only did you fall in love, you actually fell for your sister-in-law, the wife of the brother you hate more than anything else in the world.
You fell so hard for her that you were going to leave the organization and start afresh!
"Don’t you find it ironic, Christian? Your failure today was orchestrated by the womayou love the most."
Alberto sounded dead serious and angry as he spoke.
He could not accept the reality that a prot... of his, a successor that he had hand-picked, would give up everything that he had worked for because of a woman.
He considered it a personal failure. A failure that he could not overlook.
Since Alberto had hit the nail on the head, Christian panicked, gritting his teeth instinctively.
Indeed, he had wanted to leave the organization because of Wendy.
Wendy was kind and a person of integrity. She would never fall for a man who had blood on his hands.
That was why Christian had wanted to stop dealing with drugs or engaging in any illegal activities.
He had planned to wipe out his illicit past before Wendy got wind of what type of a person he really was.
He had wanted to be able to present himself to her as a law-abiding person and to get reacquainted with her.
Alas, Wendy had instead re-ignited her love for Michael.
To make matters worse, she had connived with Michael to take him down.
In the end, they had even exposed his status as a drug lord, leaving him no choice but to return to the organization.
He had never imagined that this would happen to him.
That the woman he loved most in the world would send him back into the world of darkness and evil.
