"Stay a child for as long as you can, because once you grow up, you'll realize how lucky you were to eat without worrying about the money in your pocket." Jas said to Charlotte as he leaned back, looking at the clouds.
"Is life really that hard?"
"For so, yeah. But forget that….the most important thing right now is your education. So, are you ready to learn?" He looked at her.
Her eyes lit up. "I'm ready! But can you buy things if I beco a good student?"
"Good? Don't sell yourself short, you're going to be an excellent one."
She smiled as Jas petted her head, but then a question was raised in her, one she had wanted to ask for a long ti.
"One more thing." She said, pulling a coin out of her pocket. "Bella said that you once got at least twenty tails in a row. How did you do it?"
"Why do you want to know?" Jas asked, glancing at the coin in her hand.
"I'm your daughter, so I want to learn the things my father can do."
Jas smirked. "That's a dangerous thing to say, Charlotte. If you want to learn everything I can do, you might end up becoming scarier than ."
"I don't want to be scary! I just want to be amazing."
He chuckled. "Alright, I'll tell you, but only if you promise to not tell anyone?" He held out his pinky finger.
"Pinky promise!" She said, already excited about what Jas was going to teach her.
"I don't need your coin." He put her coin back into Charlotte's hand and pulled out one from his pocket. "Take this one."
Charlotte tossed her own coin onto the grass and grabbed Jas's. "Wow, it's heavy!"
"Toss it, and I'll tell you what it's going to land on." Jas winked at her.
Excited, she tossed the coin into the air.
"Tails." Jas said just as it landed back in Charlotte's palm.
"What? How?!" She scread in shock.
"Again. It's going to be tails." Jas said confidently.
Charlotte hesitated for a mont before tossing it again. She caught it and turned it over, it was tails.
Her mouth hung open in amazent. She thought Jas was using magic.
"Teach !" She bead.
Jas let out a laugh as he took the coin from Charlotte's hands.
"It's a trick coin. I bought a whole pack for five bucks at a magic shop."
Charlotte's excited expression faded into slight disappointnt.
"Trick coin?" She asked.
"Yeah."
Charlotte crossed her arms. "That's unfair! I thought you had magic powers…"
Jas laughed at how disappointed Charlotte was.
"You know, sotis I use a regular coin, just like the one you have." He picked up her coin from the grass. "And sotis, fate is on my side."
He tossed the coin into the air. "Tails."
The coin landed back in his palm.
"Well… not this ti." He opened his hand to reveal heads.
Charlotte giggled.
"But still…" Jas continued, twirling the coin between his fingers, "when I have a tough decision to make, a coin always cos in handy. Whether it's a trick coin or not, it decides fate."
Charlotte looked at him with curiosity. "So, you trust a coin to make your decisions?"
"Not always. But sotis, letting chance decide is easier than overthinking."
Charlotte stared at the coin in her hand, rolling it between her fingers as she thought about what Jas had said. "So… if I toss a coin and say heads ans I get dessert and tails ans I don't, I have to listen to it?"
Jas laughed."That's one way to use it. But the real trick is this, when the coin is in the air, you suddenly realize what you hope it lands on. That's when you know what you truly want."
Charlotte's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh! So, it's not really about the coin… it's about figuring out what I really want deep down!"
"Exactly. Sotis, we pretend we don't know what we want, but when fate's about to decide for us, the answer becos clear."
She grinned and held up her coin. "Okay! I'm going to try it!"
Jas crossed his arms, watching Charlotte as she took a deep breath. "Heads, I keep practicing my tricks. Tails, I take a break and eat so cookies." She tossed the coin high into the air, her eyes locked on it as it spun.
She caught it, then hesitated before opening her hand. It was heads.
"Nooo, I wanted cookies!" SHe tossed the coin onto the ground.
Jas burst out laughing. "See? You already knew what you wanted." He laughed more as he was hitting the coin with her fist. "But if you want, I can teach you how to do small tricks like this." He flipped the coin between his fingers.
Her eyes lit up again. "Really?"
Jas nodded. "Of course. But first, you need to learn how to handle a coin properly." He handed it back to her. "Try flipping it between your fingers like this." He demonstrated, smoothly rolling the coin from his index finger to his pinky and back.
Charlotte furrowed her brows in concentration as she attempted to mimic him. The coin slipped from her fingers and landed in the grass. "Oops."
"It takes practice. Here, try again." He picked up the coin and placed it back in her palm.
She tried once more, this ti managing to move it between her fingers before it slipped again. "Ugh, it's hard!"
"That's why I said practice." Jas said, smirking. "Even the best tricksters don't get it right on the first try."
Charlotte huffed but grinned. "Then I'll practice until I'm better than you!"
"Oh? I'd like to see that."
She nodded determinedly. "Just you wait! I'll be the best trickster ever!"
Jas shook his head with a chuckle. "Alright, little trickster. We'll see."
Then he heard steps and when he looked to the side, he saw one of his bodyguards approaching.
"Hector has arrived."
Jams looked back at Charlotte as he stood up.
"Practice makes a master and also be careful with the bees, Charlotte." He pointed at a flower nearby.
Her eyes imdiately flicked to the flower
"But they are cute, fluffy and fat..."
"If you start ssing with it and it stings you, don't co crying to …I'll spank you."
She imdiately pulled back from the flower. "I'll leave it alone!" She said, sitting back down.
How could I ever spank her…but I am happy that she finally acts like her age…
With that, Jas went back to the house. At the very least, he had taught Charlotte sothing, even if the only lesson she truly understood was not to ss with bees.
As he stepped inside, he found Bella still sleeping on the sofa, her arm hanging off the side.
anwhile, Hector was watching her, struggling to hold back his laughter as her loud snores echoed through the living room.
"Minutes ago, we were talking." He said, turning to Hector.
"When I walked in, I thought a bear had broken in." Hector laughed.
Just as they were about to leave, Bella suddenly woke up, blinking in confusion.
She squinted at them, rubbing her eyes as she realized they were watching her. "I wasn't sleeping…"
"I never thought a woman could snore this loudly." Hector laughed.
"Ugh, whatever… I just closed my eyes for a second."
"A very loud second." Hector added with a laugh.
She shot him a glare before turning to Jas. "Where's Charlotte?"
"Outside." Jas replied. "Learning valuable life lessons. Like not ssing with bees."
Bella stretched as she stood up. "Then… I'm going to play with her." She mumbled before stumbling toward the door.
Jas and Hector exchanged a glance as they went upstairs to the office.
However, as soon as they sat down, the smiles faded. Hector pulled out a massive dossier and placed it in front of Jas.
"Do I have to read all this?" Jas asked, shaking his head as he flipped open the first page.
"Not really. I just wanted to go into details, to get the exact numbers and everyone involved. But before we start, I need to inform you about the Circle."
"Shit, I totally forgot about them… except Sophia."
"Well, you don't need to anymore." Hector said, avoiding Jas's eyes as he glanced around the room. "It's no longer a thing…"
Jas stared at him, but Hector still wouldn't et his gaze.
"What the fuck…?"
"Uh… well, I need to say it. They pretty much backstabbed you and ran to soone else."
"…Backstabbed ?"
Hector finally looked him in the eyes. "Yeah. The Circle didn't just fall apart…they switched sides."
The Circle was supposed to be his strongest alliance in the city but even in the country.
"Who the hell did they join?"
Hector hesitated, but there was no point in delaying it.
"Bellmare and Vasin. Along with a few others, but their nas don't even matter."
Bellmare and Vasin… Bellmare…
Jas leaned forward, pressing his fingers to his forehead. "Hector… Are you telling they joined two street sellers?" He looked into his eyes.
"Well… technically, they're not just street sellers anymore. Bellmare's dad owns a shipping company worth hundreds of millions… and with Isabella and Marco backing them—"
"So let get this straight." Jas cut him off. "We bribed dozens of governnt officials and agents into our pocket, built an empire that controls the drug trade… and these idiots ran to a couple of nobodies who used to sell dope on the sidewalks?"
Hector held up his hands. "I get it. It's fucking ridiculous. But it's happening. And that ans we have a problem."
Fuck… This whole thing is my fault.
"They left because we didn't share the plan with them, right?"
Hector didn't answer for a mont because he felt that the thing he was going to say may disrespect Jas, but he needed to know the truth.
"Sophia said that they fear that you'd beco like Lucian."
Lucian?
"Oh." He realized. "They fear I'll beco paranoid and kill them. Well, they don't need to fear it anymore, because I'm going to kill them anyway." Jas leaned back again.
"Are you planning to kill them?"
Jas just looked at him, without a word.
"You just said you want to kill them, didn't you?" Hector looked confused.
Jas paused for a second, then waved it off. "Uhh… anyway, what's up with Sophia?" He changed the subject, realizing how smoothly the words ca out of his mouth.
"....Sophia is still with you. And to be fair, she's never going to leave… until she dies."
Jas looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what to do with all of this, but only one thought ca to him.
If Sophia was still with him, it ant she was alone, which also made her an easy target for the others.
"I'll ask Sophia to rge his family into ours so she becos Bellini, if she doesn't want to then just as an ally." He said, looking at Hector.
"I have no objection to that." Hector said quickly.
"Really?" Jas thought that he wouléd argue but his quick answers surprised him.
"Yeah." Hector nodded. "She's ntally stable… well, sowhat stable. And she has connections and soldiers. So it's a good idea."
"Then–"
"We can also wage a war faster if she joins us." Hector cut in Jas' words.
"War?"
"Silas Ricci's n moved against us. They attacked one of our ships carrying white magi.Of course, Silas claid it was a mistake and even sent his n's heads as an apology. But that fucker never gave back the product. So, our best option is to wage war, kill every last one of them, burn their bodies, and erase their families as we stand—"
"Wait, Hector." Jas raised a hand, stopping his imagination from running wild. "What do you an they didn't give back the product?"
"I asked them, politely, to return what they stole. And they told the police seized all of it…but that's a lie. The entire state police is on their payroll."
Jas remained silent for a mont.
"If they stole it, that ans they killed our n?"
"Yeah, they wiped out the entire security team, 12 guards and the ship's captain. Including the crew, 21 of our people died."
Jas's fingers tightened into a fist on the desk
"So, in this fucking month… Rafael and Hans died. I almost died with Charlotte. The Circle backstabbed . And now Silas stole from and slaughtered an entire ship crew. Am I right?"
Jas's gaze was terrifying, so intense.
Goosebumps rose on Hector's arms as he nodded slowly. "Yeah… That's exactly right.
Don't let anger control you…think before doing anything dumb…
"Do you have a coin?" He asked and Hector quickly got out his wallet giving Jas one.
He didn't wait and tossed it up letting it land on the table.
It was heads.
"Send a ssage to Silas he has three days. If he doesn't apologize with one of his fingers…the Bellini family will hunt them down."
There was no arguing with this.
But it wasn't Silas Ricci who did it.
It was his son.
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