Sold? - Chapter 176

“I’ve decided to go.” Caesar stated. His voice was strong and eyes were firm.

I smiled at him, “I understand. I’ll go with your decision.”

We both were in the backyard, sitting on the bench while a cool breeze blew.

For a few minutes there was no exchange between us. We both were staring ahead at nothing in particular

“It feels weird, doesn’t it?” Caesar finally broke the silence.

“My thoughts exactly.” I leaned against the bench back, “It sure as hell does. We’ve stuck together like glue all these years.”

“Did you think that I’d really decide to go?”

“I don’t know but,” I looked at him and he turned his head towards me, “Some part of me didn’t want you to.”

He smiled, “Some part of me doesn’t want to leave either. I feel a bit hollow.”

I smirked, “This was bound to happen. We became too dependent on each other.”

“Can’t deny that.”

The wind rustled the tree leaves loudly.

“But it’s life.” I said.

“Yea. We stuck to each other for the past twenty years so much, so many now it’s time to part.” Caesar had a soft sad look in his eyes, “We are at the point where now we will have our own families.”

“I know but that doesn’t mean we’ll be any different whenever we meet.”

“Well that’s a given, it’s a bond that will never break.” He grinned

“Never.” I returned the gesture.

It really was time to go our separate ways, because now, we had separate goals and separate things we wanted to protect.

The bond of friendship we have will never fade.

Both of us knew that.

“When you go. Take some men with you.”

“Are you sure?” He asked.

I nodded, “Actually take many with you. You know how many I have.”

He snickered, “Oh I know. You’ve taken in many strays.”

“Hey!” I rebuted, “You brought more people than I did.” I chuckled at the memory, “Every Time you saw some miserable person lying in the streets you’d bring him back.” I couldn’t help but laugh, “Then you’d quietly stand next to him as you presented him to me and my dad.”

He ended up snickering too, “Richard was exasperated each time but I can’t believe he allowed that.”

“That’s because when he was alive we only did this once in a while but after I took over-” I laughed again, “Oh God!”

Caesar laughed with me.

It felt good but sad at the same time but I was happy for him.

I glanced at him while I attempted to calm down.

He was going to get what was his from the start.

He looked back at me when he too stopped laughing and we both shared a final meaningful gaze in which we shared a thousand things.

“Let’s go.” I said, “We have a lot to prepare for.”

“Yeah.”

*****

The announcement about Caesar’s decision was made to the whole clan and any person who was willing to go with him could volunteer. 2 weeks were given for that purpose while

“Lee!” I too had made some decisions along the way, “Call the Lioness gang and tell them that they are going to shift here in the mansion.” The Lioness were a group of females but were situated in another city, “Tell the Hawks to take their place.” The Hawks were the male group living here in the mansion. Well the leader and sub leader live here in the mansion while the rest of the gangs live in their homes or apartments but that isn’t important.

“Yes sir.” Lee was about to take his leave when I stopped him again.

“Wait!”

“Yes sir?”

“Even if we call in the Lioness gang just two females will be here in the mansion. So call the in the Sows and exchange them with the Jaguars.”

“Okay.”

This should be fine. Now that I have a daughter, I can’t have only men around the house, especially gangsters…

“Arius!” I turned around when Azalea called me. I was standing in the drawing room waiting for her, “When’s the appointment?”

“It’s almost time. We should get going.”

“Yes!!”

“Where’s Athena?” We began to walk out.

“She’s with Zara.”

“When Liliana left two days ago she talked to you. What did you guys talk about?”

“I told her to stop by every now and then.”

“Did she agree?”

“Yes.”

Yes!!

I mentally cheered.

“We should hurry, we don’t have much time and there are many arrangements we have to make in ten days.”

“Sure~” Azalea was in a good mood.

As we both sat in the car I asked her, “You seem happy.”

“Of course! We’re going to get my wedding dress! Which girl wouldn’t be happy!”

I chuckled, “Caesar already took Nora in the morning.”

I started driving while she hummed, “Isn’t it exciting? We’re having two weddings on the same day.” She turned to me, “Nora sure has great ideas.”

I nodded, “It was a good idea.” I acknowledged, “Once they’re gone, it will take a lot of time for them to settle down and get used to things. So having the weddings together was a good idea.”

There was no guarantee about them returning anytime soon and now that Caesar was going to take over as the head the possibility was even less for many years to come, we might not be able to meet physically.

“Right! This way we wouldn’t miss theirs or they would miss ours.” She sighed, “I’ll miss her.” Then all of the sudden she got enthusiastic, “We’re gonna video chat every single day!!”

“Good for you.”

“We have to get a dress for Athena too. I’ll ask Zara to come with me when I do that.”

“Be sure to take the card.”I stopped at the red signal. At the same time a question popped in my mind, “Azalea?”

“Yea?”

“I’ve been wanting to ask. Why and where did you learn how to sign?”

She grinned at me, “Where did you send Ayaan?”

Her answer gave me a sudden realization and a whole bunch of answers. Yes, I sent him abroad to study and had a lot of things arranged for him along with a decent apartment

“Did you live with him?”

“No,”

The light turned green but it took me a moment to drive because of her answer.

“No?”

“There’s another person you sent to the same country.”

“…” It hit me and I took a deep breath, “Miss Lebberly?”

“Yup.”

“Miss Lebberly and Ayaan lived far away from each other but one day coincidentally I met them both in a store. It had only been a week since Nora and I had arrived there and were still looking for a place to stay.” She smiled, “We got offers from both of them but because Ayaan was a student and needed to focus on his studies we chose to stay with Miss Lebberly.”

“I see.”

“Living with her was comfortable. She’s also a mother so she helped me a lot. Ayaan often came to visit. I learned how to sign from him, because I wanted to talk to him more comfortably.”

“How’s he doing?”

“Good.” She answered, “He’s made great friends. One of them can sign and he gets along with people well.”

I smiled, “That’s good.”

I don’t keep contact with him, just in case but that doesn’t mean whatever I said to him wasn’t true. I’ll always stand by my words.

***

When we arrived at the boutique Caesar and Nora were already done but even then when Nora saw Azalea she excitedly dragged her inside to show her what she’s getting and help her out as well.

I looked at Caesar, “Did you decide your suit?”

He nodded, “What about you?”

“No. I’ll go after Azalea’s done. There was a lot to do.”

“Okay. I’ll take over for now. You both can do this.”

“Good plan.”

Caesar and I walked in the boutique. He went and talked to Nora about how they had to leave and go check out the venue.

We had also started a secret campaign where we were gathering people from Caesar’s hometown, Nistia.

One could say we were gathering an internal force. People who were dissatisfied with Caesar’s father’s reign.

They left immediately after while Azalea took her time to decide what she wanted to wear on her special day.