Malicious Romance

Chapter 98

The following day when the sun began to rise, Dean dressed up in his black buttoned-up shirt and jeans as usual.

An urgent meeting from the joined organizations was being notified since dawn through his men. Dean rolled his sleeves to his elbows as he made his way into the meeting room. One of the two men patted his body down for weapons before another man opened the door to let him in.

The usual meeting room felt the same as it was filled with cold and dryness accompanied by that eerie silence between all of the high ranks of mob bosses. All pairs of eyes were glued to Dean with every step and movement he made. Dean's bruises were still visible on his face as he was stubborn like usual to not put on the bandage. He settled onto his designated leather chair before the door was opened again for the following guests. Dean shifted his gaze to the newcomers while adjusting himself in the seat next to the Russian mob. The other chair next to him was left empty as Aaron was busy taking care of another errand.

Dean's eyes sharpened when he noticed the Singaporean mob walk in with a cigarette in his mouth at the same time as the Italian man. Their eyes met briefly the second that the Singaporean mob looked at his seat.

After waiting for several minutes until everyone has arrived, the meeting officially began. One of the men pulled up the slide and projected the image of Richard Chu's profile on one side while half of the slide displayed the image of him inside the car, dead.

"Another chief officer is dead... almost right after the damn Kevinskey." The Italian man said at the same time that he turned his challenging gaze to Dean. "Surely, not your doing again, Dean?"

"You do realize that the ceremony is not fucking over... Or, are you planning to fuck the entire organization up right before you leave?" The old fat man added with a hint of accusing in his words.

Dean glanced at the Singaporean man, only to see him smirk momentarily. He straightened his lips as he replied calmly, "I came today to inform all of you... that I am no longer leaving my organization." Everyone fell silent while all of their brows grew tensed in displeasure. "I know that what I am doing is not right... But, I will not step down. I will withdraw from the ceremony."

"You're fucking ridiculous." The Singaporean mob spoke with a head shake. "Do you think everyone has all of the damn times to come and go, watching you play a fucking game or something?"

"You were fucking determined to be out, and now you're trying to fucking stay here. You are fucking kidding me. I am not here for your fucking play." The fat man added.

Dean leaned back in his chair as he continued speaking. "As someone who will be handling matters after my father, don't you think I deserve to at least gain some knowledge of what the ceremony should be like?"

"What are you on again now?" The Korean mafia murmured as he sipped his wine.

"I am just speaking the truth as the world that we are serving is quite too trustworthy," Dean said sarcastically.

"I see where you are coming from, but that is still unacceptable. You must-" The fat man said roughly.

Dean cuts off in a serious tone. "Must what? Must proceed through the entire thing so that I can be eliminated?"

"You chose it upon yourself. Don't play the victim now."

"I've never played victim, not with any of you sitting here, waiting for the chance to take my people down." Dean furrowed his brows as he carried on speaking. "If I did not choose to do what I did, I doubt I will ever get to witness one... After all, if you are not in the top rank in line, your only way out is death. For example, that man who is on the slide right now. He died and that was his only option. As for the rest of us who are sitting here in this room, we're given the choice of how we want to end our part in the organization. Each of us has distributed quite a great amount of work to help sustain the organization, and that was why it is considered to be unfair if we are to kill our executive members when it is our time to leave." Dean tightened his lips in determination as he cast a cold glare across the room. "Now that I know what the ceremony should look like... I will be more aware of what to do in the future if similar issues ever arise. If any of your descendants or successors happens to want to quit then I will make sure to keep the game fair for them as how you have done to me. That way, I can be confident to keep the tradition going... and for sure to run everything properly according to our constitutions in the future if any of you wanted to leave later on."