Chapter 2.1

Esmerelda Maldini was the daughter of notorious criminal leader Estelle Maldini. Her father was a criminal, working within her mother’s organization, and even her half-brother’s father had been a criminal. Crime ran in her family, it was in her blood. From as long as she could remember, her mother had raised her for a life living on the wrong side of the law.

Now that she was an adult, it was her turn to take up a role within her mother’s organization.

She headed to the Llama Corp Shipping Co. warehouse where the criminals’ secret headquarters were located.

Estelle, now known as “The Leader” or “Emperor of Evil”, arrived in style soon after her daughter.

Esmerelda emerged from the headquarters a while later, now officially inducted into the organization.

Though her mother was in charge, Esmerelda was to be granted no favors. She would start her career in crime from the very bottom and work her way up.

Now that she was starting her adult life, there was someone she needed to see…

She sent him a message on her phone and he agreed to meet up.

So she headed to the festival park, the place where they had first met, and there he was.

It was Shark Racket, her old friend.

He was pleased to see her – it had been a while as they usually only spoke on the phone.

“Shark, the truth is, I had to see you today because… well… because I love you,” Esmerelda blurted.

She  gazed earnestly at him, “And I know you care about me Shark. I know you like me. Do you… don’t you love me?”

“Of course I care about you Esmerelda,” Shark replied, “But I can’t love you – I shouldn’t love you! You know I’m married…”

“I don’t care,” she said, “I really don’t, I just want to be with you.”

Without hesitation she threw her arms around him in a passionate embrace and kissed him like she had wanted to since she first laid eyes on him years ago when she was just a young teenage girl.

At first he tried to pull away, more out of shock than anything else, but then he relaxed into her embrace, and the next moment he was kissing her back.

When they finally broke apart, they just stared deep into each others eyes for a long moment.

“You do love me,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“I want us to be together…”

“So do I. Let’s go back to my house and we can work this out. Jade… my wife… she’s out for the night.”

However, they had no sooner arrived at his house when it turned out Shark was wrong – his wife had decided to come home early and she walked into her house to find Shark and Esmerelda together in the front hall.

“You filthy cheating son of a b****!!! How dare you!” Jade shrieked furiously, “Who is this trollop anyway, some girl you picked up off the street?!”

“You leave him alone,” Esmerelda interjected angrily, “And I am not a trollop – Shark and I are in love!”

“In love?! Are you joking?!” Jade shouted, “He swore to love me til death do us part – you’re just some cheap s**t he’s brought home!”

Esmerelda could feel her blood pounding in her ears.

“You’re going to regret that,” she said fiercely, raising her hand to slap Jade across the face with all her might.

The next moment they were wrestling on the ground, kicking and punching and pulling each others hair.

Shark pulled the brawling girls apart, though he didn’t seemed to have much to say for himself.

Esmerelda was still furious, though she was starting to feel sore and shaken from her fight with Jade.

“You stay away from me,” she threatened Shark’s wife, “I never want to set eyes on you again.”

“I never want to see either of you ever again!” Jade retorted, quivering with hatred, “You never set foot in this house again Shark, our marriage is over!”

“This house is half mine!” he shouted back.

“It wont be when my lawyers are through with you,” Jade snarled.

Esmerelda put her arms around Shark.

“It doesn’t matter, let’s just go, ” she said persuasively.

They caught a taxi back to Esmerelda’s home in silence.

“Now what do I do?” Shark asked despondently, “I have no home, no money… and I work for Jade’s dad so I guess now I have no job.”

“I you truly love me then none of that matters,” Esmerelda whispered, “But I’m sorry I got so angry, I didn’t want your wife to find out that way… ”

“It’s okay , I wish it had happened another way too, but it’s done now and she had to find out sometime. And I do love you, of course I do, I loved you even when I married Jade. It was a mistake and we were never really happy.”

“So will you stay here with me?”

“Of course I will.”

And so Shark Racket is now a member of the Maldini household. I hope you all don’t think too badly of Esmerelda for her husband stealing, she is her mother’s daughter after all, and she may yet live to regret it…