Chapter 3

Angelo Salvador calmly walked into the large room, all eyes were fixed him as he went, the three body guards who had been following him the whole time made sure that there was space between him and the crowd as they walked by him at both sides while the other one marched in behind him, the first son and heir of the family had arrived and his entrance alone had already made a statement.

He walked up to his step mother Lucia and her sons, his half brothers, who were having a conversation with Mr Silva and his wife Juana, their distant relatives from spain, the couple were happy to see him of course but Lucia and his brothers were cold and startled, it had been almost a decade since any of them set eyes on him, the last time was when he left to the US to study in college, but dropped out of the institution and never set foot home again or called any of them. A lot of parties, events and gatherings just like this one today had been held during this period, so many family members and guests always asked about Angelo's whereabouts as he never showed up for anything, no matter how special or grande the event was meant to be, but for some reason Angelo had decided to 'rise from the dead' this time.

"Rocco!!!, My man!!" Silva and Juana rushed over to him and welcomed him with an embrace, Angelo giggled, he sent eye signals for the guards behind him to walk away, which they did immediately

"Where have you been this whole time, our family has been so worried about you son"

"Worried?, don't be worried about me ma, I've been good, I've always been good"

"Have you been talking with your father Rocco?"

Silva's question made them all go quiet again, for the first time Angelo took a good glance at Lucia and his brothers, almost like he wanted them to say something, anything, but nothing happened, so he decided to go on

"Yeah sure, he's the one who sent me a personal invitation for this event, I actually came here to see him" Angelo replied frantically

"Oh that's really great son, you're always welcome home"

"Yes mam" he smiled shortly at Juana before brushing past them to meet with Lucia.

Giovanni and Marcel looked like little children who were just being introduced to their uncles at a family gathering, while Lucia tried her best to forge a smile, and tried even harder to make herself embrace him

"Welcome back Angelo"

"Thanks mum, I..."

"I believe you must have a something to say to I and especially your brothers after your decade long disappearance from this family Angelo" she cut in harshly, her face very stern as she peered into Angelo's eyes in an attempt to break his confidence, but it didn't work very much

"Well about that, uhm, Gio..." Angelo paused when he realized that he couldn't remember Marcel's name, he was a very little boy when Angelo last saw him and he had no reason to memorize his name at that time, but now it looked very awful that he didn't even know his own brother's name, so he had to think of a way to work it out

"I'm glad to see you all again, and still doing well of course, but I have to be honest with you, I had no idea that we'd be having a party here today, this whole thing was a really big, but pleasant surprise to me

"Like you would show up if we actually invited you, Angelo?"

Giovanni and Marcel turned away and sighed while their mother questioned Angelo, the whole atmosphere was very tense and their demeanor towards him was easily one bred from deep seated hatred, Angelo knew this, but still had to be as composed as possible, he cleared his throat to continue but Lucia cut in again before he could mutter a word

"Besides, if you say you had no idea that we would be having this party, then why did you come here, did your father really invite you or it was just a lie to entertain our gullible guests"

"Look ma I don't have anytime to talk about this okay, I just want to talk to Dad, so if you can just tell me where he is then I'll..."

"Hey!!" Giovanni yelled, he walked up to his mother's side to look Angelo in the eye, he was a towering six foot five man, three inches taller than Angelo, "you will not talk to my mother in such manner do you understand?!!

"That's enough Gio"

"No mother..."

"Gio!!, I said...enough" she held him back, putting up a blatantly fake emphatic display, almost like she was just trying to tell Angelo that her son can easily beat him up but she just chose to spare him the pain, and Angelo was slowly becoming infuriated, his father was supposed to be sick on his deathbed and yet it looked like nobody could care less, they were even having a party that he still couldn't tell what the purpose of it was, and his half family over here were just being so dramatic for no reason at all, he got fed up and decided to stop being so friendly with them, it's was obvious that they despised him, and there was no point in trying to change their mindsets

"I heard that father was ill, and the situation was pretty bad, so I decided to rush down here as fast as I could." Lucia looked back at her sons after hearing Angelo's preposterous statement, then bust out laughing, really loud

"I know who you are Angelo, we all do, you never stepped foot into this house or said anything to any member of this family for one day in almost ten years, but the second you felt that your father was about to pass on suddenly and out of nowhere, you decided to show your ugly face again, because all you could ever wish for was the day your father finally kicks the fucking bucket so you can rise up like a prick and claim everything he owns as the first son, isn't that right?!!, Angelo Rocco!!!"

Angelo was fuming, veins popped out of his forehead and his fists clenched, Giovanni did the same thing, getting ready to throw hands if Angelo went a little too far, Marcel withdrew himself a bit from the scene, which was already beginning to attract attention

"You're just a cheap lazy scoundrel Angelo, and you do not have to balls or right to call yourself a Salvador, so you can go back to wherever you came from because I would never let a leech like you destroy this family's..."

"Shut up!!, LUCIA!!!" Angelo screamed furiously, Giovanni couldn't hold himself anymore, he charged at Angelo and grabbed him by his throat then threw him off, Angelo managed to keep his footing and Giovanni ran at him again, sending a punch which Angelo blocked and countered with a massive blow to his gut and another to his face, he tried to throw a third one but Gio locked him with his arms and was preparing to slam him to the ground. The crowd went mad at this point and no one knew how to react, Lucia and Marcel slowly retreated from the scene but still kept their eyes on the fight.

The two men had almost torn each other's clothes apart and where both bleeding from their faces when a thunderously voice tore through the atmosphere...

"ENOUGH!!!"

Gio and Angelo let go of each other and looked up to the balcony which separated the upper floor of the mansion, and so did everybody else, and there he was, the Lord of the Salvador family, Bonucci Salvador, and almost ten other bodyguards standing closely behind him