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The four of them watched the video that Angela took that night at the warehouse through the laptop on the desk where they all gathered around.

"You said this was four years ago?" Damien wondered.

"Yes," Gael answered.

"Who took this?"

"Angela."

"Who is she to you?"

William cut in, "She\'s Chairman Su\'s daughter. I take it she\'s your girlfriend?"

Girlfriend? Gael glanced between both of the Parks as the two waited for his answer. Although he had been calling her that before, he felt that the term was an understatement. For him, Angela was more than just a girlfriend.

Instead of acknowledging, he told them that Angela and Evan Leos used to date. And that that night, she followed him and took the video.

"So her father was…is part of this drug trade?" Damien folded his arms across his chest.

"No. I respect Charlie. I believed him when he said he had no part of this, and he doesn\'t know why they used his truck and warehouse."

"So, what did she do with this video?"

"She kept it hidden. At that time, she didn\'t know what to do. Her relationship with her father then was rocky—it had been ever since her mother left them. She decided it was best to forget what she saw and look the other way."

"I\'m sure she couldn\'t get the police involved," William said. "I know the Leos have influence with the authorities because of the General."

Gael nodded to confirm it. "Then the next day… Angela and I met at Daniel Cho\'s wedding. We spent a night together. Then we didn\'t see each other again until years later." He shook his head. "Six weeks after that wedding, Evan captured Angela. He fucking tormented and assaulted her."

"Why the fuck would he do that?" William bit out, his brows drawn tight as they listened to Gael. Giovanni\'s jaw was tense, and his body went rigid, feeling protective of her.

"He also publicly assaulted her in a club. The spectators took videos of it and posted online."

"Oh, I remember something like that. I didn\'t realize it was Angela until now. But I did remember the girl being a business magnate\'s daughter and the man\'s a fucking marine. The son of a bitch choked her, and everyone just watched. Bunch of shits took videos of it."

Gael gritted his teeth hard; he was surprised they didn\'t crack. "Hm. Evan found out about her being there that night at the warehouse. He must have seen CCTV footage and saw her recording it before running away. He wanted to blackmail her in exchange for that video. He drugged her, beat her up, and put his hands all over her. That scum did it all live for VIPs to watch."

"Fuck." Damien clenched his jaw and cursed under his teeth.

"Angela just found out a week before she got kidnapped that she was carrying my child. She bled. That\'s the only thing that stopped Evan from…from raping her." Gael swallowed, his eyes reddening from all the anger while recounting what happened because he needed to. He didn\'t want them to think of her like that. Never. Gael wanted to praise Angela. He wanted to worship her and for other people not to pity her and instead see the good in her—not the tainted version.

But sometimes, things had to be revealed for a good reason. Everything wouldn\'t make sense if he left out parts that mattered the most—on why he must see his revenge to the end.

"Shit." Giovanni squeezed his eyes shut. "You were going to be a father? Did you know about it?"

Gael shook his head. "Like I said, we were only together that one night and had only met again three years later. She was going to tell me about the baby when she found out about it but didn\'t get the chance to. That fucker caught her on the way home. Angela only told me about everything a few days ago after Evan took her for the second time."

William and Damien scoffed simultaneously, seemingly pissed at the situation. Then they narrowed their stares as they watched Gael start to remove his shirt to show him his back. 

"Holy shit…" Damien\'s eyes went wide.

And so did William.

Gael told them what happened last Saturday as he put his shirt back on. He could sense Giovanni shaking in anger next to him after seeing the state of his back. It was the first time Giovanni had seen it. There weren\'t only bruises… His skin also split from the whipping. So a long scar went down across his back as if slashing the fallen Angel tattoo. The swelling had already subsided, but his back was still painful and tender; it was a struggle to move his arms.

"So you see…" Gael sighed. "I have respected the treaty—even when I had the absolute reason to kill him right then, right there."

Damien and William exchanged glances. It was Damien who spoke first.

"We appreciate you for honoring the decades-long treaty between us. I…know very well how it feels when the one you love gets hurt and be so utterly…helpless." He scoffed. "It makes me want to murder everyone involved and not be sorry about it." Damien let out a long sigh and then asked, "But what is it that you really want? Why request this meeting?"

Gael looked at Giovanni briefly, and the latter nodded at him as if to give acknowledgment to proceed. It wasn\'t that Gael needed Giovanni\'s approval as he already got it from his father, but he needed Giovanni\'s support.

"We want to reach an agreement with you and amend the original one. Surely you understand now how ridiculous one of the clauses is, considering everything I just told you."

Damien took a deep breath. "I agree. Frankly, I don\'t know how our great grandfathers thought this was a terrific idea, but I\'m sure they thought it was for the best at that time." 

Gael nodded. "But the treaty was otherwise…sullied by the Morellis because of the drugs entering your territory. However…we couldn\'t help but doubt that your family wouldn\'t have known about it."

Damien shared a look with his cousin, and then he hesitated, "Actually… I\'ve known about it for a while now. But I didn\'t know who the source was."

"What do you mean?"

"I found out that my uncle Frederick started getting involved in the drug trade. I just wasn\'t sure who his source was. We would have known if they were the Mexicans, but now I have a feeling that they were the Morellis."

Giovanni addressed William, "You know about this?"

"I found out about it with Damien. We have nothing to do about it, and we want our hands clean from it."

"In any case…" Gael scanned their faces and looked into their eyes. "Both parties of the treaty have broken it. I think it\'s time to change everything. We\'re not our grandfathers and great grandfathers."

The corners of William\'s lips curled into a smirk as he asked, "And what is it that you want to demand for the new agreement?"

"First, lift the stupid thing about not \'inflicting any harm\' against an Esmean—at least, revise it so that we\'re allowed to make retributions as deemed fit."

"Done," Damien said quickly.

"Second, allow us to settle here—"

William softly chuckled, shaking his head. "Huh—"

"Let me finish." Gael glared at him for interrupting. William raised his hands in surrender and gestured for him to continue. "Angela is from Mayne. I can\'t ask her to move with me to New York full time because her family is here. All I ask is that my family…I would be allowed to have a home here."

"We can arrange that," Damien muttered.

"And… Lastly… Grant us passage to open some businesses here."

William was laughing now as if what he just said was terribly hilarious. "You truly are ambitious, Gael De Luca. I\'ve heard stories about you. Now you want us to give you a free passage, have you settled down, and plant your roots in our territory by putting up your businesses here? What do you want next? Have slaves lick your asshole too?" He leaned closer to Gael as if inspecting the other\'s eyes. "Are you high?"

"William," Damien warned his cousin, his eyes turning into slits.

"What? Don\'t tell me you\'re just going to hand over whatever they ask without something in return. It\'s supposed to be an agreement, not a dictatorship. Next thing you know, all of them have plagued our cities. What will our grandfathers think of us handing our territories on a golden platter?"

Damien pressed a hand on William\'s chest and placed himself between the two. "Calm down, will you? No one\'s handing over anything for free. Be patient."

Then he turned around and faced Gael. "But my cousin\'s right. We can\'t just hand over everything freely. You know very well it doesn\'t work that way."

"What do you want?"

"I have no qualms revising the first request you ask. The second and third requests… In exchange for your claims and testimony against the Morellis to be presented with the council to amend the agreement, we will allow your family to buy a home…or properties here. We\'ll also welcome your businesses—but only if they\'re legitimate ones. No dirty business. So that means your oil company can only come through after you vow its legitimacy—"

"How did you…"

"Did you really think I wouldn\'t know about it?" Damien chuckled. "Why do you think your progress is crawling?"

"Motherfucker…" Giovanni chuckled with a sneer, and the other just shrugged.

The asshole, Damien Park, had been behind the delays all along. Gael had some doubts someone was toying with him but actually finding out that it was Damien… He could only laugh. He had to admit, the prick was good.

"Furthermore, any businesses you run here, you\'ll give us the right to priority."

"Priority to what?" Giovanni questioned, his brows furrowing deeply. "You want us to pay you a fee to open a business here?"

"No. I\'m not a homeowners association." Damien rolled his eyes. "I meant right to priority as investors. No matter what you think of me, I\'m a businessman. I don\'t need to bully others into giving me free money. I don\'t want free money. But I like putting my money into worthy investments. And I want to be prioritized." He smirked.

Huh. Gael was suddenly at a loss for words.. He hadn\'t expected this from Damien Park at all.