Mafia Kings: Roberto: Dark Mafia Romance Series #5

Part 2

I was born the daughter of a Hong Kong triad boss.

But first you need to understand what ‘triad’ means.

There was once a Buddhist monastery called the Shaolin Temple. The monks were famous for their skill in martial arts – known in the West as ‘kung fu.’

In 1647, Manchurian invaders burned down the Shaolin temple and killed almost all of the monks.

That part is fact.

The rest is mostly legend.

The remaining monks dispersed throughout China and created secret societies to resist the Manchurians. The names of their groups evoked the triune relationship between heaven, earth, and man – hence ‘triads.’

Triad societies resisted invaders and tyrannical governments for the next 300 years. It was only when the Communists came to power that they met their match.

That’s the legend.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Here’s the reality:

By the early 20th century, triads were essentially gangs. Mao Zedong clamped down on them in 1949, and Deng Xiaoping went even further in 1978.

Facing extreme resistance from the government, most triad groups relocated to places outside mainland China – like Hong Kong, which was still controlled by the British.

Triad groups today are part of organized crime. There are literally dozens of them.

Their members are gangsters – extortionists, thieves, and murderers.

Like my father.

My father was a stern man. He always seemed to be angry about something. As a child, I mostly tried to stay out of his way.

I never saw him wear anything but long-sleeved dress shirts and suit jackets, even during the hottest months of summer. I always thought it was because he was a businessman; I didn’t find out until years later that he was hiding the gang tattoos on his arms.

My mother was quite beautiful. She was a socialite and threw exquisite parties for my parents’ rich friends. She was always busy, with little time for me or my brothers.

I was the youngest of three.

My oldest brother was quite studious. He wanted to be a doctor.

My next-oldest brother was a jock. He wanted to be a professional soccer player… or baseball player… or an MMA fighter. It changed from week to week.

Me?

I just wanted to be left alone.

I was a good student, but I was solitary and had no friends outside of school. I spent most of my time writing angsty poetry or watching movies on DVDs. I particularly loved heart-wrenching Korean dramas subtitled in Cantonese.

Control of Hong Kong reverted from the British to China in 1997. Because the communist government cracked down on entertainment from outside China, you couldn’t find Korean shows on TV or the internet.

However, my father somehow got DVD copies for me ‘from work.’

They were actually pirated bootlegs – just a tiny piece of the criminal empire my father oversaw.

My family was well-to-do, though not exorbitantly so. We lived in a gated community in the Peak, which is named for Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island.

The Peak is the most expensive neighborhood in all of Hong Kong. However, I went to private school with the children of tech millionaires, and my family certainly wasn’t as rich as them.

We owned expensive cars – but that was quite ordinary amongst my neighbors.

We had servants, but that was common, too.

The only odd thing was everyone else’s parents did something you could understand.

Most of them were bankers. There were some doctors, some lawyers, and a lot of old money.

I could tell people that my mother raised money for charities and threw parties.

But when they asked what my father did for a living, I could only reply, “He works in the city.”

When they asked Doing what, I would say, “I don’t know… but he gets me DVDs.”

That was all I knew about his job…

Until I was kidnapped.