Prologue
Develop a strong mind and you will lead a strong life.
~ FearlessMotivation.com
5 Months Ago . . .
Sakura
Two screaming voices echo through the wide halls and I take in a deep breath, closing my eyes, wishing I was anywhere but here. This has been the cycle of my family for the last few months— yelling, every single night.
Both my father and my mother’s men act like they don’t hear it, but they do. They hear two people angered by the fact their eldest daughter is dead, blaming one another for her walking away from our family. Yet as they do so, they simply shove their own insecurities on the other person.
I pick up the oversized skirt of my white lace dress and sit up a bit straighter on the couch outside of my father’s office. You see, my father is Hiromitsu Kobayashi, the Emperor of Japan. Meanwhile, my mother is Sora, who plays the dutiful wife by day, constantly tricking the Japanese media’s eye. At night she doesn’t play the same part. Instead, she turns into the cruelest most vile of all women— the leader of the Yakuza, or in other words, the woman in charge of the Japanese Mafia.
Since I’m their prodigal daughter I’m required to have dinner with them every evening during the week unless I’m out of the country on business. Luckily, the weekends are for myself. We have a tradition to eat with one another and enjoy sake afterward. Although, tonight I won’t be drinking. Every evening I’m here, they both go into the office ahead of me and it’s always the same. They can’t even last five minutes alone in a room together without going at each other’s throats, ready to slice a jugular.
Months ago we discovered my sister, Asami, was murdered by a motorcycle gang out in America. When it came to my sister, things were complicated at best. She was eleven years older than I and honestly, she was the strongest one out of the two of us. Asami was a vigorous, determined woman. At first when she left I was scared, but I knew in my heart she’d be fine. Asami always found a way to get out of whatever threat was in front of her.
My mother and father usually undermine the other. However, this time things were different. They didn’t go behind the other’s back and hurt the people who she was staying with. The only reason they didn’t go after the Reapers MC is because I convinced my family they weren’t the ones who hurt her. They didn’t burn their entire clubhouse to the ground on purpose, that Asami was killed in the heat of war, and how we couldn’t go there and rip Sydney from the only family she’s ever known.
Sydney is Asami’s daughter, one who is dearly loved by the men and women of this club from what I can see. I’ve had my ex-boyfriend, Lucian, sending me satellite images of them as well as having one of his men located close by. Lucian is a hacker with undeniable talent. Someone who I wished things could’ve worked out with, but they never will. We’re two different people. Two different people who never have a problem falling back under the same sheets beside the other.
Things have been heated enough already. My godfather, Eduardo Diaz, got into a huge argument with my father. I don’t know what it was about, but my godfather did send me a text message apologizing for leaving so abruptly.
Unlike my father, my godfather isn’t a politician. He’s the type of man who uses his hands to get the job done. However, he’s just as deadly as my father. He’s the cousin of the current Mexican Cartel leader, Francisco Lopez. Before the Cartel was being run by a man named Rafael Ramirez, and he made a massive mess of things from what my godfather tells me.
I shift my eyes back to the dark bamboo doors, seeing the shadows of my parents throwing their hands up in the air.
I decide enough is enough after sitting here for over twenty minutes and approach the door. Sliding it open, I glare right at my parents, who always seem to act like children. “Unlike you, I have somewhere to be tonight.”
My father raises his brows while my mother shoots a glare right back at me. “What is so important that you would leave your family. Hmm?” She questions, walking up to me. “You have a fancy date or something?”
I roll my eyes, not even bothering to respond to her ridiculous question, “I’m going down to the women’s shelter this evening to give exams to anyone who needs it.”
“Why do you even bother going to that place?” My father asks, turning his nose up in disgust.
“The place you prefer to have media shots at? You know, with the battered women and children.” My father is sickening. Any time he’s ever seen in a low-income area or at a shelter is because he’s trying to make himself look better in the public eye. Meanwhile, I’m the one who attended college until I was able to be a fully certified nurse practitioner. Much to my parents’ dismay. You see, they prefer I’d simply be a public figure and completely reliant on them.
They might think I’m incoherent, although I know what they’re doing. They don’t want me to achieve anything in life because it will make me fully reliant on them.
Father sneers, while shaking his head in a disapproving way. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Yes, you’re right. I don’t understand why you don’t genuinely want to help them— your people. Do you even care that domestic violence has been the highest it’s ever been? Women and children leave their homes to go to shelters where they have to share a bed or sleep on the floor. How does that not matter to you?”
“What happens in someone’s home is none of our business,” He’s quick to respond.
“But what happens in ours, is. You must stop practicing medicine, Sakura. It’s only going to your head and we need you to be a Kobayashi, not a pretend doctor.” Mother is quick to interject. I assume she’s joking at first, but then I remember, she doesn’t know how to tell a fucking joke.
“Are you truly telling me to give up something that helps the people who need it most?” I bellow, angered beyond belief.
“I am. It’s something you never needed to do. We need you to be Sakura Kobayashi, daughter of the Emperor. Your job is to be a political cannon, nothing more. So, go off and treat these lower-class individuals tonight because it will be the last time you act as a vigilante, trying to make the world a better place. You are our daughter whether you choose to accept it or not. Us Kobayashis, we don’t make the world better Sakura. Surely you understand that.”
The cruel reality of what they’re both asking me to do cuts through me like a rusted out saw. They want me to give up the one thing that brings me joy, the thing that helps the ones who need it most . . . all to be their pawn.
I know my sister had her own reasons for leaving our family, but until today I didn’t understand them. I will go to the shelter tonight and help whoever I can, however, I’ll be calling my godfather on the way and getting the soonest available flight out to Mexico.
I can’t be here anymore, and I know the moment they realize what I’m doing they’ll come after me harder than they’ve ever hunted anyone down.
Chapter One
Family is supposed to be where we find our safe haven. Very often, it’s the place where we find the deepest heartache.