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Darth Rain
Joined: Mar 2008
Gender: Female 
Posts: 309
Location: Toronto, Canada
Karma: 0 |  | Chapters One - Five
« Thread Started on Mar 24, 2008, 9:41pm » | |
Part One: The Legacy
Here she was again at the place she had left long ago, the one she never wanted to return to. But the sacrifice had been made in her name and she must repay this debt, for he had never asked anything from her, he had always wanted the best for her. He had always been there when no one else had and now she must do this one last thing for him.
Oh how she hated him, the patriarch of this magnificent palace. How she despised all that he was and stood for. How she loathed him for unknowingly dragging her into his world. And now she must make her peace with him, because this was what her father would have wanted. She missed him desperately and wanted him to be proud of her, but first above all other hopes and dreams, she must have her revenge. She had waited so long for this moment, survived so much heartache, under-taken such hardship to stand here. And still he thought of her as nothing but a nuisance. But she was here and she would watch this play out, and by the end of it all, she would have him begging for redemption. Only then would she listen, and only then would she obey her father’s wishes; forgive the man that was regarded as her family but only by blood alone. She hoped her father wasn’t watching her from the skies above; she didn’t want him to see what all she had become.
She was a creature of darkness now, in many places she was known as the Black Raven, but her more common name was Soren Haze, another nom de plume but then she couldn’t very well be known as Elizabeth Morano in those circles. Life as she knew it would be over if that ever came out, and the revenge equation would be blown out of the water. How would she get her retribution then? Her plan demanded complete dedication, timing and patience, nothing could go wrong; contingencies had been made for that. All that mattered was that he paid the price for turning his back on her and their shared history.
So she stood there now watching her beloved grandfather greet his many guests and acquaintances to another one of his lavish bashes. This one was in honour of Max’s son’s twelfth birthday. So many dignitaries, so many people who owed him so much or even nothing at all, but who thought it would not be in good taste to shirk attendance. Grandfather had always been such a powerful figure here, he knew people in all the right places and in all he right ways. There’d always been rumours of his influence reaching out through to the corridors of power and to the places where the fate of the world was decided, but then rumours were just that, rumours. Even the world’s entertainment industry owed so much to him, Liz reflected, as she watched a posse of A-list celebrities and media moguls kow-tow to her Grandfather.
The only thing different about this party was that she knew that there were whispers already circulating around her. They all knew that Elizabeth Morano had left fifteen years ago under some difficult circumstances and had finally returned. It wasn’t like she was the prodigal daughter or the hope of the Family. It was just about the way she’d left. Her departure had been preceded by an argument and she had kept a stormy distance from her Grandfather ever since. And now here she was, standing beside the man whom she had once claimed she had hated. Liz stood by his side, smiling up at him and greeting his guests with such warmth and kindness.
Her grandfather’s words still reverberated in her head from when she’d made her entrance, “Well, well, well, if it isn’t dear Lizzie again. What rock have you been hiding under for so long? You left saying you would never return, what brought this about? Don’t tell me you need money, I’ve kept tabs on you, I know you’re doing just fine. So then, what is it? Ready to ask for forgiveness, ready to return to the Family fold? What is it Elizabeth, what made you come crawling back to me?”
She had never believed anyone could be as malicious until she had met him. Her own flesh and blood, her dear Grandfather, the patriarch of the Morano Family was the most despicable being she had ever met. It took a lot of skill to keep a straight face as she answered him. What she wouldn’t give to wipe that nasty smirk off of his face. But she kept her cool, “I thought it was time, Christmas is almost here and I know Father wanted us to be close. I can’t let my father be upset with me even if he is gone, so I came back to make amends before it’s too late.”
“What, you think I’m gonna keel over and die any second? Even if that happens you know you won’t get anything out of it. Why bother returning?” he replied.
“You are my flesh and blood, I cannot ignore you even if I wanted to. Besides I have a good reason not to, I need your help. This guy, he’s been stalking me, demanding things, I need you to get him off my back,” she asked politely, deliberately adding a hint of desperation. She knew he would never accept anything but total submission. Letting him think he held something over her would make it that much easier for him to accept her back without getting suspicious.
He snorted in derision, “I thought so, why would you have come back unless you wanted something?”
Yeah, she thought bitterly, ‘When had anyone ever cared unless they wanted something. Keep digging your grave you miserable old fucker, your time is almost up.’
“Who’d wanna stalk you?” it was a rude intrusion into their private conversation.
‘Yeah,’ she thought, ‘ofcourse he would be right behind him, those two can never be parted these days can they?’
Maxwell Evans had been listening through the paper-thin walls of the study, after all that was their purpose. When she had been seen on the outside perimeter, her presence had stirred up quite some trouble. Security hadn’t known what to do until her car had reached the gates and she’d actually asked the guards if she could speak with her Grandfather. After all who could deny her that, she was the last of the Morano line. Ofcourse the title now went to Max, as he was now the heir apparent, yet an aura of doubt and suspicion still remained. ‘What the fuck did she want? Why had the bitch returned after all this time? Why the hell wasn’t she lying dead in a puddle of her own filth?’
Yet it had all come to a head when he heard her speaking to her dear old granddad. He couldn’t let her do that now could he? Not when he already had sealed the deal, when the ring was his. Everyone knew that as soon as the old geezer kicked off, Maxwell Evans would be the head of all the families, he would be Godfather. But all that flew out of his mind as he swore; all he saw was Elizabeth Morano fifteen years older and with nothing to show for it. She looked exactly like she had that night when she had fled in anger and rage, slamming the door behind her, those words of her’s echoing ominously around the front hall. And here she was again; so beautiful that it took him a few seconds to regain his breath and he knew he’d answered his own question. ‘Fuck her for being alive, fuck her for being the same, and fuck her for still turning him on.’
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Rain StormRaider
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Darth Rain
Joined: Mar 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 309
Location: Toronto, Canada
Karma: 0 | | Re: Chapters One - Five
« Reply #1 on Mar 24, 2008, 9:43pm » | |
Part Two: The Promise
She’d been ten and he was twelve and very much an anomaly, here was something that was denied to her. She had been forbidden to have any contact with him. Yet here he stood, just a little away from her, staring down at his reflection in the water and she felt something akin to fear rise up in her throat. How could he stare at the water for so long? All that time, so quiet and so still, like he never even noticed that she stood by him, skimming the surface with her toes. He turned toward her suddenly and they both held their breaths. To her he seemed like something out of a dream, his eyes were so deep and so unreal, she knew that none of the other boys ever looked at her like that.
Her eyes were so expressive, so silent, so strange. They were like two intimate pools of dark deepness that called to him, begging him to immerse himself in them. She really was something out of a dream he thought, maybe a vision or an angel. Maybe Isabel was right, angels did exist, maybe this one knew his mother. When he reached out his hand to grasp hers, a shock went through his system and he felt her tremble as well. For some reason the contact did not seem enough and he leaned in to encompass her in his arms.
Maybe he’d forgotten that he’d been staring at the water, maybe he’d forgotten everything else. When he reached out for her it caused them both to fall into the pool, a dull splash surrounding them. Under the water her hair floated around her and she remained still just staring into him, waiting for his eyes to become one with the water but they never did.
It was tentative at first but he reached for her again and with his lips traced the contours of her face. When he came to her lips it was not with the innocence of youth nor the naïveté of ignorance, but a fierce longing that he licked her lips and waited for her to let him enter her mouth. He did not have to wait very long as she opened her mouth in surprise and all that was to come out died in her throat unsaid. They did not surface until the issue of breath came between them and when they did the sun had already set.
She shivered as the water cooled her skin and noticing this he wrapped his arms even more tightly around her. When they heard voices come toward them he led her gently into the grotto far from prying eyes. They were so young but already they knew that something unexpected had begun. Something that they had to keep from others, something that could only remain between them.
Much later they would both regret ever meeting that day, regret what had happened between them, but somewhere in the secret depths of their hearts the question would remain. If they had chosen a different path from the one they had eventually taken, would it have led them to each other?
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Rain StormRaider
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Darth Rain
Joined: Mar 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 309
Location: Toronto, Canada
Karma: 0 | | Re: Chapters One - Five
« Reply #2 on Mar 24, 2008, 9:44pm » | |
Part Three: Destiny
“Why the fuck did you come back? I thought you’d gotten the stupid dreams out of your head Liz. Don’t you know that no matter what the fuck you try, this family will never be yours. You’re not even a man; you think you would have ever stood a chance at being Godfather? Oh fuck I forgot, I meant Godmother. How fucked up is that?” he whispered into her ear maliciously, looking to the rest of his audience as if he was sharing a secret moment with his ex-lover. And there were a lot of people watching; the rumours of their secret dalliance were well known. Now at his own son’s coming of age celebration, Maxwell Evans had become the centre of gossip. There he stood talking to Elizabeth Morano, the daughter who had finally come home.
Tessa Evans ofcourse did not look too happy at the appearance of her rival. As she tried to ignore what was happening at the garden entrance across from the pool, in her heart, doubts seethed and fear burned, but above all other emotions was rage. ‘How dare Max let Elizabeth Morano stand so close to him? How dare he whisper what appeared to be endearments into her ear while, she, his own wife was watching? How dare Maxwell Evans even think that this may not go unnoticed? What the hell would everybody else think?’
Ofcourse dear old Granddad thought it was hilarious, only the Inner Circle knew of Max’s hatred for Liz and her’s for him. Everyone knew that it was an ingenious strategy on his part that had won him the right to wear the ring. If he hadn’t pulled the rug from under Liz’s feet as he had, she might have become Godfather. And everyone knew that that was not what Claude Morano wanted, no woman from his house would ever rule his empire. A woman’s place was always in the kitchen and in the bedroom, nowhere else. It was his damn fool of a son and his stupid dreams that had led them here. Now she had returned, trying to suck him dry like the leech she was. Sometimes he wished she were dead, it would make that one less thing to worry about.
He knew she was up to something, here she was trying to kiss ass. ‘This stank of hidden motives, but who was he to care. She was a woman, surely the only deeper thought she would have would be to connive him out of money or something else. Liz wasn’t smart enough to be planning anything bigger,’ he sighed at his thoughts. Sometimes he wished Jeff were still alive, even if he was idealistic atleast his son had been smart. As much as he trusted Max to be able to fill his shoes when he stepped down, Claude had always wished his own son to be doing that. Jeff had always been the good one, if it hadn’t been for the murder, his son would have been Godfather by now. He could have retired and watched his granddaughter grow into a woman of calibre and good breeding rather than this insipid little poser. Elizabeth had ruined everything, if she had died instead of Jeff, he would have seen his son married again and maybe he’d have had a grandson instead of Elizabeth. She was too up her own ass, thinking she was entitled to something just because she was blood. He would teach her to remain in the background and not push her way into the family business. The order still remained, he was hoping she made a wrong move and then he could have her iced. It would be so good to be rid of another inconvenience.
He would not have been surprised to know that Maxwell Evans was thinking the same thing, only he wanted to kill her himself. Nothing would satisfy him more than the blood of his archenemy on hands. It would be good to be rid of the lingering doubts that haunted him. He never wanted to find out if Liz could be able to connive her way into the family business again.
Elizabeth ofcourse was really feeling the love from all sides. Her grandfather she knew wanted her silenced forever, so did Maxwell and his beloved wife Tessa. The only one who’d been truly happy to see her was Cousin Maria and Isabel, everyone else would be happier if she were dead and buried. It saddened her to think that at one time she had loved these people, that she had been naïve enough to think that love was stronger than anything else. As always it depended on power, ambition, lust and revenge. She never wanted Zeher to grow up in this world. That is why she had always kept her daughter away from here, never told her about her heritage. Liz wanted Zeher to be free from all this, free to live in peace and quiet.
Above all other things she still had to keep the promise she’d made to her father. He’d wanted her to take his place and be heir to the family business. Jeff hadn’t even realised how deep his father’s utter disregard for women and specifically, his granddaughter ran. Now she’d make her father’s dream come true, but not without bringing House Morano to its knees and making Grandfather and Maxwell Evans pay for what they had done. It would be a long time coming but Elizabeth Parker Morano would win, she never lost and this victory may be bittersweet, because her Father was gone, yet it would be complete nonetheless...
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Rain StormRaider
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Darth Rain
Joined: Mar 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 309
Location: Toronto, Canada
Karma: 0 | | Re: Chapters One - Five
« Reply #3 on Mar 24, 2008, 9:45pm » | |
Part Four: The Price We Pay
She remembered that night quite well, it had been the worst, only yesterday she had discovered she was pregnant with the child of a man she loathed beyond all others, and now her world was ending. Not literally ofcourse, but it was the end of her dreams, the demise of her hopes, yet she had known this was coming and even at sixteen no one had ever actually believed she was stupid. She had made contingency plans; she had known what would happen. The whispers had made her aware of her predicament long ago and at first she wouldn’t have minded throwing caution to the wind; that had actually been her plan all along.
She had wanted to confront the one she hated most in this world but now she had to think of someone beside herself. She wanted to give the life that was growing inside of her a chance at becoming greater than she had ever been. Liz Morano wanted freedom, but that day had changed everything.
It had been the middle of the night and she’d had an epiphany. She knew that Maxwell Evans and she were long since through with each other. Yet it was his child that she carried within her and a little part of her still felt something for him. She wanted the life within her to give Max a chance to redeem himself and though she promised herself he would never know about his offspring atleast now she had a consolation prize.
She knew Grandfather would give the ring to Max and not her, she didn’t have to turn to gossip to know that, it was her gut instinct telling her so. But she had stayed up the whole night, carefully planning this confrontation, knowing how to turn this obvious defeat into a victory. She knew that if she caused trouble, Grandfather would be only too happy to have her permanently silenced, she knew he was not above that. So she had planned ahead, she knew if she severed ties, Grandfather and Max would have nothing to fear and would dismiss her as being a threat completely. She had to play into their idea of a woman, weak, vulnerable and easily dissuaded and then she could begin her revenge.
Now that she thought about it almost fifteen years later, she wondered how Grandfather never figured it out. Even before then, when she’d been younger she’d made her own plans, formed her own ties within the Mob but her Grandfather and now Max had been totally unaware of the threat she represented. Even now they still thought she was nothing but a minor issue to be handled within the family.
Liz headed away from the party, and into one of the anterooms of the huge floor. She glanced around surreptitiously to ensure that she was alone before she reached into her bra and pulled out her tiny communication device. It had been a prototype that had impressed her greatly. The tiny device was the size of her smallest toenail and as she pressed a button on it to activate it, she marvelled at the device’s genius. It wasn’t even available to any of the international Intel networks, far be it that it was on the black-market, but through her connections she had gotten one of the first ever manufactured. There were only ten of these devices available in the world, created through technology that did not exist yet and used by those who wanted to remain invisible. So here she was one of those few privileged, whispering into it, “Begin Phase Two now.” Into her ear came a quiet reply, “As you command Soren.”
And so it had begun, it was the end of one era and the birth of another, and after this none would forget the name Soren Haze. This was the life she had created for herself and this was the name that would be feared by Morano Enterprises for a long time to come. The Family would pay for what had happened to her, for what she had become and what they had done to her. She’d always remembered the old maxim well: Never Forgive, Never Forget...
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