Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 472 - 388: The Man Who Fears Marriage

In March, in Miami, on the azure sea, a white yacht drifted with the waves. From afar, it looked like a white waterbird gliding between the azure sea and the blue sky.

Link lay on the deck of the yacht, his upper body exposed, wearing only a pair of beach shorts and a pair of sunglasses. His skin shimmered with a metallic sheen under the sun, and his muscles, solid and powerful, appeared as though they were cast from iron.

Sitting opposite him was James, who had just boarded the yacht, wearing a baseball cap and also shirtless, showing off a plump expanse of white flesh. The waistband of his pants was tightly cinched around his belly, which almost seemed to spill onto the deck.

"Link, I've made up my mind to go to Los Angeles with you, New York is fine too," James said.

"It's too late, I don't want to take you now," Link replied, without looking up.

"Why? Staying here, part of me will always be here, and the thought of it is terrifying. I want to see the world outside, New York or Los Angeles," James pleaded.

"The outside world... It's just like that, nothing worth seeing, not as beautiful as Miami Beach," Link said casually, leafing through a magazine under the sunshade, not even lifting his head.

James scratched his chubby face, hesitated for a moment, then slumped into the deck chair resignedly.

"Link, I don't want to get married. I'm totally not ready for marriage," he confessed.

"It's too late for that. Lillian is already carrying your child. You say you don't want to marry now; what were you doing before?" Link pointed out, a slight curl to his lip.

More than ten days ago, Link had returned to Miami, worn out and ready to rest for a while.

But he'd heard that James got a new girlfriend named Lillian, a Latin girl, a bit overweight, not particularly beautiful but not ugly either, a fine match for James.

Lillian was an employee James hired last year for his dive shop, industrious and adroit, able to keep the place in tip-top order all on her own.

After working together for three to four months, they naturally ended up sleeping together.

Less than two months later, Lillian got pregnant and asked James what they should do.

James was terrified, so frightened that he fled to Daniel's shop to hide.

Lillian then turned to James' mother, Cathy, and told her about it.

Aunt Cathy knew Lillian and was very pleased with her as a daughter-in-law; she was grounded and capable, had a good disposition, and had even completed two years at a community college – a lot better than the girls James had known before.

She told Lillian she hoped she would keep the baby and even said she would make James marry her.

Latter, Aunt Cathy found James at Daniel's shop and told him to marry Lillian.

James flatly refused. His ideal wife was a hot-bodied, stunning beauty, not someone like Lillian, with a so-so face and a rather plump figure.

Stammering, he asked Cathy whether he could take Lillian to get an abortion.

Cathy slapped him across the face, telling him it was out of the question. She asked why he slept with her in the first place if he didn't think much of her and now didn't want to take responsibility now that she was pregnant. She demanded to know who he'd learned this from.

Cathy dragged him by the ear back home, let Lillian stay to nurture her pregnancy, and started preparing for their wedding. They would marry in two months.

As the wedding drew near, James became increasingly anxious. Seeing Link return, he pestered him every day about fleeing to Los Angeles or New York.

Link knew the entire story from Cathy and naturally wouldn't indulge James' whims. If he really took James to Los Angeles, Cathy would truly believe James had learned to be bad from him.

Lillian and the unborn child would blame him in the future, and he did not want to be the villain.

"Get married first. Once the child is born, you're welcome to come to Los Angeles or New York," Link suggested.

Link took a sip of lemonade, moistening his dry lips.

"I don't want to get married, I'm only 24 years old, I haven't had enough fun yet, and that child... I'm not ready to be a dad at all,"

James spread his hands and said.

Link gave him a glance. If it weren't for the store he owned and his U.S. citizenship, a guy like him would just end up as a bachelor in any other country—no one would be chasing to marry him and have his kids.

"There are two months left until the wedding, it's not too late to start preparing now. Also, Cathy is planning to open a small coffee shop downtown, and she's leaving you and Lillian to manage it. With a wife and kids, and the coffee shop, you could have a pretty good life."

"Don't you think that's terrifying? I've grown up without ever leaving Miami, and now I'm about to get married and become a dad, to be stuck with a coffee shop for life. It's too dreadful, life like that is predictable from miles away. I regret it now... I should have gone with you to Los Angeles earlier."

James said.

"So what if you went to Los Angeles? Parties are lively, but you can't party every day. Universal Studios, Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, Sunset Boulevard—these places are beautiful and bustling, but you'd get tired of them over time.

And those bars, dance halls, and clubs are just where bored people pass the time. The more you go, the more bored you'll become. Staying in Miami, staying where you like, might not be such a bad thing after all."

"That's not what you used to say. You always used to encourage me to go out."

"You didn't have a child back then,"

Link said.

It wasn't just because of the child, but also because of James's personality. Someone as internally weak as him would suffer even more in a big city. It was better for him to stay in the comfort zone of Miami.

As for the idea that living in a big city shapes you to become more mature and resilient, that doesn't apply to everyone.

Some people are naturally strong and tough; they turn into gold through hardships. But most end up as crushed fragments, and James was clearly not among the former.

Moreover, after living in New York and Los Angeles for over two years, Link's feelings for those places had evolved from initial yearning to a somewhat weary state.

To him, these two cities felt like bottomless quagmires, in which treasure chests labeled with wealth, fame, status, and lust lay hidden. The more you acquire, the heavier you become, sinking deeper and deeper.

Link had never considered himself covetous or lecherous; his goals had been a couple of beauties and savings of several hundred million.

But after witnessing the materialistic torrents of Hollywood and the extravagant opulence of Manhattan, one's character is subtly influenced, personal values contorted, and desires inflated to no end, making a person increasingly greedy, lustful, and vain.

Although Link had resisted and struggled against it, upon returning to Miami from those quagmires and reflecting on his actions over the past year, he realized all his struggles were fruitless.

Once someone enters the morass, they become part of it, even though at this moment his physical self may be floating on the surface of Miami Beach.

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Another societal aspect of him remains in New York and Los Angeles, with newspapers, TV, and the internet still broadcasting the things he did there.

As if he had never left.

Even someone considered strong like him couldn't stay true to himself after entering a big city, let alone James.

"Link, I heard about the child you had with Taylor..."

"Stop it,"

Link said.

"Oh, okay!"

James awkwardly scratched his face.