Pretending to Be an Untouchable Crime Boss-Chapter 91: Legacy.

James stood still, it was a strange situation.

Just minutes ago, they were having an emotional talk, and now Bella had completely changed after he mentioned that she needed to choose between work and love.

If it weren't for the pill, I would've already gone mental.

"I said give me a kiss!" She said again, leaning into James's face, and he couldn't do anything else at the moment.

So, he gave her a kiss, but it wasn't enough for Bella. She grabbed James's head and well…went crazy.

The sound of their kissing echoed in the living room until James's mother showed up.

"Am I bothering…?" She asked, as she was embarrassed to see her son being devoured by Bella.

Bella, too, got embarrassed and pulled back from James.

"No! I'm going to sleep!" She said, like a robot, and ran past Erika up the stairs, like nothing happened.

James just stood there, looking lost, until he realized this was Bella's way of responding to him and her way of handling the deep conversation they had just had.

Erika took a second but walked over to him and opened his hand, placing all the pills James needed to take.

"Take it before you collapse." She then placed a glass of water in his hand.

He didn't answer, just took the pills and swallowed them, then sat back down on the couch and stared at his mother, who was doing something he kind of knew by now.

As she sat down, she also took some pills.

"What was that?" He asked.

Erika smiled, shook her head. "Just some pills to stop myself from crying myself to sleep… and maybe I took some of your sedatives… they gave you too much."

"Just be careful with them, Mom."

She smiled. "I will, don't worry." She took a small moment to look at James, checking out his skin, the bags under his eyes. "How was the meeting with that guy?"

"It was crazy, to say the least. He's passionate about what he said, but it's too much to handle, even though I want to work with him."

"What was it about?" She asked, her voice a little hesitant.

"Giving hope to people who live desperate lives."

Her mother was kind of shocked by what James said, because she never imagined he would want to do such a thing.

It was her problem, because in her mind, James was a criminal who did things for money, not someone who wanted to help people.

She realized she knew little about who her son really was.

"Would you really help them?" She asked him as she looked into his eyes, trying to spot any signs of lies.

"Yeah, I would. Because people are the reason I am who I am today. They put me on the map, even though I never wanted it, so why not give back?" He smiled. "I pay my workers well because, without me, they wouldn't even be able to eat. And if it weren't for them, we wouldn't be sitting in this mansion."

"And what's in it for you? If you help them, you would get more profit too, am I right?"

"Yeah, you're right, but it also means more people would work for me, and with that, more danger would come too and I can't let that happen."

Her mother stayed silent as she thought about it.

"You're wrong with all your thoughts, and I know exactly why."

"What?" James asked, confused.

"You think about it like a criminal. How would you manage that many people, right?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I mean, if I do that, it'll just cause more trouble."

"That's the problem, son. Why not just create legitimate companies? With those companies, you can legally have people working for you."

James's eyes widened as his mother said something he never expected to hear.

She was helping him.

"It would be the best idea. Let's say you start a legitimate company making tires. You hire 1,000 people, 300 of them will work on the tires, while the other 700 will do whatever they need to.. I don't know how you do it, the offshore accounts and things like that, but you already have companies like this."

James's mouth hung open. He couldn't say anything. It was actually a brilliant idea, but he had never even considered it for a second.

Legitimate companies would help him easily hire thousands of people, and the money they made could be easily written off with the number of bribed officials he had.

"But that would take years to set up." He said, scratching his chin as he thought about it more and more.

"You said you have a forestry, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I have a forestry business, a marketing agency, and a real estate company."

"Then it's perfect. Think about it, you can use the forestry business to hire people. Let's say you buy the land near the villages, and with the real estate company, you can build houses or whatever you want, all fully legal. You already have the resources, son, you just thought about it the wrong way."

How the fuck did I not think of all this? I was thinking about myself like a warlord or some shit…

"You seem passionate about it, Mom. I never thought you would help me do something like this."

Erika suddenly looked down at the floor, avoiding James's eyes.

"If you can help people who are in the same position we were in, then I fully support you. I don't care if it's drug production or anything else, I will stay with you." She said, looking back up at James. "And Rafael needs a legacy."

"Legacy?" James asked, searching for an answer in his mother's face, but she just smiled.

"Yeah. Wouldn't it sound good if a big company was named after him? I think he would be proud of that, his name helping people out."

In that moment, James's thoughts swirled back to his conversation with Bella and what she hadn't told him.

Would Rafael really be proud of it? A company fueled by illegal money, profited from blood.

Would he truly be proud of it all, or was it just an act?

"You don't believe it, do you?" Erika asked as she shook her head. "But don't question it, because he would be proud. He loved you, James, even if it didn't look that way. And I want you to never question that. No matter how it started, no matter how bloody the road was, you built something, James. And you still have the chance to turn it into something greater. Something that helps people rather than using them.

James chuckled. "You sound like you want me to be a saint, Mom."

"No, sweetheart. You'll never be a saint. But that doesn't mean you can't be more than just a monster."

Her words settled deep within him, stirring something he hadn't felt in a long time.

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Maybe she was right. Maybe it was time to build something real.

Something that lasted.

Something Rafael could be proud of.