Chapter 200 Dante's Roots Revealed
"Uhh, Mom? Why do you say that?" Dante tried his hardest to hide the shock in his voice, but Aileen seemed to detect it.
She sighed sadly and clasped her hands together nervously. "You know, unlike your dad, who you know your grandpa on their side, I've always told you your grandpa on my side was dead, right? Well… that's not true."
At this point, Dante felt he could go dizzy. "What do you mean, he's still alive to this day? Was there a conflict between you guys?"
"It's not as simple as a conflict, Dante. My father's name is Gavin Heineken. At the time, he was one of the heirs of the Heineken family's leadership, but before he met my mother, he lost the battle and became a 'waste,' so to speak," Aileen stated seriously.
What? Heineken? That Heineken? The ones who single-handedly sponsored the UEFA Champions League for so many years?!
"Don't be too surprised. It doesn't matter now though because when my father met my mother in his most downcast state, she managed to win his heart and gave him a reason to live again."
"As much as the family was against it, my father went ahead and married my mother, who was a Chinese immigrant with no background and no future apart from struggling in the lower class of Denmark for the rest of her life."
"Everything should have been perfect because despite the depictions, no one in his family really bothered to interfere with them. Who was bored enough to toy with my father who had already lost his rights to the throne of the family?"
Aileen crossed her legs and seemed to become colder. "Unfortunately for me, and probably everyone else, my mother didn't think so. She kept goading my father to reclaim his family honor and berated him constantly for being a coward of a man for conceding defeat."
"After all, my mother grew up in China, and her values were different from the west. The problem was, when she saw that my father was not going to change his ways for her, she set her sights on me."
"Much like your father and your Uncle, the trajectory of my life changed. Rather than live as a rich princess of a powerful business family, I began to undergo strict behavioral training. The goal was to make me adept in family politics and worm my way into seats of power in the Heineken family."
"Unfortunately for my dad and fortunately for my mother, I was good at it. Very good, in fact. So good that I soon learned that my father had become disillusioned by my mother's constant berating and harshness that he began to have affairs outside to seek emotional comfort."
Aileen glanced at her hands with a slightly dazed look. "Given my intelligence and ability back then, at the mere age of 14, it would have been easy for me to get the two of them to reconcile and come to an understanding because no matter the difference in beliefs, there was definitely love for each other."
"You know, my mother didn't even care much about money or power. She did house chores happily and found joy in the simple things. She only pushed for power because of her country and clansmen's beliefs."
"I naturally did not know this at the time, but in my heart was resentment for my mother for how strictly I was raised and confusion as well as disappointment in my father for easily succumbing to his weaknesses."
Aileen sighed and leaned back. "Rather than simply resolve things, I used this information to manipulate the two of them. The teenage years are the worst period for a human to go through, man or woman, because one had a limited and childish worldview that they - at the time - absolutely believed to be the fact."
"So I believed with my intelligence and skills, I could live freely wherever I wanted without the pressure of either parent on me. I conned my way into taking a load of money from my dad and traveled from Denmark to America."
"Of course, being a spiteful little teen, I decided to leave a 'gift' for my mother and played the evidence of my father's infidelity out in public when the two of them were scheduled to be at a program."
"The chaos and confusion that ensued for them gave me enough leeway to escape without being stopped. I never even looked back twice, excited to start my new life in the land of the free."
"I arrived here around 2003 and settled in quickly within Chinatown in Los Angeles due to my Asian genetics from my mother and of course, the large amount of money I had. I was able to live relatively comfortably and started studying Chemical Engineering at the University of California (LA)."
"But the money wouldn't last forever and without any qualifications to work yet, I was forced into debt really quickly. I managed to get a few scholarships for my tuition here and there thanks to my ability, but those did not solve the issue of rent and food."
"So I decided to put my old skills to the test and took a loan from a loan shark, taking over $500,000. It's an unbelievable amount and with no collateral, the only way I could convince him was using evidence of the money I brought over from Europe as well as proof of my heritage."
"Knowing I was from the Heineken family that saw billions a year, he even felt intimidated, and I knew how to act just to hit the point home. In his eyes, It was more of a young missy taking money ahead of time rather than being in deficit."
Aileen rubbed her knees with embarrassment. "I then used that money to buy foreclosed houses during the Recession of 2008, and then rented them out while staying in one myself. Gathering the rent monthly from the tenants allowed me to pay back the loan in bits and pieces that were more than enough to reach the agreed amount in time."
"Unfortunately for me, the loan shark was someone who had his ears on the ground and found out about my little trick. He became furious and thought I had duped him, which I had, but not in the way he thought."
"As such, I was captured by his hooligans and last met with fatal violence. They were dragging me away on the street in front of people, but no one dared step forward…"
Aileen then glanced at David and Peter, who were smiling slightly. "Apart from two brothers who rushed in wielding makeshift weapons they found around."
"Well, the rest is a long story, but your father and I got together in the end." Aileen abruptly stopped here as she blushed a bit.
Dante almost facepalmed. Mom, you just revealed bombshell-level information to me casually and got shy when it comes to the romance?
"So… what about my grandparents?" Dante asked Aileen tentatively.
Aileen went silent and seemed lost. "I… don't know. After leaving Denmark, I practically cut ties with everyone and everything I knew until then, and matters concerning these powerful families are not easily aired to the public."
"So I don't know how my parents resolved the matter, if it was ever resolved. I do know that they are alive because regardless of whether I ran away or not, or was even disowned, the family would summon me for their funeral."
The room became quiet for a while as everyone digested the information. Well, only Dante digested it because it seemed like David and Peter long knew about all of this.
In truth, with his capability, Dante could easily verify their stories and even the current state of his aunts on his dad's side and his grandparents on his mother's side, but he did not do so.
After all, Dante had no attachment or interest in them, only in how they affected the people he cared about, which were his parents. If they did not actively affect his parents, then he had no need to know or care about them.
Especially now with his power, technology, and ability, there was no longer a way for them to affect his parents unless his loved ones stepped forward to initiate contact with the other side.
Dante had a lot to think about in regards to how he would deal with the world and humanity, but first, he had to deal with something he put off for a significant while.
"Alright then. You guys have gone through some basic treatments to prep you for the upgrade, but now that I am here, I can directly oversee it. It's time to put you guys on par with every denizen of the Eternal Universe," Dante stated with a smile as he slapped his thighs and stood up.
David and Peter's eyes lit up as they stood up with a whoosh, while Aileen chuckled. Dante was also amused but understood his Dad and Uncle who were men and definitely would not say no to the idea of accumulating personal power.
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