Never Judge

"Al, why are you still up?" Ray Laurence asked as he walked into the living room to find his son studying something on his tablet.

Aldrich Laurence had never been the studious type, things surprisingly came naturally to him.

"I'm trying to learn more about the underworld dad." Al admitted as his father sat down next to him trying to look over his shoulder.

Unfortunately for Ray, he couldn't see the articles clearly since Al had the screen at it's lowest setting.

"What have you learned so far?" Ray asked his son as he tried a different approach.

As Aldrich Lawrence grew up, Ray was starting to lose hope that his son was interested in taking over the family business.

Al did as his parents asked.

He attended his classes, trained with some of Ray's best fighters, but he never showed enough interest to hint that he was willing to do more than he was asked.

"Well for one, I know you can control if certain activities are caught, so why don't you just cover them all up? Why let the press and police find out about illegal activities?" Al asked his father as he looked up from the tablet.

Ray smiled and patted his son on the head.

"Prison is a place we use to remind the people working in the underworld who is in charge. Some, however, slip through our intervention and stay in prison to help us keep control of it." Ray explained to his son.

"Why does the gossip column contain information about the king of the Underworld? Isn't your identity supposed to be a secret?" Al asked as he continued to question his father.

He was genuinely curious about these things and taking his cousin's advice he decided to ask his father.

"It is a form of protection." Ray explained to his son. "Did you check what the gossip columns said about the king of the Underworld or what they called him?"

Al shook his head, he didn't check what was written about his father.

Ray chuckled in amusement. He didn't think that his son wouldn't even open the articles.

"We play on the image they see in stories." Ray began to say as he placed his hand out asking for the tablet.

Al gave it to his father and watched the man type in the familiar website owned by his Uncle Ramon Abad.

"They call me the Mafia Lord." Ray grinned as he showed his son the article.

"Sounds like a character from one of those novels aunt Veronica reads." Al teased as he read what was written.

"I'm pretty sure it was Veronica that came up with that name and your Aunt Nicole took the descriptions from those novels and just keeps putting it in those articles." Ray pointed out as Al laughed at what was written.

"It says here the Mafia Lord is a man in his early twenties. He is cold to all those around him and is averse to the female touch." Al laughed as he looked at his father. "You're in your fifties! He pointed out, plus you never let go of mom."

Ray smiled at his son and nodded.

"If the public are somehow in love with the idea of the Mafia, the Gangs, the Mafia Lord, they will not ask for the King of the Underworld to be arrested." Ray explained. "It makes things much easier for both me and your uncle Alexi."

Al nodded as he fully understood his father's reasoning.

"There is so much more I wish I could teach you about that part of our family, but I wasn't sure you wanted to learn." Ray explained to his son as he shook his head and sighed.

Al looked up at his dad and was surprised to see the older man smiling.

"I thought I would be forced to learn whether I wanted to or not? Do I have a say on whether I become the next King of the Underworld?" He asked his father.

Al was not lying.

All his life he was led to believe that the position as King of the Underworld was simply his to inherit.

It didn't matter if a young man like him wanted it or not, the only thing that mattered was that he was the eldest son of the Lawrence family.

"You will always have a choice, Al." Ray said as he placed his hands on his son's shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "The position is earned, not inherited. You are too young now, but when you are ready we will take you to join the mafia or the gangs, whichever you choose."

"What if I didn't want this?" Al asked his father.

"Then you could walk away." Ray easily answered his son, surprising the young man. "The Laurence family is worth much more than the underworld, you have to understand that."

"Who would take over?"

"Maybe one of your uncle Alexi's kids? Or maybe even Christopher? What matters to me and your mother is that you are happy." Ray told his son.

"They are all idiots, they would expose the underworld in a day." Al said as he laughed at the thought of one of his cousins being in charge of all the Mafia and Gangs in the country.

"They are still young, you can't know that for sure." Ray said, smiling at his son.

"Well you don't need to even consider them, dad. Because this is what I want. I want to learn more." Al said in a determined tone.

Ray couldn't help but feel proud at that moment. He had truly lost hope that his eldest son would want to be part of the underworld.

He had lived all his life mostly exposed to the Reyes family and to the legitimate side of being a Laurence.

"You are too young for certain things, but I don't see any harm in you sitting in during meetings or acting as my assistant. If you are willing." Ray told his son as he began to draw up a plan for Al's training.

"I am willing." Al nodded as he smiled at his father.

"If you will be involved, you'll need to increase your martial arts training and your time in the gun range." Ray warned his son.

"I'll do it." Al promised.

"And no missing classes." Ray knew the importance of his son having a normal life. He wasn't about to pull him out of school just to prepare him for his future.

"I actually enjoy school now, dad." Al groaned. He had many reasons not to miss school, one of which being his mission.

"Good, I'll have someone fix your schedule for you. Now go to bed, you still have class in the morning."

Al nodded as he quickly ran up the stairs, excited about the prospect of the future.