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“You’ll do better if you just focus on computers and games,” he says almost dismissively.
He doesn’t find what I do with my life meaningful.I wish he would take me more seriously, but I can’t change the man, can I?
“This job requires years of training.I spent hours in combat.This isn’t some video game you can turn on and off when it’s convenient for you.”
I fucking know that.
The biggest problem with my father is that he doesn’t believe in me, and yet I’m still here.I need him to teach me the ropes.He has to finish what he started long ago.
If he could, he’d disown me and adopt another kid who he could be proud of.
Dad wants perfection.I’m anything but perfect.
Arthur Bradley, former Ranger, security consultant, and bodyguard to celebrities, deserves a better son.He’s a war hero—a decorated US soldier.
And what am I?I’m a disgrace.
A kid who had more health problems while growing up than the WebMD database.Epilepsy, asthma, and several allergies… I didn’t qualify to be in the Army and follow in his footsteps.
He had high hopes.Dad’s been training me since the age of… I can’t remember.I was young.Instead of teaching me to throw a ball, he taught me how to shoot.I began to practice basic martial arts at the age of four.
It wasn’t until I turned six that I began proper training in Judo and Karate.Slowly, he added Aikido, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Kung Fu, and even Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.Social services might frown upon my upbringing.
At nineteen, I can kill someone with a paperclip—it’s possible.I can handle knives, swords, and the occasional cooking pan.
“You never know when you have to defend yourself, Mason.Everything is a weapon if you know how to use it.Even a pen,” he said once when he handed me a sixteen-inch pan and told me to defend myself.
No, I didn’t have a normal childhood.Mom also pushed me to become… who knows what she wanted me to be.
Dad trained me to be a warrior, but my mother didn’t want that.She fought back by hiring tutors who shaped me intellectually instead.
She probably wanted me to become a scientist of sorts.Thanks to her, I speak seven languages, play two instruments—badly—and finished college before turning eighteen.
Numbers are my best friends.
I can solve mathematical problems within minutes.I’m good at programming—computers are my first language.It’s to no one’s surprise that I know how to shoot or throw a knife at a certain angle to hit my target.
Everything I am, I owe it to my parents and their pathetic divorce.They called it quits before I was a year old.I assume it wasn’t amicable since they continue fighting every chance they get.I’m their pawn in this ridiculous war.My parents ensured I didn’t enjoy my childhood.
There are advantages to being raised as, what I like to call, a future super-soldier.
At sixteen, I developed my first video game.Dad helped me sell it and afterward create a company.I could’ve emancipated myself and put a stop to my parents’ feud, but I didn’t.Instead, I chose to move in with my father so I could finish my training.
War doesn’t intrigue me, but security consulting and protection do.I want to do what special forces do, but with more liberty and under my rules using my resources.
I want to learn how to infiltrate a place, be almost invisible, and capture a drug lord, human trafficker, or even a dictator.
One day, I’ll set up a company that can work cases governments can’t because of the political implications.It’s a different way to fight battles and create a better world.Dad doesn’t think I can do it, but he humors me by training me and letting me join when he’s working cases.
However, there are days like today that I’m about to get on his last nerve.It’s time to either retreat or listen to him and stay frozen while we observe.
“Mason, I don’t understand what you’re trying to do.You’re a successful software engineer.You could build an empire with your knowledge.”
“Or I could save lives if I combine my training with said knowledge.”
He shakes his head, exasperated.“Sometimes, you can’t have everything, and you need to make a choice.”
I almost laugh.Neither he nor my mother gave me a chance to pick one thing.I had to do it all to please them.Now that I want to combine everything I learned, he wants me to choose.Not only that, but he wants me to take on the one thing he didn’t teach me.
