Editing Edward McHaggis (section)

=== The Yakuza Inference ===
Just as stability returned to Edward’s life, it was violently upended. One morning, Edward received a disturbing phone call followed by a letter delivered to his mailbox. The Yakuza had resurfaced—and they had kidnapped his wife, Luciana McHaggis, transporting her from Italy to Japan. It was a brutal message: Edward still owed a debt for abandoning the syndicate without performing the ritual yubitsume. They wanted payment—and now they had leverage.

Panicked and enraged, Edward immediately called Billy and Jim. He laid everything out—the past ties, the unfinished business, and the threat to Luciana. Without hesitation, they pledged support. Billy would manage Edward’s businesses, and Jim would assist in maintaining operations during his absence.

Edward contacted the Yakuza, a move made in desperation—but one that quickly backfired. They traced his call and confirmed his location in Los Santos. With no time to spare, Edward caught the first available flight to Japan.

Upon arrival, he was met by familiar faces—his former superiors in the Yakuza, men who once considered him a brother. They put him to work immediately, assigning him to low-level duties as a way to test his loyalty and extract further humiliation. He complied, not for them—but for Luciana. But tragedy struck. Despite the Yakuza leadership’s orders to keep Luciana alive, a group of undisciplined trainees attempted to harm her. The situation escalated beyond control, and she was murdered in captivity. Her death was brutal and senseless, and it shattered Edward.

Meanwhile, back in Los Santos, an old rival from Edward’s Yakuza days, [[Haruto]], arrived in the city. Sent by the Yakuza to seize Edward’s assets and funnel profits back to Japan, Haruto moved swiftly to assert control. But the syndicates had no tolerance for outside interference. Acting with unity, they captured Haruto, dragged him aboard a submarine, and eliminated him. His fate ended in the ocean—silent, deep, and final.

Edward returned to Los Santos a different man. He arrived in tears, broken from the loss of his wife. Jim met him at his agency in La Puerta. In a rare show of vulnerability, Jim shared his own history—he too had lost his wife to the Yakuza. They sat in quiet understanding, bonded not by power or profit, but by shared grief.

“You’re a real mate,” Edward said quietly. “I can count on you.”

He went home that night not as a kingpin, but as a man in mourning. Luciana’s death hardened him. The warmth, the restraint—it all began to fade. What returned to the city was someone colder, more ruthless. The Edward that followed would not make the same mistake again.