I sank into my seat, staring at my father, trying to wrap my head around what he’d just said. Marlon cleared his throat quietly beside him.
“So… I have to stay with him?” I repeated, like maybe saying it out loud would make it sound less insane. “Daddy, this is absurd. You can’t just?—”
He held up a hand. “I can and I did. It’s settled. You leave today.”
“Today?!” My voice shot up an octave. “Are you—Dad, I have things to do in Milan! I can’t just?—”
“You’ve done enough,” he snapped, the anger rolling back in. “You’ve embarrassed this family and this company for thelast time, Aurora. Do you even understand the kind of mess you caused last night?”
I felt my throat close.
The party got out of hand, sure, but nobody died. But the way he was looking at me, disappointment written all over his face, made the argument die on my tongue.
“You’ve had every opportunity handed to you,” he continued. “Every resource. Every safety net. And this is what you do with it? You’ve become careless and reckless and for what? So people can think you’re fun?”
“Dad…”
“I don’t even recognize you anymore. I really thought I raised you better than this.”
I laughed quietly, but it cracked halfway out. “You didn’t exactly raise me, remember?”
He looked at me then, and whatever softness might’ve been there once was gone.
“I may not have been perfect, Aurora,” he said evenly, “but I expected more from you. I’m disappointed.”
I couldn’t even look at him. My chest tightened, hot and shaky, and I blinked fast before the tears could win.
But they did anyway. Big, unstoppable tears that came with hiccups and shaky breaths. I wasn’t even trying to stop them at that point.
With these tears, my dad buckled.
“Rory, baby,” Dad said, instantly panicking. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.”
“Oh my God,” Marlon muttered under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose .
“I just don’t understand,” I sniffled between gasps, “h-how can you do this to me!”
“Sweetheart—”
“You said you loved me!” I cried, and even I knew how dramatic that sounded, but I was too far gone to care. “Now you’re shipping me off to the middle of nowhere with some—some random man! Am I that bad?!”
Dad groaned and ran a hand over his face. “You’re not that bad, baby. I just need you to get some perspective?—”
“Perspective?!” I shot back, tears dripping down my chin. “You mean punishment! This is punishment! You’re sending me off to work with him!” I pointed at Marlon like he was the villain in a soap opera.
Marlon looked unimpressed. “I ain’t running a labor camp.”
“You might as well be!” I said. “Besides, you don’t even like me!”
He raised an eyebrow. “After last night’s little hotel stunt, you owe me money. And you can stop all that crying shit. Tears don’t move me.”
“Marlon!” Dad snapped.
I gasped. “See? See how mean he is?” I wiped my nose with a napkin and glared at both of them. “You really about to let him talk to me like that?”
Marlon didn’t even look at me this time.
“I already told your father,” he said, calm as ever. “I’m not in the kidnapping business. Even if he ties your ass to the plane’s propeller, I still have final say on if you work with me or not. And I’m giving that decision to you. It’s your choice, Aurora. Come to Napa and work off the debt you created. Or stay here and disappoint your father even more.Choose.”
