If she wanted that, she was going to have to pay for it.
“We’ll take care of everything,” she said after a moment. “You just take care of filling out the paperwork.”
She glanced at her husband, and he nodded. “Our lawyers, of course, will go over all of it before you file,” he said.
“Perfect,” I said.
I didn’t care about lawyers, I didn’t care about paperwork. I just wanted out.
“And once everything is squared away, that will be it for the two of you,” Mrs. Malone said. “For good. No reconciling in the future, or there will be consequences.”
I didn’t like her tone or her threats, but she didn’t have anything to worry about.
“We’re done. Forever,” I said, even though my chest ached just thinking about it.
I was saying it more for myself than for them, but I could tell I had been convincing. Ford’s mom was flashing me a smug, self-satisfied smile that turned my stomach.
“Good,” she said. “This will be a clean break.”
“It will,” I agreed. “As long as you uphold your end of the bargain.”
Eschewing the formality of a proper goodbye, I turned my back on them and walked out of the library. As I crossed the threshold, I felt something inside of me break. This was the kind of moment that both my own parents and Ford’s must have once had themselves. The moment where money won out over love. Over decency. Over the lives they’d dreamed of having.
The moment they’d left a piece of their soul on the bargaining table.
I could only pray the rest remained intact.
My baby deserved a better parent than the ones Ford and I had gotten.
Vivi tried to talk me into letting the Malones’ driver take me home, but I refused. Instead I got an Uber back to Ford’s place, and once I was through the door, I fell to my knees and let the tears fall.
It was agony, knowing I was turning my back on Ford forever. Turning my back on a love I had believed was real and genuine. A love I’d tended like a sacred garden for seven years.
But I was also turning my back on the kind of manipulation that my father had used on me and my brothers, the kind that the Malones used on Ford, and were trying to use on me. I was done being a pawn, a plaything. Starting from this day forward, I’d take back my power. I hoped.
Munchkin needing his walk is what finally forced me to pull myself together.
As we circled the block, I told myself I’d done what was necessary. Not just for myself and for my family’s business, but for my baby as well. It was better for this little innocent growing inside of me to be raised away from the kind of people the Malones were. My own father was in prison and would never know his grandchild, and I was glad for that. The only people I needed were my brothers and my sisters-in-law. My family. We were enough.
Even knowing that it was all for the best, though, I still hurt. My heart still ached.
And yet there was comfort in knowing that I was going to make sure I was exactly the kind of parent my child deserved. I would do anything—anything—to protect this precious spark now growing inside of me.
If that meant I had to break my own heart in the process, then so be it.
Ford
Chapter 6
“Mr. Malone? Mr. Malone? Um…Ford?”
I whipped up my head, realizing I’d been zoning out and that my coffee had long gone cold. Mareena, one of the new paid interns that Malone Real Estate Holdings had hired from Emzee’s charity, was standing in the doorway of my office.
“Sorry. How’s it going, Mareena?”
She’d been assisting the commercial real estate photographer we had on staff, and the feedback I’d gotten was that we should strongly consider making Mareena a full-time job offer once the term of her internship was up. The photography lessons Emzee offered through See Yourself had set up Mareena perfectly for a new career. If she wanted one, that was.
“Miss Evans wanted to know if you’d finished up with the commercial lease on the Gold Coast property,” Mareena said. “She said the client is getting antsy.”
