At that moment, I realized what else I would have to give up.
“No more non-profit,” I murmured. The charity couldn’t survive on donations alone. Danica Rose had been subsidizing the non-profit’s cost of operations since day one.
“I’m sorry, Emzee,” Stefan said. “I know how much See Yourself means to you.”
“You’ve done amazing work,” Luka added. “Helped so many people.”
My eyes stung with tears. It was hard enough knowing I would have to give up my charity, take away life-changing resources from women who needed them, women who my father had hurt…but there was also something very poignant about my brothers acknowledging my efforts, and understanding how hard it would be for me to give it all up.
Letting go of See Yourself might end up being the worst decision I would ever have to make, but putting my family first was the one thing that my siblings and I all agreed on. The sacrifice we were making—putting our family before legacy, before money, before fame or reputation or business—was proof that we were a different kind of family than the one our father had tried to build. We were a different kind of Zoric than he had been. We always would be.
That knowledge made the sacrifice more bearable.
“Are we agreed?” Stefan asked.
The sun was just starting to come up outside my apartment window, rays of golden yellow and pale orange breaking through the clouds and making a dark silhouette of the Williamsburg Bridge. In so many ways, this was the start of a new chapter. Everything in my life had changed in the past few days. And it was going to keep on changing.
But for now, I knew the decision I had to make.
“Draw up the legal docs,” I told my brothers. “And then courier them out to me so I can sign.”
Ford
Chapter 24
When I left Emzee’s apartment for the first time—days later—it was only to get a change of clothes from my place and charge my phone back up. We had spent the entire weekend in bed, reuniting and trying to plan our next steps. The last thing I wanted was to face the real world again. Especially since I knew it was a real world that wanted to drive us apart.
Not that it mattered. I was fully committed to Emzee and our baby. I’d fight anyone who tried to separate me from them again.
I also had to call Louie to ask about getting the locks on my apartment changed, but my first priority was talking to my parents. I was done dealing with their bullshit. They had to back off my wife. As soon as my cell had juice, I’d be making that call.
Not that I was ready to confront them about the depth of their mafia ties yet. I was still trying to decide on the best way to deal with that. Accusations would get me nowhere, no matter how true they were. And I wasn’t naïve enough to think my parents would come right out and admit what they’d done, apologize, and promise to break things off with the Bratva. If anything, they’d just pay lip service to me and then turn around and keep on doing what they’d always done. Or maybe it would create a rift between me and my parents that could never be mended.
Then again, maybe I was ready to cut myself off from the Malone family for good.
But that could wait. For now, I just needed to make it absolutely clear that I was with Emzee, now and forever. That I wouldn’t tolerate any further attempts on their part to break us up. She was my wife, myfamily, and she was the most important thing in my life.
When I unlocked my apartment door, however, I realized that my plan to call my parents was entirely unnecessary.
Because they were sitting in my living room waiting for me.
“Ford! Where on Earth have you been?” my mother scolded, rushing over to me. “We were so worried. We’ve been trying to reach you for days, but you never picked up your phone.”
She engulfed me in her embrace, overwhelming me with the cloying smell of her perfume and the rattle of all her jewelry. My father was still in a chair with theWall Street Journal, per usual; he didn’t bother to get up.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping back from my mom and eyeing both of them suspiciously.
I highly doubted that either of them had actually been worried about me. But their visit reinforced the fact that I had to get a locksmith over, stat. It was bad enough that Claudia had shown up unannounced—but clearly she had reported back to good old Mom and Dad about her failure to seduce me, and now I had to deal with my parents’ equally unwelcome surprise visit.
They obviously were not happy with whatever Claudia had told them.
So not happy, in fact, that they’d flown out to New York to talk to me in person. Actually, come to think of it, I was somewhat surprised (impressed, even?) that my father had skipped his standing weekday morning golf game for this.
“Claudia told us what happened,” my mother said, breaking out her “disappointed” voice.
“Oh did she? So you heard all about how she broke into my apartment and got thrown out because she wasn’t welcome here?” I asked.
“I gave her that key to check on you,” my mother said, still trying to pout.
