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“Ezra? What’s up? Why are you calling me? Aren’t you in the office?”
My lips quirk up at the question. Guess he doesn’t know everything that’s happening, after all. “No. I’m in Burlington. Charlie got admitted.”
“What?”
I quickly explain that she and the babies are okay. That’s not really why I’m calling him. “I need your help.”
He inhales sharply, probably shocked. I’ve never asked for his help before. “I’ll be there. Give me two hours.”
“Thank you.” I know just how heavy his workload is, what with dealing with Beaufort Construction and the other, less legal side of the family business all on his own. I can’t express how much it means to me that he would drop it all to be here for me.
We hang up, and I text Alex the address of the clinic. I’m starting to realize that maybe if I’d given him a chance to help me all those years ago, he probably would’ve dropped everything then too. Maybe I didn’t need Massimo after all. I was just too blind to see that my family was always there for me, and the lengths they went through to keep me away from drugs.
Sure, Massimo–Hudson–got me clean within a year, but he used my addiction to rope me into his organization and then held this image of being my big brother over my head ever since, emotionally manipulating me. It ends now.
I’mwith Charlie and her family in her room almost two hours later when I get a text from Alex that he’s outside. I show Charlie the text as I stand up from my spot next to her on the bed.
“Oh, my God, you told Alex?” Charlie looks embarrassed. “I’m fine now. I feel bad for all this fuss.”
“He wants to check in on you before we go to talk about business now that I’m moving here,” I say, telling a little white lie. Technically what we’re going to talk about is business.Mybusiness.
“Wait, what? You’re moving here?” Ella asks.
“Isn’t the cloud usually where the rain is?” I answer her question with another question as I leave the ward. By the time I make it to the reception desk, I see Alex is already talking to the woman behind it. He is carrying a massive bouquet of flowers.
“Over here, Alex,” I call out, waving him over. When we are close enough, he hugs me, slapping my back, then hands me the flowers.
“Fuck, man. You must have been so worried.”
“I was. I drove here like a maniac.” I smile as I lead him to the elevator. The ride to the third floor is silent. When I open the door to Charlie’s ward, the girls gush over the flowers, and Alex exchanges pleasantries with everyone.
“I’ll be back,” I promise, pushing a few errant bright pink hair strands away from Charlie’s face. I finger the strands for a moment, wondering when she dyed them again. Last weekend, they were still the burst of colors from when she told me she was pregnant.
“What is it?” Alex asks when we get to his car.
“Massimo Moratti.”
He turns his head toward me sharply, “What business do you have with the mafia family in Rhode Island?”
“I’ve had business with them for over ten years. Hell, I’ve been a member. Iama member. Ever heard ofLa Fiamma?”
His lips part, “Don’t tell me that’s you?”
I take out the lighter that’s ever present in my pocket and flick it on. “The one and only.”
“Damn it, Ezra! How?”
“Remember the summer I turned seventeen, when you caught me taking a line in my room?”
“Of course I do. I’d been trying to convince Dad that we could still make enough money without dealing drugs, and he was a little bit reluctant. But as soon as I told him about you, it was enough to convince him to finally stop.”
“I was so mad at you. At Dad. At everyone. None of you seemed to understand that I had become completely dependent upon the drugs to keep me sane. I wasn’t going to stop just because you told me to or just because our family stopped dealing. We weren’t the only supplier of quality pot, anyway.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did some research. I found out about an organization in Providence owned by Massimo Moratti, so I went to meet him.”
I tell him everything. From the deal Massimo made with me to give me the drugs in exchange for odd jobs, how Massimo slowly reduced the amount of pot he’d give me, and how over time, I became used to the quantity dwindling, until finally he helped me stop using altogether.
