Page 5 of Rich Forever: Zo & Remy

“Remy, this time it’s not me, it’s the elites. We don’t get a choice to say no, you know what happens once they get involved.” I fell back into my chair and threw my arms in the air. My mother came beside me and sympathetically rubbed my shoulder.

When I was in the Weston household, I never told my father about Karlos. It wasn't to put on a front, but because I didn’t want him to feel worse. I agreed to marry Karlos so my dad could get out of debt. Truthfully, my father is the worst businessman in the history of business. He’d spend two dollars before making one. I begged him for years to get an accountant who would hold him accountable, not someone who gave in when he started screaming threats.

My father ran through money like he had a money printer. Bronx Cross would walk into a restaurant and tell the waitress the whole building was on his tab. He’d go into the casino and put twenty thousand on a single game of roulette. He lived like he had an endless supply of money. His businesses suffered a lot because of it. He would spend the money necessary to pay his bills and keep his businesses afloat. And he did it for years. In my opinion, it went on way too long before they got sick of it, and the elites told him that they were going to demote him and fold his operation. When we all got the visit from the Don, we started brainstorming a way to get him back in the green. One of his options was to ask the Weston family for a loan, in exchange for a cut of the business. But Karlos had other plans. He wanted me.

Karlos had been trying to pursue me for years, and I never wanted anything to do with him. Not only was I in a relationship at the time, but they literally called him the Weasel. Somehow, against my better judgment and everything I had heard about that man, when I realized that my ex wasn’t going to fight for me, I agreed without a second thought. If it was for the betterment of the family, I could take it to the chin. But I was not prepared for what I walked into.

Karlos walked around like the world was a 24k toilet for him to shit on. He disrespected everybody he came in contact with. His employees, his street workers, and his family. Nobody was exempt from his treatment. Not only was he rude, but if he could cross you, he’d double-cross you. But he didn’t even have to. His family was the richest family in Louisiana. He was just stealing for the love of the sport.

I watched him do business, then set people up to be robbed. That way, he’d recoup his drugs and sell them again, basically doubling his money. Day after day, I sat in that house, wondering why nobody had checked him or how he was still breathing after everything he’d done.

At first, Karlos was kind to me. But I knew that who he was to everyone else was who he was at his core. No matter how many times he gave me that handsome ass smile, I could always see the demon in his eyes.

I knew he was playing the long game, trying to be kind, so I’d part my legs for him. I gave him some bullshit excuse about being a virgin, saving myself for marriage. I slept in a different room and declined his nightly attempts to sneak into my bedroom. As months passed, his mask began to fall. Sometimes, he broke character and spoke to me like everyone else. He’d get upset if I spoke to his male workers, watched me like a hawk, and pressured me to sleep with him. I knew I’d never walk down the aisle. And if I did, it would never be to marry him.

“Remy!” My father said as he snapped me out of my thoughts about the fate of the last time we had this talk.

“Yeah?” I cleared my throat as I sat up straight and shook off my feelings.

“Did you hear me? I said that we’re relocating to New York.” The words rolled off his tongue like he just hadn’t thrown me the biggest curveball.

I stood to leave, and he stood behind me and grabbed my elbow.

“Remy, I’m sorry,” he said quickly.

“If you’re really sorry, do better. You’re in a twenty-million-dollar house, you have over a million dollars in exotic cars, and an entire staff of people. You woke up last week on a whim and spent sixty thousand dollars on three Tibetan Mastiffs. Sixty bands on dogs, Dad! Haven’t you learned by now that your decisions are still affecting us even into adulthood?” I pulled my elbow away from him and walked out the door with him still on my heels, calling my name.

If only he had known what I had witnessed in the Weston house, he would understand why I never wanted to step into another situation like that. That was hell on earth, and it only took me five months to realize I couldn’t do it for a lifetime.

He pulled me just as I approached the back of the truck, and the detail opened the door for me.

“Remy. You’re right, and I’m sorry. Hearing you say how much of a failure I am hits hard. But I swear to you it’s not me this time. This was a proposal from the elites. I’ve dug my way out of the negative. We might not be where I want to be, or where I should be, but it’s not where we used to be.” I could see the hurt in his eye.

I really felt like I had the best father on earth, always had. But I was tired of being the solution for his bad decisions. Especially when the end result was always me dating someone. Iwas starting to feel like the Mafia was my pimp, and I needed to get on the blade to make them some money. Why couldn’t he go mowing lawns? Or do the dishes like they do at restaurants when you don’t have the funds to pay? Why was it always straight to marriage? That’s extreme as hell.

I turned back to him and sighed a deep sigh. When I turned to face him, I caught sight of my mother, who had been standing on the stairs, watching our interaction. She gave me another sympathetic look.

“See you later, Mommy!” I yelled out as I turned to get in the back of the truck, still not responding to my father’s pleas.

“Love you, baby!” She called out to me as I slid into the back seat of the car.

“We have to be gone in seven days, Remy.” It was the last thing I heard my father say before my driver closed the door, and I turned my head forward and grabbed the shades that I had left in the side of it. I slipped them on my face and faced the road as we drove back through the gates.

The last time this happened, I shed a thousand tears. I was losing who I thought was my happily ever after and walking into an unknown situation. This time, I shed no tears. But not because I wanted to help my family, but because this time around they served no purpose. The Mafia word was law, and no matter what, you either did as they said or they stripped you of everything before you died.

My phone buzzed from my bag, and I picked it up to see that Taylor had texted me.

Baby Sis: Girl, you have to fight me. You done made my daddy cry.

The message was sent with a million laughing emojis, and it made me burst out laughing. I sent her back some faces of my own and put my phone back into my purse. She lightened theheaviness on my heart for just a second. She was good at that type of thing. Her nonchalance always grounded me.

I didn’t intend to hurt my father’s feelings, and I would never disrespect him. But he wasn’t the one who lay up in the same house with the devil for 156 days to save our organization. He wasn’t the person who had to gargle every time they kissed their partner. That was all me. So, if no one else told him the truth, I would. Even if I had to do it gently. But he was still my favorite man on earth, though.

My phone continued to buzz, and I knew that it was Taylor, probably filling me in on the details of their conversation while I was gone. But I didn’t want to hear it right now. I had other pressing matters to think about. Like, in seven days, I was going to live in a new state and likely be with a new man I knew nothing about. This Mafia affiliation was starting to get the best of me. Every day, it was something new.

I lay across the back seat of the truck as the seat vibrated underneath my head. I closed my eyes to take a nap for the two-hour drive back home. All I knew was Jaxon had better be kind to me.

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