That stopped me in my tracks.
“Both of them? I’m not bringing Anja into our home.” I still thought of the condo as Tori’s, too, even though she’d been gone for days now.
“You will,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time, now that you have a son to raise.”
I felt my fury rise even higher. There was no way I’d be inviting Anja to live in the home I shared with my wife, even if my wife had left me for someone else.
“Anja and I are not getting back together,” I told my father, my words firm. “Regardless of what you—or she—might be thinking otherwise.”
He just shrugged. “You’ll come around,” he said. “As soon as you’re over that bitch wife of yours.”
I was standing over him before I even realized I’d crossed the room. “Don’t ever talk about her that way again,” I said, my voice steely, my rage barely contained.
My father gave me a look that was both patronizing and pitying.
“How can you stand there and defend her?” he asked, putting his feet up. “She left you. Walked right out the door without a second thought. The sooner you move on, the better.”
It was all too familiar. The ache in my chest, the sour feeling in my gut, my father’s nonchalance, the fury I was battling in his presence. This was exactly like the last time he had chased a woman away from me, and all at once I felt like I was seventeen again. Helpless and trapped. Even though I knew that Tori had left me for Gavin, and had probably been thinking about it for a while, I couldn’t help blaming my father. If he hadn’t brought Anja back, Tori wouldn’t have needed to seek comfort in Gavin’s arms. She’d have had no reason to doubt my commitment to her and to our marriage. My wife would still be with me.
As I stormed out of the penthouse and took the long elevator ride back down to the lobby, I seethed over the way this whole thing had been playing out. Every step of the way, my father had been pulling all the strings. Holding all the cards. Regardless of his deflection and his lies, it was obvious that he’d planned his every move. After all, it was the Zoric way.
But two could play this game.
It was time to do something about my father, once and for all.
Stefan
Chapter 14
Now that Max was in the picture, and considering everything my father was doing to control—and ultimately destroy—my life, I was more intent than ever on turning KZ Modeling into a legitimate business and getting my father out of the way. I would destroy the seedy underbelly he’d created to fund the agency’s operations and then expand the branches of the company that were successful in their own right, giving them room to grow organically.
After all, KZM had made a name for itself by representing the fashion industry’s most sought-after faces, models with both striking features and strong presence. We’d sign even more.
Our top-notch talent scouts knew the business inside and out, so I’d hire more of those as well. Give everyone incentives for signing fresh faces or for renewing contracts with models that were already doing great work for the agency.
I’d also pick up the pace on my end, even if that meant taking even more calls and meetings in order to forge new relationships with designers, fragrance companies, my contacts in the cosmetics industry—whatever was needed to secure KZM’s future. And I’d make sure the clients we already had were happy, too. Maybe I’d have my assistant send them all champagne baskets or artisanal chocolate. Whatever it took, I’d woo them and keep them wooed.
The confrontation with my father at his penthouse had been exactly what I needed. Exactly the motivation necessary to force me to get my ass back in gear.
And if Tori came back—no,whenshe came back—she’d be proud that I had followed through with my plans to dismantle the trafficking ring, expose my father’s corruption, and bring all the responsible parties to justice. She’d see that I’d accomplished something important. Righted some of my father’s wrongs. Done something genuinely good to change the world.
My father was going down.
In the meantime, it was hard not to stress about the fact that my father was plotting to keep Max and Anja in his home like his own personal human pets, obviously in order to control them. Everything he did, from providing them with money and a place to stay, to feeding them three meals a day and allowing them to go on these lavish spending sprees, was a way to make them completely dependent on him. To manipulate them. And to manipulate me,throughthem. We’d all be under his thumb. Nothing my father did came without strings.
So it was critical that I acted as quickly and discreetly as possible—before he was in a position to use Max against me. I knew he wouldn’t think twice about treating my son like a bargaining chip, and if Max was threatened, my hands would be tied. I couldn’t let that happen.
It was time to reach out to Gavin’s brother, Frank Chase, directly.
Knowing my father might have someone watching me, and that any attempts to contact the feds meant I was at risk of exposing both myself and the agency’s involvement, I had my driver drop me off at Union Station, where I tucked myself into one of the few remaining payphone booths left in the city of Chicago. Then I made my call.
After giving Frank the fake name we’d agreed I should use over the phone, I said, “Tell me what your agency has to have in hand so you can take this man down. Because I’m ready to move, and it has to be soon.”
He’d sounded surprised to hear from me, but he only hesitated briefly before saying, “What’s changed? Something we should know about?”
“There are some new players involved,” I said. “People close to me, people who could get hurt. One of them is a child, and this man…he knows the kid is a weak spot for me. I don’t want to have to walk away, get uncooperative, you understand?”
“I understand,” Frank said.
