“No way,” I say. “You’re so wrong about Cora. It’s actually fucking laughable.”
“Don’t you…”
“Swear?” I spit. “So it’s okay for you to say terrible things about the woman I…” It almost comes out, but I bite my tongue again. “But not okay for me to use a curse word. Do you hear yourself, Dad? You know nothing about Cora. Nothing at all. I’ve never met a less money-oriented person in my life. She doesn’t care about the things you hold as so important. In a million years, she wouldn’t ruin someone else’s business to make a profit. She’s a decent person. But I’m not sure you’d know one of those if they were standing directly in front of you.”
“Mark…”
“Don’t Mark me, Dad. You want to judge Cora by your own standards. That’s the trouble, isn’t it? Once you’ve stabbed someone in the back, the idea that someone could do it to you becomes so much more possible. Does it plague you, the idea that you’ll lose what you took from someone else?”
“All’s fair in business, Mark,” he says with a smile audible in his voice. “Little fish get eaten by big sharks. That’s the way of the world, and if you think anything else, you’re naïve.”
“I’m not naïve. I know what goes on out there. I witness it every day through my job, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it, and it doesn’t mean I have to be happy that it’s something you did to Cora’s family.”
“You’ve enjoyed the money, Mark. You’ve enjoyed the house, the money has paid for, and the education it afforded you. You can be righteous, but you’ve benefited immensely from the fact that I’m not afraid to do what needs to be done.”
“Well, now I’m not afraid to do what needs to be done, either. We care for Cora, and we’re not going to let you order us around, okay?”
“Well, maybe I need to make your lives difficult then. Maybe it’s time that you all feel what the world would be like when you don’t have a father like me.”
“Maybe,” I say. “Maybe it’s time for us to stand on our own two feet.”
Dad is quiet for a second, as though my agreement has shocked his argument right out of his brain. Does he not realize that between me, Alden, and Danny, we earn more than enough to go it alone even if we need to carry Tobias and River for a couple of years?
“You want to go it alone?”
“Sure. Why not? It’s about time, isn’t it, Dad? We can’t live at home forever.”
“Well, if that’s what you want, I’ll send a Realtor around later. They can list the house. It’s not like I need it anymore.”
“Exactly,” I say. “Perfect.”
“You think you know everything about the world,” Dad says, and I can imagine the sneering look he has on his face. “You think you know what you’d do if you lost your wife and had five boys to raise by yourself. You have no idea what you’d be capable of, Mark. I’m not ashamed of doing what needed to be done to ensure you got the best of everything, and you shouldn’t be either. If I had to choose between being a shark and being a minnow, I’d choose shark again in a blink.”
When he hangs up, the hand holding my phone drops to my side, and I let a long breath slowly leave my lips.
Is he right? Would I do the same thing in his situation?
I try to imagine having five children with Cora and then losing her when they’re too small to take care of themselves. What would I do to be a good father? In my heart, I know I’d do whatever it would take to keep my family safe.
I’m not that different to my father, but maybe I’d have some regrets for the result of my actions. Maybe I wouldn’t be as righteous as he is. Maybe that’s the difference.
My phone rings again, and for a second, I think it’s Dad calling me back to restart the argument, but it’s not. It’s Naomi, Cora’s friend.
“Hey Naomi,” I say. “What’s up?”
“Have you seen Cora?” she asks. “She never showed up at the studio, and I thought it might be because she turned around and went home to discuss the article with you guys.”
“She didn’t come home,” I say. “We’ve been trying to get hold of her, but we thought she was busy working. We were waiting for her to get back.”
“Then she’s missing,” Naomi says. “She didn’t come here.”
“And no one saw her come home.”
“Shit,” Naomi says. “We need to start calling around.”
“Calling around to who? We need to call the police if she’s missing.”
“Just give me a second, okay? I’ll call you back if I hear anything.”
As I’m waiting for Naomi to call me back, I stride up to Cora’s room to see if anything is out of place. She gave up locking the door after things between us went from frost to fire, so I don’t need to hunt Ross down for a key.