Cruel Paradise - A Mafia Romance Chapter 79

Ben’s eyes veer to me for only a second before they fall back on Josh. He’s wearing a venomous glare that doesn’t deserve to be aimed at any eight-year-old, let alone your own son. “I don’t care what the fuck I did; it’s not your place to—”

I step right between him and Josh. “Ben, stop it. You’re out of control. You have—”

He shoves me roughly out of the way and lunges at Josh. I trip and fall to the side, aware of Josh racing out the door from my peripheral vision. Ben chases after him and, for the first time since that orange pickup truck changed everything, I’m actually scared of what Ben is capable of.

I hit hard, cracking my head against the wood floor, but I’m back on my feet again as fast as I can manage it. I rush into the living room where Ben is circling the couch, trying to claw at Josh.

“Ben! Have you completely lost your mind? He’s a child! He’s your son!”

“Exactly!” he yells. “My fucking son. And he’s got to learn respect!”

Startled, the girls scream. I catch their terrified little faces peeking out from around the kitchen, pale as ghosts.

“Ben, I will call the police!” I yell right back.

He turns on me, hair mussed, eyes wild. I’ve never seen him look so unhinged. But despite that, all I feel is relief. At least his attention is on me now, not Josh. Let him beat me black and blue. As long as the kids are okay.

“What the fuck did you say?” he growls.

I square my shoulders. “You heard me. I will call the damn cops if you don’t settle down right now.

You’re scaring the kids!”

He takes a menacing lurch towards me and that’s when I notice Josh dart out from behind the couch. I only have the time to gasp before his little fist connects with Ben’s ribs for the second time in as many minutes.

“Fuck!” Ben roars. “What the—” He whirls around, hand raised and before I can stop him, he grabs Josh by the front of his t-shirt.

“BEN! STOP!”

Caroline’s small voice cuts through the heat of my panic. “D-daddy! Please don’t…”

Ben acts as though he can’t hear any of us. He flings Josh against the coffee table. It’s not a violent throw, but Josh’s too-thin little body makes a dull thwacking sound as he careens into the furniture. He grunts low with pain and even that heartbreaking sound doesn’t seem to snap Ben out of his fugue state.

“You bastard!” I scream at his back while he storms out the door and slams it on his children’s tears.

I rush to Josh and pick him up off the floor. It’s not until I have him in my arms that I realize he’s not the one that’s shaking.

I am.

“Josh,” I gasp, cradling him like I used to when he was a toddler. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” He clings to me, his chest heaving with silent sobs. All I can do is hold him. “It’s okay. Go ahead and cry. You deserve to cry as loud as you want for as long as you want.”

“J-Joshie…?”

I look up to find Caroline and Reagan still hiding behind the kitchen wall, tears streaking down their cheeks. I gesture for them to come over and they run to me, their heat engulfing me from both sides as we all huddle together.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. “We’re gonna be okay, I promise. I’m gonna make sure we’re all okay…”

I thought having Ben around was important for the kids. I thought it was necessary. Despite all his shortcomings, I didn’t want them to lose their only living parent. But after tonight, I have to face the fact that having him around is doing them more harm than good. Maybe we’re all better off without him.

Which leaves me with only one path forward and, of course, it won’t be easy. My heart beats wildly, even as my resolve hardens.

From now on, I have to be their mother and their father.

I have to strip Ben of his parental rights.

I have to adopt these kids.

Once that’s sunk in, I hold onto the kids just as tightly as they’re holding onto me. And then— I let myself cry, too.

55

EMMA

Be calm.

You don’t know what your chances are.

And if this doesn’t work out, then you can kill him.

My leg has been bouncing erratically since I sat down in Isabel Costa’s empty office to wait for her. I could have cornered her in the lunchroom, but I didn’t want to have this conversation in public.

“Emma?”

I spin around in my chair. “Hi, Isabel.”

The lawyer is standing on the threshold of her door, looking at me with arched eyebrows. She seems to get the measure of the situation in seconds because she walks in and closes her door.

Isabel never closes her door.

“What’s up?” she asks, sitting down next to me instead of behind her desk.

“I know you’re not in the habit of handing out free legal advice—”

She smiles. “Let’s consider this personal advice then, shall we?”

I nod gratefully. I’ve always liked Isabel, always felt like we could be good friends whenever we happened to end up sitting at the same lunch table at work or crossing paths at the firm’s Christmas party. We might have been, if it weren’t for the fact that I was too busy trying to keep my head above water to put any energy into developing new friendships.

“Sure. Personal.” I try to return her smile, but mine is weak, with more tears waiting if I get too deep in the weeds. “Before you came to Bane, didn’t you used to work in family law?”

“Ten years of it,” she confirms. “Is this about your nieces?”

“And nephew.” I take a deep breath and jump right in. “I want to legally adopt them. And I also want to strip their father of his rights.”

Isabel’s eyebrows hit the roof of her forehead. Not a good sign.

“It’s possible, isn’t it?” I press desperately. “It has been done before?”

“It has. But rarely. It is extremely difficult to get a biological parent’s rights stripped while they’re still in the picture, Emma. It can be hard for the other parent to do it, let alone an aunt. And the only way a court would even consider it is if you can prove that your brother-in-law is a danger to those kids.”

I laugh bitterly. “I can do that.”