Blaze (Heat #3)(19)

"Can we speak alone, Cady?" Sergio asks as his gaze slides over my face.

I know that Tyler wants to protect me and to him that means standing watch over me while Sergio says whatever the hell it is that he came here to say. I don't need that though and I'm fearful that with Tyler present, my dad will temper his words. After what happened between us in Central Park the other day, I don't want either of us to hold anything back.

When I spoke to my mom on the phone that night she listened while I replayed the conversation with my dad. Her first reaction was to tell me to move to Los Angeles so I can be close to her. She relocated there with her boyfriend more than a year ago.

I skipped over the suggestion the same way I always do. Instead, I told her that I couldn't escape my dad's words or how he'd let his emotions show. She said I should give him a chance. I told her I couldn't and before we ended the call she reminded me that forgiveness is a gift you give yourself first.

Despite her ever present positive attitude, which used to wear on me when I was pissed off at the world, I know she has a point. The very least I can do is hear him out.

"Can you give us a minute, Chef?" I smile softly at Tyler. "I promise I'll call if I need you."

He looks at my phone. I'm clutching it tightly in my hand. "I'll be waiting outside the door. You say my name, and I’m here."

I nod as he steps back to open the door before it shuts once again behind him with a faint click.

"Why did you come down here?" I suck in a sharp breath.

"I saw you on television, Cady." He rests his hand against the edge of the desk. "I came as fast as I could. I didn’t want to miss you."

I could point out that if he wanted to see me, he has my phone number and my address but I let that slide. The fact that he walked onto a bustling television set and told Pamela that he's my dad is shocking enough. A decade ago that wouldn't have happened.

People knew about me. His friends, some of the people who worked for him and a few outside his inner circle were aware, but there weren't any questions beyond that.

I called him Sergio. I lived with my mother. Some of those who saw me in the kitchens of his restaurants made their own assumptions. They thought that he was a hero for stepping up to the plate to help a single mother who once worked in his kitchen.

"Is there something you want to say?" I know it sounds cold but my curiosity is pushing me to a place of emotional weariness. "You came to see me for a reason."

"I did." His right hand jumps to the watch on his wrist. He slides his fingers over the face. "I told Asta I want a divorce. Today I made the right choice for me. I made the right choice for us."





CHAPTER 21


I take a deep breath, trying to process what he just said. "You're divorcing Asta?"

"It's been years in the making." He fumbles with one of the buttons on the front of his white dress shirt. "I clung to her because she was all I had left."

My heart absorbs each of those words. She wasn't all that he had left. I was here, waiting for him to tell me that he knew that I hadn't hurt Asta. I was waiting to be his daughter again.

"I told her a year ago that I wanted the marriage to be over. She took some pills when I was at work. She called, her words were slurred, it was nonsense the things she was saying."

I stare at the watch on his wrist. The big hand is pointing at the three, the small hand at the twelve. Time stopped for us then, but life didn't.

"I'm sorry," I offer meekly unsure of what else to say. Asta tried to kill herself. The fact that she called him was a cry for help.

He lowers his gaze to the floor. "I called for an ambulance. They pumped her stomach. I was filled with guilt. I stayed. I tried, Cady, but the woman I loved is gone. Asta's changed. All that's left is anger and hate."

"How did she take the news this time?" I flip my phone around in my hands, the repetitive motion comforting me somehow.

"This time it was all about the money." He laughs but it's laced with pain. "She told me what she wants. I'll give it to her. Money is money. It's nothing."

It was everything to him at one point. He'd tell me about the receipts for the night at Magari when the restaurant first opened. I was too young to understand how impressive the numbers were. I was too innocent to realize that its importance to him came at my expense. His unyielding desire to grow his bank account and expand his empire consumed him back then.

"Is that why you're staying in New York?" I run my hand over my hair, smoothing it. "Is Asta going back to Italy?"

"To Stockholm," he corrects me with a nod of his chin. "She's leaving tomorrow. I'm staying in New York for you, for us. I want to be your father."

I cover my mouth with my hand. It does nothing to stall my emotions. "A lot has happened between us. I don't know if this is fixable."

His eyes well with tears. "I will use every breath I have left to mend this. This is all that matters to me, sweetheart. You are all that matters to me."

"I'm not sure, Sergio." I tap the toe of my shoe on the floor. "I just don't know."

"I know." He exhales in a rush. "I know I have a lot to make up for and that starts today. I'm sorry, my beautiful girl. I'm sorry that I let you down. I'm sorry that I put someone else before you."