Pets

You are Nothing (Marek)

"You can not just leave like this! You are part of this family whether you like it or not. There is no abandoning your blood!" My father seethes.

"It has already started. I have separated my companies from the families. All of my assets are divided from yours. I will continue to act as CEO till you can find a replacement. I still own shares in some of the businesses but after I have been replaced I will remain a silent partner. Unless I decide to sell my shares." I say indifferently. We have been over this several times now, and I am done.

"Son, you can't be serious? You are throwing away years of hard work! Over what? Some girls?" My mother says. She is angry but better at hiding it than my father.

"I am not throwing anything away. I am detaching myself from the stigma that is our family. I want nothing to do with either of you, and if that means abandoning years of work, so be it. What you don't understand, and never did, Is that I am not like you. I cannot stand to be associated with either of you, or the people you are close to."

"This is just absurd. Just absolutely absurd." Father slams his fist down on the desk. Both my mother and I rolled our eyes at him.

"My leaving will not affect your businesses or their overall intake. It will only be a minor inconvenience because you will have to hire someone else to run them. I don't have time to have this discussion with you both again. Now if you will excuse me, I have other things to do." I say getting up to leave my father's study. To say that my parents are not taking my departure well is an understatement. I was a little surprised at how badly they were taking it.

As I walked out the door I heard the click of my mothers heels as she walked to follow me. She and I have even less of a relationship than I do with my father. I at least fight with him, and I know if I need or want something he would accommodate. My mother had ignored me since giving birth. I doubt she held me a total of 5 hours as a baby. The times she did hold me were for pictures or events. She was very much concerned with public opinion.

"Marek, this is asinine. You are overreacting." She huffs as she catches up to me.

"No mother, it is overdue." She grabs my arm forcing me to stop.

"You would throw everything away for two nameless girls who are nothing. You are throwing away your family...FOR THEM!" Anger surges through me. I feel my whole body tense with it. I guess she does too because she lets go of my arm quickly and steps back. I turn slowly to face her.

"They were people. They were something to their families, and friends. They were something to me! For you to talk about human beings like they are inanimate objects disgusts me. I am 'throwing everything away' because YOU are nothing. You are nothing to me. Your money, your status, and our 'family' are nothing to me. I would rather die penniless and alone than to be part of your 'family'. Now as I have stated before I have things to do, So fuck off." With that I turned on my heels and left.

Later that day I had people pack all of my things that I had in my wing of the mansion. Some of it would have to go to storage but most of my things would be moved to the penthouse I just purchased. I had just met with the realtor and signed all the required paperwork.

It is taking longer than I would have liked to cut ties with my father and mother, but it is happening. After I find someone to replace me at their company I won't have to deal with them unless absolutely necessary. They had tried to talk me out of this, but I am determined. I don't need their money. I have made my own. I don't want their social standings because I never gave a fuck about that. It had made business connections easy and effortless but it was not something that would keep me tied to that sinking ship of a family.

James and some of the other bodyguards surround me as we leave the realtor's office. After everything that happened James went through and revetted all the men he had hired. Some of them were let go. Others were asked to become a bigger part of my security detail. I now had 5 men with me at all times and we took 2 cars everywhere. James says it's better to be safe than sorry. We are still not sure if what happened was to get to me or because of who the girls were. So we are taking precautions.

Nick is not physically able to help still but he is working still to find out what happened and why. Him and James both work on trying to figure out who was behind killing the girls. We believe it was the sex trafficking ring they were purchased from but we have yet to prove it. They are good at covering their tracks.

Even the information we got from my father about when he purchased them turned up useless. His contact that he would get ahold of was dead. All of his people that were associated with the ring were gone or dead now. He was just as surprised as we were. Needless to say he will not be getting any new pets from them anytime soon. I am sure he will find someone else to help him out, but I will turn his ass in this time. I have him watched just in case. We haven't taken anything to the authorities yet, because we don't really have anything to give them. Every time we think we have found something it leads to a dead end.

"Boss, where are we headed to?" James asks as we all pile into the SUVs.

"I guess take me home. I need a drink." I say. I rub my eyes with my thumb and forefinger.

I still don't sleep much, and even I admit that my drinking has become a bit of a problem. At least I don't have violent fits of rage anymore, or not as often. I have thrown myself into preparing my exodus from my family and investigating Charlie and Lily's murders.

As soon as I am rid of the title of CEO I start the next part of my plan. I want to help take down the sex trafficking ring that took Charlie and Lily. I really would like to take down all of them. It's a pretty thought but not realistic. I will however fund organizations that will work to eliminate them. It is the least I can do. I wish this could have been different, and I would give anything to not have the ending we did.