Cleaning Out the Closet

"To be honest. and I mean no disrespect, but as a man, it's like you are almost expected to play that way at times. And if you don't, you are sort of considered," here she considered her words, "not necessarily untrustworthy, but a radical, someone who either easy to dupe, is a black sheep, or doesn't know how to run a business," she remarked wrinkling her nose at such antiquated ideas.

"Business deals - whether they be for the good of others, or just to make money, can just be dirty at times, there is a lot of give and take, a lot of behind the scenes that few people see, or would understand, and most of it is just a power play at times," she admitted with a tiny frown.

"Sometimes you need to do things you aren't proud of to get ahead of the competition or cement a deal," she stated with a sigh. Knowing that she had had to do things she was not proud of, and that in a way, she had no choice but to do if she wanted to grow her company.

"I completely understand that," Zora sympathized as she watched him close up the box and put it to the side."It's perhaps not as bad on a business level, but most certainly there have been times when my team has had to do a careful juggling act because it was a situation of - deal with them, or no entry into the market," she said as she glanced around the kitchen thoughtfully.

"Did that happen often to you when you were in Halcyon? The balancing act, having to openly deal with questionable people and all that?" she enquired, sort of wishing now that Broen had been more open about his world with her.

"Genovese? Like Angelo Genovese?" Zora said rather shocked by this revelation as she looked directly at Frederick. She was sure Broen had mentioned Jude's father at some point when the refugees started arriving, but she was also fairly sure he'd also been a bit vague about it.

Zora was astonished by everything Frederick was telling her and did not actually know what to say. She would never have guessed Jude's father was a supervillain or a mafia type or whatever was the equivalent on their world.

"I am so utterly floored by that," she admitted, "Jude is so, so... straight-laced at times," she said, struggling to find a word. "and Angelo is a police officer," she added, trying to reconcile all she knew about them, and found that she couldn't.

When Frederick mentioned Officer Angelo, Zora just nodded and listened, and it soon became apparent that she was not happy at what was being revealed. It seemed like everything she thought she knew, wasn't actually true, and somehow this only served to sadden and disappoint her.

"Jesus Christ and everyone says I'm the one who's fucked up," she finally uttered. "I honestly hate all this pretending, and keeping secrets, I have tried for months now to somehow become a better version of myself, to be more honest and forgiving, to make up for the horrible shit storm my brother left behind, and what the hell for?" she blurted out, now clearly frustrated, and wanting just to lash out at someone.