Her voice lowered. This was her moment of reckoning. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Sí, Papá. I am. But I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You have ruined me! You have ruined my name. And the reputations of your sisters. Do you think any decent man will date them now?” His voice broke. Were those tears?
As angry as she was, she had compassion for her old man. She knew that this was heartbreaking for him; it shattered the traditional life he’d known for so long. “No one will care, Papá. It’s the twenty-first century. We live in America and I’m an adult. I own the farm. I should be able to take a day off and spend time with someone I’m dating.”
“Those are not the rules, and you know it. I don’t care what other girls do. You aremydaughter. And you have brought shame on me and our family. You cannot come home.”
Rage seethed inside of her. “So, what? You’re kicking me out of our home—thatIbought? Off the farm thatIown? Right before Christmas?” The emotional turmoil of this happening just before the holidays was almost too much for her.
“You spent the night alone with a man in a hotel. About to be two nights. You aren’t married. It’s unacceptable. You know this.”
“But I love him, Papá!” she gasped.
He gasped right along with her.
Oh my God! What had she said? The words had flown out of her mouth before she’d even realized what she was saying. How couldshe love a guy that she had only known for a few days? She didn’t, couldn’t love him. She was sure of it.
But how would she know if she did anyway?
What was love? Her parents claimed to love her but didn’t hesitate to throw her out on the streets for spending a night with Enrique. Wasthatlove?
Carolina was practically obsessed with Enrique. She couldn’t stop thinking about how sexy he was, how kind he had been toward her, how he made her insides tingle. She had been resisting giving in to this fantasy of a future with him, but she couldn’t stop herself anymore. Wasthatlove?
No. It wasn’t. It was lust. Infatuation. But definitely, most certainly not love. Love is a choice. Love grows. Love involves commitment.
What a delusional fool she was.
“Does he love you, too?” His voice was quiet.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, if he loves you, then he can marry you and save your reputation and our family’s name. If not, I don’t ever want to see you again. I will not have such a horrible role model around the rest of my pure daughters.”
Carolina cringed at the wordpure. How misogynistic. But before she could call her father out and get a final word in, the phone went dead.
Carolina tossed it across the room and began to cry. The sobs came rapidly. She tried to stop them. She knew her father was dead serious about his threat. He could hold a grudge. Her life as she knew it was over. Everything she had worked so hard for was gone.
Sure, she could kick her family out of the home and farm, since she was the legal owner, but she would never, ever do such a thing. No matter how awful her dad had just been to her, she could neverthrow her family out. She just didn’t have it in her to displace her sisters from their school or her parents from their home.
He’d never allow her back around her sisters—not unless Enrique married her. And what hope was there of that? They’d only just met. Not that she even wanted to get married. She definitely wasn’t ready now, and she wasn’t sure she would be ever.
She could buy a home nearby and still work on the farm, but how could she go to work every day and not be allowed in her home? Would she walk by her family and look the other way? No. That would be torture. What if Baby ran up to her for a hug—would her little sister be scolded for talking to Carolina?
No matter how she looked at it, all these options were terrible.
Enrique knocked on the door. “Can I come out?”
OMG.Had he heard her say she loved him?
She slowly opened the door, scanning his face for some signal as to what he heard. He didn’t seem shocked, so maybe he hadn’t heard her confession, but she decided to ask to be sure. “Did you hear our fight?”
He shook his head. “No. I was watching TV. I wanted to give you privacy. What did he say?”
Even the thought of telling Enrique what her father said was horrifying. She tried to speak, but only a sob came out.
He placed his arm around her. “Don’t cry. It’ll be okay.”
She shook her head. “No. It won’t. My father reminded me never to show my face again unless we got married.”
