“You’re wrong,” I argue, feeling the anger simmering my blood. “He loves me, and I love him.”
“You barely know him!” my father adds.
“And how long did you know Mom before you knew you loved her?! Huh, Dad?! Because you told me it was instant! The minute you saw her, you knew she was going to be the one you died beside. What makes me any different than you?”
“You’re only eighteen and-”
“And in the eyes of the law, that makes me old enough to make my own decisions. Isn’t that right, Father? Or do you suddenly not believe in that because now it’s in your home?”
“Scarlett…” my mom gasps, incredulity filling her gaze. “What happened to you? What have you become.”
“A woman,” I assert. “And that means I don’t have to be the image of your perfection any longer. I can be loud, and wild, and misbehaved. I can love any man I want, Mother, and I no longer need your permission to do that.”
Sighing out a disappointed breath, Mom rises from the table, throwing her full plate of food in the trash before uttering, “This man ruined you.”
“No, Mom,” I respond, keeping my back to her. “He set me loose.”
After the disaster that was breakfast, Dad and I clean our plates and leave. The car ride is just as painful as before, but the silence isn’t as thick now. I sense the ice melting between us, but with that comes the sadness I know he buried down.
I open my mouth to apologize, swearing that I never meant to hurt him, when he says, “We love you, sweetheart… we’re just worried. This situation, it’s-it’s really bad, Scarlett. What he’s accused of… with his wife… it’s dangerous.”
“Theodore is a good man, Daddy… he didn’t do anything!” The more I tell this lie, the more real it becomes. I don’t believe Theodore did anything…. Nothing that wasn’t needed. A necessary evil. He’ll never do it again, I’m sure of it.
Dad doesn’t say anything for a minute, but I can see a question beginning to trouble him. It creates havoc in his eyes, which then creates chaos in mine.
I wait, holding my breath until he has the courage to ask what I know has been on his mind all along.
“Scarlett… did you-” He stops, choking down the ball in his throat. “Did you have anything to do with Elizabeth’s disappearance?”
There it is; the million-dollar question. I wonder how long he’s been sitting on that. Was it when he found out about Theodore and me, or when he realized I would do anything for him?
I consider my dad, watching his profile from the side of my eye. He looks worried for me, sweat beading on his brow while his fists fade to white as he clenches the wheel. It’s not my heart I hear pounding in my ear, it’s his.
I love my dad, and I want to be honest, but I don’t know if I could trust him. Not without understanding more…
“Why would you ask me that? How could you think of me that way?”
“Because I fucking know you, Scarlett,” he snaps, tearing his eyes off the road to pin me with a raging glare. “You’re just like me, and let me fucking tell you something; there isn’t a single fucking thing I wouldn’t do to keep you or your mother safe! I would do anything and hurt anyone if it meant that you were going to be okay.”
He takes my hand, bringing my knuckles to his lips just as he did when I was a little girl. It brings tears to my eyes, but what makes them fall are his next words.
“Whatever you did, I will always,alwayskeep you safe. You are my baby, and I would die before I let anything happen to you… I just need to know the truth, sweetheart… Was it you? Did you hurt that woman?”
We pull into the precinct parking structure just as he finishes asking me that question.
Here, surrounded by police vehicles, he asks me to confess my greatest sin. I don’t know if it’s a trap or a ploy to get me to disclose just so I could be arrested the minute I walk through those doors. He’s a cop, after all, and at this moment, that’s all that matters.
But still, I feel like I owe him something, even if it’s not the answer he wants.
“Don’t worry, Daddy. None of it matters now.”
Unbuckling my seatbelt, I press a loving kiss to his temple, promising everything is going to be okay before stepping out of the vehicle.
Our feet echo in the cavernous cement garage as we head to the elevator. I watch the number at the top change from four to one, waiting for the doors to ding open. Before they do, my father takes me by the arm and pulls me in close. He moves in as if he’s about to embrace me, but it’s just for show for the cameras above our heads.
“You give them nothing, Scarlett. Not a fucking word. Understand?”
Hiding my smile into his chest, I vow, “I know, Daddy.
