“Oh, I absolutely do,” he replied. “While I’m the one paying for your apartment, your tuition, and your lifestyle, I get to make the decisions.” The words hit her like a slap across the face. When she told him that she wanted to go to graduate school, her father insisted that she’d be on her own. He told her that he refused to pay for her reckless choices, but then, after a few days, he sent her a check for her tuition and a little extra for expenses. She thought long and hard about taking his money, knowing that it might come back to bite her in the ass later, and she was right.
“I’m not a child,” she said, though her voice shook. “I’m in graduate school. I pay my own bills, too.”
“With my help,” he snapped. “And that help comes with expectations. You don’t get to throw away everything I’ve invested in you for you to become a doctor’s midlife-crisis fantasy. I’m pretty sure that’s all you are to this man.”
“That’s not what I am to Elias!” she shot back. “He’s kind, and he listens to me. He doesn’t treat me like I’m a project that needs fixing. I like him.”
“He treats you that way because he doesn’t have to live with the consequences of your choices,” her father said. “He gets to enjoy you until you get complicated, or until you need something. Then he’ll walk away, and I’ll have to help you pick up the pieces.” Her chest ached at the certainty in his voice.
“You don’t know that,” she whispered.
“I know men like him,” he said. “And I know what happens to girls like you.” Something in her snapped.
“I am not a girl,” she said fiercely. “And I’m not yours to control.”
He stared at her, eyes cold. “Then make your choice, but leave me and my money out of it.” The room went painfully still.
“You can choose him,” he continued, “or the life you’ve been building, that I’ve been financing. Your degree and your future aren’t something that I’ll let you compromise, Aliza. You keep seeing him, and I’ll stop paying for school. I will stop helping you. You’ll be on your own.” The words sank deep, twisting in her chest.
“You’d really do that?” she asked.
“Yes,” he breathed with no hesitation. The finality in his tone stole her breath. He turned and walked out, leaving her standing there with the newspaper crumpled in her hands and the door hanging open behind him.
“Make your decision, Aliza,” he shouted back over his shoulder. Aliza sank onto the couch, her legs giving out beneath her.
Her heart pounded painfully as she stared at the photo in the paper again. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Elias’s soft smile, and the way he’d looked at her like she wasn’t just something to be judged or controlled.
Tears burned her eyes. She didn’t know what she was going to do. But for the first time in her life, someone had asked her to choose between safety and something that felt real. And that terrified her more than anything else.
Aliza had gone back to bed after her father left, pulling the covers over her head like they could shield her from the weight of his words. She didn’t mean to cry. Hell, she never really cried, but her father’s angry words played through her head, over and over, and she just couldn’t seem to help herself.
The quiet after he’d slammed the door behind him had been too loud, too heavy, and before she realized what was happening, tears had soaked into her pillow. Eventually, exhaustion dragged her under until she woke again to someone pounding on her front door once more.
It wasn’t as frantic as before, but it was just as insistent. Her heart leapt into her throat as she sat up, dread flooding her. For a split second, she thought her father had come back, and he’d be angrier, louder, and even more determined than he was during his first visit.
“Go away,” she whispered, even as she swung her legs out of bed. The clock read just after noon. Sunlight spilled across the floor, too bright for how she felt. The knock came again asAliza wrapped her robe around herself and padded to the door, peering through the peephole. She found Elias standing on the other side of the door, and her breath caught.
He looked worried, not angry or annoyed, as her father had earlier that morning. He just looked concerned. His brow was furrowed, phone in his hand like he’d debated calling again before coming over.
She opened the door slowly. “Hey,” he said softly. She didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded and stepped back to let him in.
He took one look at her face and swore under his breath. “Aliza, what happened? You look like you’ve been crying.” She looked like a mess; she was sure of that. She was standing in front of the man she had been trying to impress during their first two dates, in her ratty old bathrobe with her hair a mess.
“I’ve been texting and calling you all morning,” he said. “I was worried, so I decided to cut out of work on my lunch break to check on you.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t answer,” she said quickly, words tumbling out. “I wasn’t trying to ignore you, I just?—”
He shook his head gently. “I wasn’t mad. I was worried.” That made her throat tighten. She gestured toward the couch, and they sat down. Aliza was sure to leave a careful space between them. She wanted to be able to explain what happened and not have her body overreact to Elias’s touch as it had the night before.
“My dad came over this morning,” she said quietly, “at six in the morning, and he was furious.”
Elias stiffened. “Because of the auction? I take it he saw the newspaper article. I was worried about you when I saw the paper in the breakroom. I thought you wouldn’t want to see me again, and that’s why you weren’t responding to my texts or calls.”
She nodded. “I can’t believe that we made the local paper. He saw the picture of us and came all the way over here to say that I embarrassed him. He said that people are talking and that I’m an embarrassment to the family.”
Elias’s jaw clenched. “That’s ridiculous,” he growled.
“He told me you were old enough to be my father,” she whispered, eyes fixed on her hands, not wanting to look him in the eyes when she said this next part. “He said that I am throwing away my future. And then he said that if I didn’t stop seeing you, he’d cut me off. He’d stop paying for school and some of my expenses.” Silence fell between them, heavy and painful.
