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“No,” Amy told him firmly. “I’m sorry. I know that you wanted me to work for you. I know that’s why you paid for my education. But I’m not going to do it. I can’t do it. I can’t stand in court and defend someone who is destroying the earth for their own gain.”
“For their own gain?” His dad laughed. “It was that gain that got you your education, girl.”
“I know that.” Amy stood up quickly from the table. “But two wrongs don’t make a right. My education might have come from a bad place, but I have a real chance to do good in the world and at least even out the scoreboard.”
“This isn’t happening,” his father said firmly.
John looked between them. He wasn’t quite sure what to do. Amy was still standing with her back hunched and her hands on the table. She looked like she was shaking. He could tell from the unnatural flow of her hair. Watching her from across the table was torture. He wanted to go over to her and calm her down. He wanted to tell her that she was doing the right thing, but he knew that would blow every chance he had with his dad.
“You don’t get to decide what I do with my life.” Amy moved away from the table. “I’m sorry that you’re so upset. I never wanted to upset you or to cause any tension in the family,” she said, openly and honestly. “But, I’m going to take the job that I think is right for me and there isn’t anything that you can do about that.”
“There isn’t anything I can do?” John watched his father’s eyes narrow dangerously. “You’re going to be working for me, young lady. If you do decide to do what you think is right,” he said with a tone full of mockery, “then you can say goodbye to this family and all of the privileges that come with it. “
“Wait,” John cut in. “Dad, don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?”
“My decision is final. If she takes the job, then she’s on her own.”
“Fine.” Amy opened the door to the dining room and walked out.
“You know,” John’s father sighed, “I really thought that I’d picked the right kid. Maybe I got it wrong.”
John stood up from the table and walked over to the door. “You know what, Dad, if you think you got it wrong because you picked between us, then you’re never going to get it right,” he told him, and then he followed Amy out.
*********
Chapter 9
Amy
Amy sat up from her pillow when the sound of knocking filled her room. She walked over to the door slowly. She wasn’t sure who to expect. “John?” she asked, when she’d opened the door enough to see through the crack she was creating.
“I thought I’d come to see how you are.”
“I’m fine,” she lied quickly without opening the door any further.
“You know, somehow, I don’t quite believe that.” He reached out and pushed the door open. “Do you mind if I come in?” he asked, but he was already halfway into the room.
“I guess not.” Amy rolled her eyes. “What is it that you want, anyway? You can’t honestly expect me to believe that you’ve come up here to check on me.”
“That’s really why I’m here.” John sat down in the chair next to her computer desk. “My dad was a total jerk to you. You can’t be feeling great.”
Amy shrugged. She had always known that his father wasn’t going to take her choice well. “I guess it was no worse than I expected.”
“It shouldn’t be like that, though.” John sighed. “Ever wonder what it would have been like to have normal parents?”
“I guess,” Amy admitted. “It must have been harder for you in that sense, though; I mean, you never got to see them.”
“I didn’t want to see them,” John said quickly. Amy could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t lying.
“But, why?” she had to ask. She couldn’t understand what had happened between him and his father to make things so awkward. Sure, he’d gone away to boarding school, but Amy had always thought that was just where John’s father had always planned to send him.
“Because, my father made a choice eight years ago that proved to me that he has no idea what being a father really means.”
“What choice?” Amy pushed him. “Sending you to boarding school? You know people go to boarding school. It isn’t the worst crime a parent could commit.”
John laughed and shook his head. “There’s more to it than that.”
“There’s more to what?” Amy asked him. She couldn’t understand what he was talking about. The sound of his cell phone stopped their conversation.
“I’ve got to take this,” John said with an apologetic look. Amy nodded and he lifted the phone to his ear. “Stacy,” he started. “No, I don’t think I’m going to the party. I can’t leave yet. I haven’t even talked to my dad.” Amy watched as he took the phone away from his ear. She could hear Stacy’s voice still going through the speaker. He waited until the line went quiet and brought the phone back to his ear. “Look, I know you’re upset, but I think you should go to this party on your own.”
He hung up the phone. “What were we talking about?” he asked as he turned back to Amy. He looked stressed after the call.
“What is it that you’re here to talk to Dad about?”
“Why?”
“Well, you’ve just had a pretty big blow up with your girlfriend, so it must be important?”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” John corrected her.
“What?” Amy asked before she could stop herself. She knew that wasn’t the point that she should be focusing on. She knew that hearing him say that shouldn’t have sent a happy wave over her. She couldn’t help either, though.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” John said again with a smile pulling on his lips. “Is that news that you wanted?” he asked, making Amy realize that she was smiling too.
“No,” she told him quickly. It was too quick, and she watched as John’s smile turned into a cocky smirk. “Shut up.”
John laughed. “I didn’t say anything.” Amy could feel her cheeks burning, so she tried to change the subject before she had to deal with any more humiliation. “What is it that you’re here to talk to Dad about?” she asked him again.
“Well, I’ve got a business idea that I’m hoping he will invest in.”
“You know he’s not going to do that.”
“Well, I don’t know.” John shrugged. “I think he kind of owes me one.”
“Why?”
“Like I said, he made a bad choice eight years ago. Helping me now could be a way of starting to heal the damage he did.”
Amy was starting to get frustrated with him. Why was he talking to her in riddles? Why wasn’t he just telling her the whole story? Did he want her to ask? Did he think that he was some great, mystical story teller? “What did he do to you that was so bad?” She sighed, because she knew she was walking straight into his setup.
“It wasn’t what he did; it wa
s why he did it.”
“Look, if you’re not going to explain, then you might as well leave,” Amy told him frankly. She’d had a hard night. Her stepfather’s reaction to her new job had been a hard one to deal with. She was tired, she was done with the day, and John was only prolonging it.
“Why do you think he sent me away?” John stood up from the desk. He looked crazed almost, as he walked over to Amy. “Why do you think he sent me to that boarding school?”
“I don’t know.” Amy shrugged, taking a worried step away from him. “I guess I just always thought it was a family tradition or something.”
“A family tradition?” John laughed. “No, it wasn’t that.”
“Then, what?”
“He sent me away because he saw how close we were getting. He saw the way that I distracted you from your studies. He saw the way that I was holding you back from your true potential, so he sent me away. He sent me away from my home, my family, and most importantly, you, because he wanted his lawyer.”
*********
Chapter 10
John
Amy looked as though she didn’t believe him. He could feel his heart beating hard against the cage of his ribs. She had to believe him. It was the truth. She couldn’t deny the truth, even if she wanted to. “He thought that I was going to ruin your chances,” John pushed her further towards the light. “He knew that I was in love with you, and the only way that I’d leave you alone was if I wasn’t around.”
“You were in love with me?” Amy shook her head. “No, I don’t believe you.”
“How can you possibly doubt that?” John asked her. Did she not remember the time they had shared together? Did she not remember the way a turn of her eyes could bring a smile to his lips?
“You went away,” Amy told him quietly. “You were here and then you weren’t. You never even got in touch. I thought maybe a letter or a call, but no. In eight years, I never heard from you. How can you say that you loved me? Who does that to a person they love?” She walked over to the door and opened it. “I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve by telling me this,” she said in a dull tone, which told John she wasn’t feeling anything at the moment, “but I think you should go.”
