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“No!” I hear her voice, my daughter. “No, you betrayed me. You broke my trust.”
“Please!” That’s Candy. I break into a jog to clear the last of the distance to their room and reach for the door handle. Thankfully, it isn’t locked, and I walk right in, shutting it behind me.
Silence reigns for just one moment. Both of the girls turn their heads to look at me, and I’m struck by what I’m seeing. The two people in the world who I care about the most at this moment, almost two halves of the same whole. The same age, the same major, the same dorm room at the same college. It’s no wonder that I was able to hit it off with Candy so quickly; my daughter learned her tastes from me, and Candy’s are almost the same.
The two people I care about the most. And both of them are crying.
A panic I can’t describe catches hold of my chest. As a man, there’s nothing more terrifying than seeing a woman that you care for with tears rolling down her face. The caveman in me instantly wants to go out and fix whatever it is that made them feel this way – with my fists if need be. But I can’t do a thing in this case – because the person who caused them to feel this way is me.
“Lexie,” I breathe, looking first at my daughter and then across the room. “Candy.”
“God!” Lexie bursts out. Her face is red, and I can tell already that she’s the one who’s been doing most of the shouting. “I can’t believe this. Who are you here for? Me or her?”
“I…” I look between them helplessly. “Both… I just came right over here as soon as I saw.”
“You make me sick,” Lexie screams, cutting me right to my core. “Both of you. Dad, she’s – she’s literally the same age as me. And you did this behind my back.”
“Look, let’s just take a moment,” I say, raising my hands, trying to infuse some calm into the room. I know that I’m the last person either of them probably wants to deal with at the moment – at least, that’s how I would feel if I was them – but I’m also the only person who can put this right. Or try to. “Please, sit down. Both of you.”
I gesture to the sofa on one side of the room and the chair in front of the desk at the other, but neither of them does as they’re told. They both just stare at me, Lexie with pure anger and Candy with utter sorrow. I can see without even asking how badly she feels. She told me that Lexie was her best friend. Why didn’t I listen? Why did I insist on driving a wedge between them?
I know why. Because even when I look at her now, all I want to do is go over there and take her in my arms. But that would only make the situation worse with Alex, and I can’t risk that – not right now.
“I want you to know that I’ve already been in touch with the paper,” I say, carrying on since they won’t acknowledge what I said already. “I asked them to take down the article, and especially the picture.”
“Will they?” Candy asks, a note of hope in a voice that is choked with tears. That, too, cuts right down to my heart. I want to comfort her. I’m split directly in half, one part of me wanting to cross and hold my daughter, the other to do the same for the woman I see beside me for the rest of my life. What am I supposed to do here?
“No,” I say, heavily. “I’m sorry. They said that it’s news, and they have a right to report on it. But they will issue a correction, indicating that you aren’t actually underage and their source was mistaken.”
“That’s all you care about?” Lexie cries. “That’s what you came over here for? To tell your precious Candy that your reputation won’t be ruined? What about me? Don’t you care about the fact that I know?”
“Of course, I care,” I say, turning towards her. “Lexie. I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out like this. We weren’t going to keep it a secret forever, I swear.”
“You weren’t… you… you had plans?” Lexie says, her eyes widening further in her red face. “How long has this been going on for? You talked about not telling me?”
“It’s only been two days, like I told you,” Candy says, her voice high and plaintive. “I swear, that’s all. It’s so new. If we told you, and it didn’t work out it…”
“What? It would be worst than this?” Lexie demands, whirling around her. “Really? You think so?”
