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“That’s what he’s made you think,” Bill scowls. “That’s what predators are like. He’ll have been grooming you. How long have you been talking before this? Was it really a coincidence for you to just randomly meet up in Melbourne? This has all been a long game, hasn’t it?”
“No,” we both say at once, exchanging startled glances.
“Bill,” I start. “I really didn’t know she was here. We’ve never spoken, outside of your family gatherings.”
“When she was a child!” Bill rages. “You’ve been working on this since then!”
It feels like my stomach is dropping out of me. “No,” I gasp, shaking my head. I can’t believe the way this is going. “No, I would never…”
“Dad, stop,” Candace says, tears streaming down her face. “You’ve got this wrong. It’s not like that. Sean is a good man.”
“I’m going to call the police,” Bill says, casting around as if trying to figure out how to make a call while still keeping us on the line.
“No!” Candace shouts. I want to take her in my arms and hold her until she stops crying until this pain goes away, but she wrenches her hand from mine and leaps up from the couch. “No, stop this! I won’t listen to you saying these awful things – I won’t!”
And then she practically runs from my side, gasping out sobs. She dashes to the bathroom and slams the door, and I hear the sound of the lock turning.
And I just know that by insisting on making this call, I’ve made everything worse.
What should I have done? Let her go? Worked it out over a longer period of time? Maybe gone home with her, so that her father could see how serious I am? Tried to make this work long-distance so that he had time to gradually come around?
Or just kidnapped her, and taken her home with me, so her father would really have something to complain about?
I look at the screen, at Bill’s face. He’s staring at me with such hatred, a look I never thought I’d see on his face.
I’ve lost a friend, as well as maybe the girl of my dreams.
Today is not at all going how I imagined it would. And I don’t know what to do next to fix it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Candace
I try desperately to breathe, but it’s hardly any use. Giant sobs are racking my body and I can’t seem to make them stop.
This is all my fault. I should have seen this coming. My dad is making all kinds of horrible accusations about Sean. If he really does call the police or make them public in any way, Sean could get into a lot of trouble. He might even lose his job. It doesn’t even matter that it’s not true. People will think it is when they hear it. That means he’ll be tried in the court of public opinion, and everyone will think our relationship is disgusting.
And it’s not disgusting. It’s the purest and most wonderful thing I’ve ever had happen to me. The most special and spectacular. The love I feel for him is so strong it squeezes my chest with pain when I think about losing it. This can’t be the end. It can’t be.
But what other choice do we have?
If dad is going to insist on making these claims, it’s better if I distance myself from Sean right away. Maybe I could even come out and say that it was all a stupid infatuation on my side, and he had nothing to do with it. I could help him that way. But we’d never be able to be together.
If dad goes through with this, it will destroy everything.
The sheer shock of that revelation makes me stop crying. Not because I’m not upset, but because I’m stunned. This isn’t just about me not getting to be with Sean anymore. It’s so much worse now. And it could get even worse than this if dad doesn’t back down.
I have to think of a way to make him back down.
It feels too late to say that this was all a joke. But could I…?
I listen to them, their raised voices coming through the door of the bathroom. Now that I’m not actually sobbing, I can hear them. I sit on the floor beside the door and hug my knees against my chest, squeezing my eyes shut and letting tears silently fall.
“… all your fault,” my Dad is saying, sounding furious. I can’t remember him yelling like this in a really long time. Not since I was a teenager and I would get difficult and do things on purpose to make him mad. I only had to do that a couple of times before I was set straight.
“My fault?” Sean repeats, his own voice getting heated now. “You’re the one who just said such vile things, she had to run away crying.”
