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“Yes, they are vile,” Dad spits. “But that doesn’t make them not true. You’re vile. You’re disgusting. What you’ve done to her…”
“I don’t know how many times I have to say it, Bill, but this is a consensual relationship between adults,” Sean snaps. “You know me. Do you really think I’m the type of guy who would do something like what you’re suggesting?”
“I didn’t think you were the type of guy to seduce a man’s daughter,” Dad fires back. “To ruin her innocence like it’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing to me,” Sean cries out, getting louder now. “It’s everything. She’s everything!”
“Pretty words,” Dad sneers. “But you might want to save them for the courtroom. No one here is going to be listening to anything you have to say.”
“You’re still not backing down on that?” Sean replies. “Even after you saw the way it made Candace feel?”
“I have to stick to my guns because of how Candace feels,” Dad growls. “You’ve obviously got so deep under her skin, she can’t even see the truth. But she will. She’ll know that you aren’t to be trusted. She’ll know to run from you.”
I cover my face with my hands, and then my ears. I don’t want to listen anymore. They keep screaming at each other, back and forth, over and over again. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what I can possibly say.
But I have to stop this. I can’t let them just keep on fighting. If I do, I’m going to lose both of them. Sean when he gets accused of such heinous things that it ruins his entire life – things that aren’t at all true but will stop us from being together forever. Dad when he takes the steps to ruin the life of the man I love, rather than listening to me when I say that I love him and it’s real and it’s true.
I rub my face, trying to clear the tears from my cheeks. I have to calm down, to compose myself. If I stay like this, there’s no way that I’m going to be able to make sense when I’m talking to Dad. He might not even believe me if it’s clear that I’m overemotional. He might say I’m just brainwashed or just tired or just overwhelmed.
He might still say those things, even if I manage to pull myself together. But I have to try. I have to tell him something that will make him stop all of this. I can’t bear it if Sean loses everything because of me.
Even if I have to lose everything instead because I don’t have anything but him. I don’t care. It’s worth it.
He’s been keeping me safe this whole week. I know that if we could be together, he would keep me safe for the rest of our lives, no matter what.
So, I have to do the same for him.
I get up, brushing myself down and straightening my clothes, rubbing my cheeks dry one more time. I’m sure my makeup is a mess, but I don’t dare look in the mirror. I know that if I do, I’ll be in such a state that it will only make my resolve crumble again. And I can’t stop. Not this time.
I have to do the right thing.
I reach for the door handle and hesitate, my hand resting on the cold metal. This is it. I can hear Dad and Sean still yelling at each other, mostly fighting over which one of them it was that upset me the most, and I can’t help but cringe. Both of them care about me so much. That’s the only reason this is happening.
And in order to make sure that they both are fine, I have to lose one of them forever.
I just have to hope that I’m making the right choice of which one.
I step forward, open the door and march into the room again, walking right into the frame of the camera.
“Stop,” I say, and my voice is so strong and sharp that both of them actually do stop, Dad, in the middle of a sentence. Sean bends his head to look at me, standing behind him and the couch.
“You’re both going to be quiet and listen to me. I have something to say.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sean
I stare open-mouthed as Candace makes her declaration. She’s so strong. So poised and beautiful. I couldn’t have imagined that she would stand up like this.
She’s so powerful right now. So strong. Infused with this kind of righteous energy that shuts us both up. And I’m so proud of her, no matter what she’s about to say.
“We’re going to end this now,” she says, which shatters my thoughts entirely. What does she mean by ‘end this’? “You’re both going to listen, and after that, we’re not going to talk about this anymore. It’s going to be done.”
