Down Under With Dad’s Best Friend by Flora Ferrari

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.”

“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.”