- Dad’s strange love making – 01
- Dad’s strange love making – 02
Read part 1 of Dad’s strange love making in this link.
I know it seems like my words are wandering, but there is a point. I did my best. I spared no expense. I tried like hell to give you a great start in life. Because I loved you. I loved every single moment we shared. The memories of you and your mother are the most valuable things I’ll ever have.
For everything I did, I saw a pay off. You got into your first choice college. You graduated with your Master’s degree in four years. You found an incredible job, and I was astounded that by the time you were 25, you were earning more than I did for most of my life. It’s what any father wants for his child. For them to have a better life than he did. In your case, that was going to be a difficult task, because I had you.
Then you met Liam. I knew I’d hate him the moment I heard his name. The way you said it, the way your eyes lit up. He sure as hell didn’t impress me much when we did meet. I wanted better for you.
I’m a father. Boys scare me, when it comes to you. I never told you, but there’s a reason our friends next door moved away. I’m not proud of what I did, but I’d do it again. Your mother told me of your first sexual experience with Andy. You were fourteen, he was seventeen and had no business talking you into a blowjob, for him or his friend.
I confronted his father. I told him I was upset, and why. He told me he was sorry and that he’d talk to Andy. Unfortunately, the talk, I later found out, was congratulatory and he was encouraging his son to do more. I won’t tell you what I did, but it is the reason they got divorced and moved away. I did something bad, but I’d do it again tomorrow to protect you. There is nothing I wouldn’t do. I’d condemn my soul to hell, if it would save yours. Perhaps I have.
Back to Liam. That little bastard wanted my daughter. My perfect baby girl. I knew why. Hell, anyone who looked at you would. You were beautiful, and turned heads from your earliest years. He didn’t deserve you. No way. For that matter, I wasn’t sure anyone did.
I was wrong. It took me a couple of years, I’ll admit, to come to that conclusion. He’s a good man. He’s been a great provider, husband and father. Of course that’s my opinion, from the outside looking in. I don’t have to live with the guy.
More to the point, he loves you and your daughter, and that girl adores the ground he walks on. He’d do anything for her. He and I are not much alike. I guess not all girls marry someone like their father. But the way he is with her, the way they are together, I see us. You and me, the way we were.
The same love. The same desire to protect.
A Daddy’s love.
Charlotte, I’ve always been proud of you. Always. You’re everything a father could wish for.
Until now.
Don’t do this. I don’t know what your problem is, you won’t talk to me anymore. With your mother gone, I know you don’t have her to vent to. But there’s something wrong. I know you, Stella. I know you probably better than I know myself.
If you’re reading this, I know you’re about to make a big mistake. The biggest of your life. I’ve always told you I’d back you through anything. I can’t this time.
It’s about a Daddy’s love. The love I had for you. The best part of my life. If you do this, it’s likely you’ll destroy your family. You’ll tear apart that bond between your husband and your daughter.
You’ll deprive him of the relationship that we had. You will steal the memories, the moments that those two should have shared. It is the cruelest thing I can imagine.
If anyone tried to get in between you and me, tried to steal those moments from me, I’d tear the fucking world apart before I would let that happen. And I won’t sit by idle while you do that to him.
Again, I don’t know your issues. The only thing I do know is that to the outside world, you’ve been good for each other. He’s not abusive, he’s supportive, and he loves you two. You’ve done an incredible job raising my granddaughter.
You loved him once. I know you love that little girl. If your problem is serious, he deserves to know about it, and to try to work through it. That little girl deserves at least that much. I would hope you’d expend every effort to make things right, before giving up. Fight for what you have, don’t surrender so damn easily.
You’re an adult. I can’t tell you what to do. All I can do is hope I’ve raised you right, so you’ll make good decisions. That, and be here for you when you need me.
If you go ahead with this, if you break that child’s heart, if you steal the chance for Liam to have the bond that I had, the memories that keep me going, I will not support you. Unless you do this the right way, and make every effort to fix whatever your problem is, you will break more than one bond. It kills me to say it, but I will no longer consider myself your father.
My daughter would not be sitting in an airport, about to betray her husband, her daughter, her family, and everything she was raised to believe.
Not my daughter. I won’t believe it.
I’m begging you. Don’t betray a Daddy’s love. Don’t destroy it just because you can. Don’t break a father’s heart into a million pieces.
I want to believe I raised you better than that. I have to, or I’ve failed at the only thing that ever mattered to me. You.
Sincerely, Oliver.
Charlotte stared at the paper, the smeared writing near the end that told her in more than words, how difficult it was for him to write that. How much she’d hurt him. The signature alone screamed his pain.
The wet splotches grew more frequent as his harsh words hit home, and her tears joined his on the thin parchment.
How he knew, she couldn’t understand. She never could, but he always did. She was on the verge of doing something irreversible. Something that could very well destroy her marriage and her family.
And for what? Because she was bored? Tired of the same routine?
Someone complimented her, flattered her, flirted and she liked the attention and the excitement. Was that worth breaking her vows, and risking all that mattered to her. Was she that kind of woman?
She had told herself she deserved a little excitement. It wouldn’t hurt anybody. She could get it out of her system, and nobody had to know. If they did find out, she knew Liam loved her enough to forgive her. And if he didn’t, was that so bad? Their life was in a rut. She could do better.
What the hell was she thinking?
She grabbed her phone.
Change of plans. It’s over. Don’t contact me again
She prayed it wasn’t too late. That the mistakes she’d already made weren’t too severe, that she might be forgiven. She had to brush the tears out of her eyes twice before she could type in the phone number correctly.
“Liam, the trip is canceled. Can you come back and pick me up?”
“What’s wrong Jess? Something’s wrong isn’t it? What happened? We’re not even home yet. I can be there in twenty minutes.”
She heard the concern, the panic in his voice. “Take your time, I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll explain it later tonight, if you don’t mind. It’s complicated. I just want to say I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that. So I wasted an hour, what’s that in the big scheme of things? Instead I get you for three more days. Three days that we would never have gotten back again. I’m gonna hang up, there’s traffic ahead. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I know you will. I love you Liam.”
“Love you too, baby.”
She stared at the phone. A new text had appeared. She responded angrily.
Over. No more. Leave me alone.
She looked down at her feet, where she’d dropped the letter. She picked it up, ordering the pages. She folded it, and put it back in the envelope. She picked up the phone again. Dialed an almost forgotten number.
“Daddy? I…I did a bad thing. A horrible thing.”
“No you didn’t, Pumpkin.”
“I did. And I don’t know what to do.”
“You did a bad thing, baby girl. You didn’t do the horrible thing. And I’m pretty sure you know what to do about it.”
His voice was echoing in her ears. She looked up and saw him. Not twenty feet away, all this time. She saw the tracks of the tears down his face. Before she could help herself she was scrambling over the row of chairs in front of her. He caught her in his arms before she could fall.
Of course he did. He’d never let her get hurt. She knew that.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed.
He held his girl, the most precious thing in the world. No longer the infant at his chest, the tiny tyke learning to drive on his lap. She wasn’t the angry teenager, or the proud graduate. Not the beautiful woman standing at the altar as he gave her away, or the exhausted new mom, pale, sweaty, matted hair, the most gorgeous she’d ever been, passing him his only grandchild. No she wasn’t any of those, she was all of them, and more.
“I know you’re sorry, Pumpkin. But you’re telling the wrong man.”
“How Daddy? How do I tell him? What can I say? I’ve ruined everything.”
He peeled her arms away, and wiped the tears from her face. He put his arms around her, and walked her back to her things. He didn’t like the way that guy two seats over was looking at her purse. Nobody screwed with his family.