An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,87
though that losing her is the only thing that is changing in my life. Do you understand? I will live with Gram and Granddad. I will continue to perform and I will continue to be tutored in my home. I don’t need you. I don’t want you. So you can crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from. Just because I lost her doesn’t mean I suddenly want you.”
The words hurt. But even more wrenching was the utter grief he heard in her voice. In all his efforts to get her to make a space for him in her life, he’d nearly forgotten that she was still a little girl who had lost her mother at the wrong age.
“You won’t be living with your grandparents anymore. You’re going to live here. With me.”
“What? No way! Gram!”
Mark moved out of the way as Sophie bolted past him. He gave Marie and Dom time to explain the situation. After a few minutes, when he entered the living room tears were streaming down his daughter’s face.
“I don’t understand,” she wailed.
“Honey, you have to. We have to sell the house. We’ve already bought our unit in the seniors’ community. Your grandfather’s health is declining, he needs more care. My lungs aren’t improving. I’m going to need to be on oxygen soon. That big house and the stairs...it’s too hard for either of us to move around.”
“We can get help. You can move into one of the bedrooms downstairs.”
“Sophie, I’m sorry,” Dom said, trying to reach out for her hand, but she avoided his touch. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be better for you. We wish we were twenty years younger. We wish...we wish our Helen hadn’t died.” He sighed. “Sophie, this move to the seniors’ community had been planned long before her death. After we lost her we canceled the sale. Of course we did. We thought we could take care of you together. We thought with you being so mature we could handle raising you. But these past few weeks have made us realize that Mark is a better option.”
“He’s not an option. He’s nothing to me. He’s just some name on a birthday card or a Christmas present.”
Mark stepped forward. “Sophie, your grandparents and I have discussed this a lot. You know them. Do you seriously think they would let you live with me if they didn’t think I could offer you a better option? Dom and Marie need the care. You’re a smart girl so you know this. They can’t keep traveling with you and you’re too young to travel by yourself. And they can’t continue with the way things have been just to make you happy. It’s not fair to them.”
“Not fair?” She was screeching now in a total teenage meltdown. “Not fair? What about what happened to me? My mother died. That’s not fair. Now my grandparents—the only family I have left—are going to leave me, too. To you?” She turned on Dom and Marie. “How could you? How could you?”
Marie was openly sobbing and Dom was doing everything he could to maintain his composure. Mark knew his daughter was hurting, but she was deliberately and maliciously hurting them all and he wouldn’t have it.
“That’s enough!” Mark got in her face so she could see he wasn’t playing around. “I know this sucks large for you, but this is your life. I am your father. You will live with me. And you will let your grandparents off the hook. This is not their fault. Everyone keeps telling me how mature you are...well, start acting like it!”
She jerked and he could see she was thinking about heading for the front door. Thinking of making a run for it, he imagined. It was exactly what he would do if he felt similarly cornered. Fortunately, paranoid former operative that he was, he’d installed a lock that required a key to function on both the inside and outside. And he’d had the foresight to lock it as soon as they walked through the door.
He shook his head. “You can’t run—the door’s locked and I have the key. However, if you would like to take some time to enjoy your lovely new room—”
The words were barely out of his mouth before she stormed down the hallway. The slam of a door closing echoed throughout the space.
Mark turned back to a sobbing Marie and a stalwart, but wounded, Dom.
“That went as well as we could have expected, I think.”