by Sara Schoen
“Hello?” I heard my father’s voice call from the bedroom. I immediately tensed, scared of getting caught and uncertain of what to do next. I glanced at Parker in panic, who was standing in the hall near my door. What were we going to do? Do we run or do I stand here and wait to get busted with Parker?
“Get over here,” she ordered as she reached out and tightly grabbed me by the arm. She pulled me into the coat closet at the top of the stairs and shut the door behind us.
I was about to ask her what would happen if we got caught when she slapped her hand over my mouth, effectively shutting me up. My breathing rasped loudly against her hand as we tried to listen for any sounds that might tip off where my father was. It didn’t take long until I heard his heavy footfalls make their way down the hall. Parker tensed and pressed her hand harder over my mouth to keep me quiet as he walked by the closet and headed down the stairs, calling for an answer.
I wasn’t going to respond, even if Parker didn’t have her hand over my mouth.
Parker relaxed slightly as his footsteps went down to the first floor and his voice faded away in the distance. She released my mouth before telling me to proceed with caution. “I don’t hear anything downstairs, so he must be checking the basement. Just don’t make a lot of noise and we can make it to your room without getting caught,” Parker warned before she opened the door and led me out into the hall.
“That was so close,” I whispered excitedly as I jumped with joy. We may not be out of trouble yet, but I couldn’t be more thrilled. He used to hear me getting out of bed when I was little and had to use the bathroom. I was never doing anything wrong, but no matter how hard I tried, I could never make it past my dad without alerting him.
“Really? I couldn’t tell,” Parker stated sarcastically. “This is the most rebellion you’ve done since birth and you haven’t done anything except skip homework and sneak into your own house.” She shook her head and scoffed as we made our way down the hallway. “You’re supposed to sneak out of your house before you have to learn to sneak back in.”
“That’s not true. There was that one time when I stole from book from that used bookstore across town,” I reminded her, turning around to look at her.
Parker rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and you felt so bad about it that you went back to pay for it. That doesn’t count as stealing.” She waited for me to respond, letting a smug smile curve onto her lips because she knew I didn’t have a comeback for that. I did go back and pay for it, I even apologized and the clerk just shook his head before warning me not to do it again. I was about to drop the topic and just head back to my room when I heard Parker gasp. “Oh my god,” Parker said, her mouth hanging open in shock as she pointed behind me, into my parents’ room.
“What is it?” I questioned as I turned around in time to see a woman who wasn’t my mother, wrapped a sheet from my parents’ bed. The woman’s blonde hair was disheveled, and she had an embarrassed blush on her cheeks, and from the lack of regular clothing I could take a wild guess at what Parker and I had just walked in on. “Oh…” was all I could work up until I heard my father coming back up the stairs.
“Lauren, what are you doing home? You’re supposed to be at the library,” he said as he stormed toward me. There was clear anger in his words, as if I was at fault that he had been caught cheating on my mother. It may be my fault he got caught, but I wasn’t the reason we were in this situation.
“Dad, who is she?” I asked, suddenly finding anger rising in my chest. I rarely had the courage to stand up to my father when he was upset, but having him upset that I caught him and trying to brush it off infuriated me. It caused me to put steel in my backbone for the first time, and demand answers like he did to me when I came home with a grade lower than a B. “Who is she?” I questioned, letting the anger lace through my words.
He didn’t answer. He glared me down, trying to intimidate me as he did when I disappointed him with grades or school. Too bad I wasn’t going to let him win this fight.
“Who is she?” I asked again as I pointed to the strange woman who was currently trying to get dressed and leave. “She is not the woman you married.” I frowned, placing my hands on my hips to give off the appearance that I was in control of this situation. In reality, my head was beginning to throb, and my throat had a steadily growing lump in it. How could he? Doesn’t he have any respect for my mom? I stared at him expectantly, waiting for answers.
He just continued to glare at me angrily, which only made me madder.
Next to me Parker looked uncomfortable. Her gaze flitted from my father to me, to the home-wrecker who was running around my parents’ bedroom in search of the rest of her clothes.
“How could you do this to Mom?” I questioned, nearly choking out the words. “How could you do this to our family?” He looked like I smacked him from the way he recoiled from my words. A pause resonated between us as we both tried to measure up the other. I knew he would try to make me feel bad so I wouldn’t tell Mom, but he had never had me stand up to him before and that meant he would underestimate me. So I made my intentions clear. “Either you tell her, or I will.”
That got a response out of him. “Lauren, there are things you don’t understand,” he stated as he put his hands out to try to calm me down. “Parker is here, and I don’t think you want to cause a scene in front of a guest.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he prevented me by continuing to tell me about how I didn’t understand what it was like to be an adult, that I’m just a child, and I may never understand, but we could let it slide as if nothing happened. “I could forgive you for lying to me, and not doing your schoolwork as you told me you would. We could just forget this happened.”
I’d never been more disgusted with someone in my life.
I hadn’t realized I was shaking with anger until I glanced at the woman, now fully dressed, waiting for the fight to be over so she could leave. “You’re both awful people!” I cried, snapping. A tear slipped down my cheek, but I ignored it. I noticed the woman cringed, as did my father, so I continued. “You’re cheating on Mom; the woman you made a promise to in your vows, and pledged to love. You’re shacking it up with some…some—” I bit my tongue, not wanting to say the word, but it slipped out due to my anger “—whore.”
“Lauren, watch your tongue!” Dad warned.
“Don’t turn this on me. I should be telling you to watch out for diseases, and that would only come out of the love I had for you. Maybe you should go to a doctor and make sure everything is in order before you try to get with another woman when Mom leaves you and this one does too.” I glanced at the woman again. She had a blank stare, as if unmoved by anything I said. Not even by me calling her a whore. “She looks like she’s done this before, judging from how comfortable she is waiting for our fight to be over.”
His eyes grew wide in shock. I had much more to say, but I didn’t want her to suffer through it all. I barely knew her, or what he told her. Maybe she didn’t even know he was married, or had a kid, much less one who would suddenly snap in front of her. I just wanted to make sure she never came back. A cruel smile curved at the edge of my lips before I turned to the woman he was having the affair with. Suddenly, she didn’t seem so comfortable.
I don’t know what came over me, other than anger, as I walked up to her. I had never been this outspoken before and I could tell it was only going to become more common. I knew that I had opened a flood gate, and no matter what I did I wasn’t going to be able to stop it now.
“Do I need to walk you out or do you have enough common courtesy to leave and never come back?” She hung her head low and walked past me. I watched her leave, but interrupted her when she stopped to say something to my father. “When I say leave and never come back, I mean for you to get out of our home and never talk to him again!” I screamed as I shooed the woman out of the house. I followed her down the stairs, even though my father was ordering me to stop, and slammed the door behind her when she finally left.
&nbs
p; Now all that was left was confronting my father about his lies and broken rules. How ironic.
Chapter 4
Take Responsibility
I tried to control my anger while my father attempted to talk his way out of what he did, but the more he explained the more upset I became. He met the woman at an office function, who was someone else’s wife at the time. They were divorced now, but that didn’t make it any better, in my opinion. I bet it had nothing to do with the fact that she is comfortable sleeping with married men.
It was at that point he realized no matter what he said I wouldn’t listen. So he let me get everything off my chest. Little did he know, talking about it was only going to make it worse. Once he let me start questioning and pushing for information, I wasn’t going to stop. I wanted to know how he could tell me every day to follow the rules and always keep my promises to others when he was lying to me and breaking his own promise to Mom.
He didn’t seem upset that Parker and I caught him, either. He kept a deadpan look on his face, and a bored gleam in his eyes. I couldn’t be sure if it was because he thought I wouldn’t actually tell Mom, or he just didn’t feel guilty.
“How could you do this to Mom, to our family?” I spat angrily. I felt disgusted that he had done this. He lied, cheated, and tried to worm his way out. It’s sick. I glanced at Parker to see if she had anything to say, but she seemed more in shock than me.
She awkwardly stood around because she didn’t have a place to sit other than the bed, and she didn’t want to sit there because of what we walked in on. I think she was afraid of any fluids that could have ended up on the bed, or she was trying to find a nice way to leave. She had enough fighting to deal with at home between her parents and siblings. I’m sure standing here and watching my father and I have it out wasn’t how she wanted to spend her afternoon.
“Lauren, there are things you don’t understand,” he repeated. He had gotten dressed in a pair of jeans and a black shirt after I showed his mistress to the door. At first he demanded to know why I reacted the way I did. According to him it was out of character, and completely out of line, which sent him into another attempt to blame me for finding out about his affair. “Better yet, why are you home? You said you’d be at the library. I raised you better than to lie, Lauren,” he pointed out.
“You can’t change this topic, Dad. You cheated on Mom. You had the affair. You lied to us. How can you sit there and honestly expect me to let you yell at me when I did nothing wrong? You’re the liar here,” I blurted out, completely surprising my father, Parker, and me with my bluntness. I never would have spoken to my father like this before today. He would have only needed to say how he’s disappointed in me for my actions, and I would have lost my fire in an instant. Hearing that I’ve disappointed someone always makes me feel guilty. No matter what it was for or who it was. It’s the worst thing to hear, especially when I would’ve done anything to stay in my father’s good graces, but not anymore. He couldn’t guilt trip me. He couldn’t sweep this under the rug. Did he think he could get away with this? I’m sure for a while he thought he would. I could only imagine how many other times he had her over while Mom and I were out. Another wave of disgust washed over me.
There should have been tears, grief, anything else, but all I felt was anger. He had broken the rules, and clearly felt no remorse that I had caught him. Why didn’t he feel bad for what he would put Mom through? She’d be crushed. There’s the grief. My mom would be crushed, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“You can’t talk to me like that,” he stated. “I’m still your father, and you will show respect.”
“Respect?” I scoffed. “I can’t respect you after what you’ve done. I can’t believe you’ve attempted to make me feel guilty for every little thing I’ve done over the years, and then you turn around and cheat on Mom! How can you berate me for coming home early when I caught you in bed with another woman? I can’t believe you!”
“Now Lauren, calm down,” he said as he put his hands up in surrender. He offered a smile, a familiar tactic he used when I pointed out that I had done nothing wrong. He would flip it around once I was calm and say that he forgave me and we could forget about it. I never noticed until right now just how he managed to manipulate me into the daughter he wanted.
“How can you ask me to calm down? Yes, I lied, but you brought your lover here and then tried to blame it on me,” I cried as I stepped away from him. “You disgust me. How are you going to tell Mom? You can’t just hide this from her, because I sure won’t,” I stated as I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him.
“Lauren, don’t start anything you can’t control,” he warned.
“I shouldn’t lie, should I?” I questioned, silencing my father for a moment. He glared at me, and waited to see if I would say anything else. Parker stood awkwardly next to me, pulling on my shirt in an attempt to get my attention, but I wasn’t going to look away until I was sure he knew I wasn’t messing around. He was going to tell Mom, or I would.
“Lauren,” Parker said, a hint of urgency in her voice, but my father interrupted before she could tell me what she wanted to say.
“Your mother doesn’t need to know,” he stated. “You will not tell her. You’ve lied before, you can lie again.”
My jaw dropped. I stood there stunned as his words connected in my head. He wouldn’t say anything. He seemed determined to make sure I didn’t say anything either, if he could help it. I didn’t know what to say without repeating myself again, but luckily I didn’t have to because my mom’s voice broke our stare down.
“What don’t I need to know, Kyle?” I turned to see my mother turn the corner, revealing she had been listening on the other side of the wall the entire time with her arms crossed over her chest and an angry gleam in her eyes. Her usual cheerful smile had been replaced by a scowl, and from the glare she cast toward my father she already knew what he wanted to keep from her.
“Rachel,” he stated awkwardly as he tried to think of a way out of this situation. A long pause resonated through the room, which only upset my mother more, before he finally spoke again. “It’s nothing. Lauren is just overreacting.”
I turned my head so fast that my neck cracked, sending a wave of hot pain emanating from the spot. I rubbed the back of my neck in an attempt to soothe the pain as I glared at my father. He flashed me a sheepish grin when he caught my hateful glare. I couldn’t believe he lied to her face like that. If I had done that he would have grounded me.
“Lauren, tell me what happened,” my mom ordered as she shook her head in disgust at my father. She definitely already knew the truth, but had been hoping he would be honest. “Tell me the truth.”
I froze for a moment, unwilling to be in the middle of this fight, but if Dad wasn’t going to tell her, then I would. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. I was shaking, whether from anger or fear I wasn’t sure. My mom’s eyes didn’t leave mine, and I could feel my father burning a hole in the side of my head. I was refusing to look at him. I knew I would only see him telling me once again not to tell her the truth. I warned him, and he was going to see that he couldn’t get away with this.
“Well?” she pushed, waiting for me to respond, but I was at a loss for words.
“We caught Mr. Scott and his mistress in your room, but we aren’t sure if it was before or after they did it! I’m sorry, I can’t handle it anymore. I have to go home,” Parker blurted out, giving me an apologetic look as she ran past me and out of the room. She slid past my mom, trying to avoid making eye contact with her, and quickly ran down the hall. A few seconds later the front door slammed shut. I wished I could have gone with her.
“I’m glad Parker can tell the truth. Do you want to try again, Lauren?”
“Dad is cheating on you with a woman I’ve never seen before,” I blurted out. I heard my father sigh, and saw my mom’s gaze shift to him again. “He refuses to tell you the truth because he’s trying to blame me for discovering h
is affair. I told him I was going to the library after school, but Parker and I really came home. We hid from him in the hall closet and then walked in on his…” I let the sentence fall, unsure whether to say girlfriend, lover, or mistress as Parker had.
“She’s lying, Rachel. She’s trying to get out of trouble because I caught her in a lie. She has no proof, and her friend will defend her,” he said, thinking he had a point. Too bad Mom had proof.
“Oh really? She’s the one lying?” my mom questioned as she pointed to a pair of lace panties on the ground. How had the woman left without those? Maybe she dressed too quickly. “Because those don’t belong to me.”
I glanced at my father, who was looking at the floor in shame. Looks like he’d run out of lies to tell, and he couldn’t bring himself to say the truth.
Her gaze lifted from the panties onto the floor back to my father and all I could think was, if looks could kill.
“I want a divorce, Kyle.” Her words came out easily, as if unaffected by the news. “I had a feeling you were sneaking around and lying about it. I even gave you a chance to come clean about it months ago and you did nothing. Not that I’m surprised, since you’re trying to get our daughter to lie to me in order to cover up your infidelity.” Her voice was level, calm, as if she was talking about something as simple as the weather. She shook her head for a moment before continuing, “I’m glad it came out like this, because otherwise you would have lied to my face one last time. I’m leaving and I won’t be coming back, and if Lauren so chooses, she won’t be returning either.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the room with her head held high.
“I don’t want either of you to leave,” my father called as my mom left the room. She either didn’t hear him or ignored him entirely.