Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(87)

“What has he done? He has sneaked around with you behind everybody’s back and had a secret affair with you. No good and honorable man who has a sincere interest in a woman is going to act that way! You just can’t see it because you’re too wrapped up in him for any kind of common sense to get through to you! Well, I’ll tell you right now, I’m not having it anymore! Do you hear me?” he demanded, stopping his pacing and looking down at her furiously.

She sighed and stood up, getting to her feet right in front of him, and then looking up at him.

“Daddy, I’m telling you that it’s not like that with him. He does care about me and he is one of the best men I have ever known!”

Harold stood stock still and his eyes grew wide with anger. He looked directly at her and raised his voice.

“I am not about to stand here and listen to my own daughter standing before me talking to me like that, sticking up for some low life, scum bag who is only using her for her body! I’m not having it!” he demanded.

“You are going to stop seeing that man, and you are going to stop taking his classes, and you are never going to set your eyes or any other part of you on him again! Do you understand me!” he insisted, laying down the law for her.

She knew that he meant it. She knew that there would be no negotiating it with him. “Daddy, I can’t!” she found herself saying to him. Surprised by her own rebellion, she continued, “He’s the main teacher for my major; he’s my advisor, he’s the one who is making my career as a photojournalist happen! I can’t stop taking his classes!

“We already said that we aren’t going to continue having the affair, but I can’t stop going to his classes! I have to take his course the rest of the year to graduate!” She tried to reason with her father.

He wouldn’t hear of it. He shook his head and pointed his finger at her sharply. “You are going to obey your father and honor what I tell you to do! You are living under my roof, you are my child, and you are going to that college because I am paying for all of your tuition! You will listen to me and you will do as I say, and you will stop seeing that man completely, you will drop his classes and you will find another way to graduate without him. Do you understand me?

“You owe your loyalty to this family, not to anyone else! So don’t you go defending him to me, and trying to make him seem like a good man, because that is not what he is! Now, tomorrow morning I want you to go straight to the office and have them change your classes, and if he ever tries to contact you again, you tell him to leave you be or you will contact the police. Do you understand me? You’re done! The whole affair is done! It’s over! Right now, missy, it is over!”

She could not stop the hot tears that streamed down her cheeks and dripped off her chin. She tried to wipe them away, but they just seemed to keep coming. “Daddy…” she said softly and he looked directly at her.

“How did you find out about him?” she asked in a thin voice as she looked up at him. She could see the love in his eyes behind all the anger that he felt just then. She wished there was some easy way for her to get through it. She didn’t know what she was going to do.

He sighed and looked away from her. “Your friend Reggie was here earlier today. He came to talk with me as soon as I got home from work. I pulled up in the driveway and there he was, sitting on the steps waiting to talk with me, waiting to tell me that my daughter was sleeping with one of her instructors. I didn’t believe him at first. I told him he was full of it and he didn’t know you, but he told me all about it, about your trip, about seeing you at that teacher’s office. I couldn’t believe it.”

She felt rage fire up in her and in the back of her mind as her father spoke, Catalina was thinking of the multitude of ways that she could torture and kill her best friend. She said nothing and looked at her father as he continued to speak.

Harold walked over to the table and picked his beer up, taking a sip from it and pointing the bottle and his finger at her. “Now, there’s a boy that you ought to be dating. He’s a good boy, going to school and trying to make something of himself, he’s honest, he cares about you, and he isn’t out there hiding from me.

“That’s exactly the kind of boy you ought to be spending your time and efforts on. What do you do? Leave him pining after you while you go running around with some randy old man! What is going on in your head, child?” He shook his head in dismay and sipped his beer again.

He set his bottle down on the table and walked over to Catalina, who watched him in silence with tears still streaming down her face. He looked at her and shook his head, and then reached his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

“I may be mighty disappointed in you, but I love you more than anyone in the world, baby girl, and I’m harsh with you when you mess up so that you’ll learn your lesson and get right with the decisions that you’re making.

“You have to listen to me, baby, I’ve been around the block enough times for both of us. You can’t see the mistakes that you’re making right now, but I can, and the best thing I can do for you is look out for you and do my best to help you get through life. I’ve got your back, baby. Always. I love you,” he told her softly.

She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, crying in confusion and pain as she tried to figure out what she was going to do. The only thing she knew for certain was that she was going after Reggie and her best friend had better run.