Sometimes you had to be the bad guy, even if you wished you didn’t.
“I’m very serious, Imogene.” Standing, I approached her, running my hands down her arms, but she pushed out of my hold. “It’s for your safety. That’s all. I don’t like it any more than you do.”
“But it’s ridiculous. If I’m not at school, I can’t play in the game on Friday. And I also can’t attend the Homecoming dance on Saturday.”
“That’s still days away. Hopefully this won’t last much longer, then we can go back to life as we know it.”
“And if it doesn’t? If he’s still on the run when Friday rolls around, will I be forced to miss out on playing in the game? Miss going to Homecoming?”
“Imogene, I—”
“Just answer me, Mom. Am I going to miss out on the important things in my life because of that sociopath?”
I wanted to argue it wasn’t like that. But she was missing out on things because of Nick. It was for her safety, though.
“I won’t feel comfortable allowing you to be around large gatherings of people. It’s too easy for you to get lost in the crowd. For someone to use that to their advantage.” I gave her a knowing look, reminding her of all the times Nick did that when she was a child.
All the times I begged, screamed, pleaded for someone to tell me they’d seen my baby girl, to no avail.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, yet I’m the one being punished,” she choked out. “Do you remember what you said to me when you told me the truth about him all those years ago?”
I swallowed hard, not answering.
“You promised that no matter what, you’d do everything to make sure I had a normal life going forward. That you wouldn’t let him take that away from me.”
“Imogene, baby, I—”
“And now you’re breaking that promise.”
Before I could open my mouth to tell remind it was for her own safety, she stormed back into the house, ignoring Lachlan’s attempts to talk to her.
Hopefully he didn’t take it personally. Not many people could get through to her on the rare occasions she was like this. From my experience, it never lasted long.
Then again, most of our previous disagreements weren’t about her missing something as important as the Homecoming dance, not to mention the soccer game against her school’s biggest rival on Friday.
In her teenage world, this was akin to Lachlan’s team making the World Series and him being benched because of something someone else on his team did.
“You okay?” Lachlan asked, hesitantly stepping outside.
Nodding, I drew in a deep breath. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I guess we should consider it a win that you haven’t had to deal with one of her meltdowns until now.”
“You made the right call,” he assured me, pulling me into his arms. “Especially considering Nick’s history of using Imogene to get to you.”
“Then why do I feel like I’m letting her down?”
“She’ll get over it.”
“Not anytime soon. Things like this, going to Skyline Park… It’s a big deal to kids Imogene’s age. Especially when everyone else within her circle is going, including the guy she’s interested in.” Pulling away, I sighed, shaking my head. “She’s right.”
He arched a brow. “About?”
“I swore I’d do everything in my power to make sure she had a normal childhood. Swore I’d never let Nick take that from her. But I’m doing exactly that. I just… I wish there were something I could do. Some way to let her have this experience with her friends, yet still keep her safe.”
“I do, too.”
He wrapped me in his comforting embrace once more, holding me for several moments. Then he straightened, a contemplative look on his face.
I tilted my head. “What is it?”