Adelaide
My dad was waiting forme when I walked out of work.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Saul had gone far too quiet over the last couple weeks. Pictures of Adam and me were everywhere. The club scandal was long forgotten. The new obsession was if I was pregnant. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t. My period had arrived on schedule. I was only slightly disappointed. Adam had pouted for a good five minutes. Then we both agreed I should go on birth control since we liked playing the breeding game but weren’t actually ready for a baby.
“Adelaide,” he barked from the back seat of his town car.
“Dad.”
He climbed out, bracing himself on the door. “Come. I’ll drive you home.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going home. I have class.”
“Then I’ll drive you to class.”
Knowing he wouldn’t back down until I complied, I got in the car with him.
“I guess I shouldn’t ask how you found me.” He’d found me at my apartment, of course he found me here.
Instead of answering, he picked up my left hand to examine my ring. He let go without comment, only making ahmphnoise.
“Do you know where my classes are?”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “My assistant has been sending me updates on what the press is saying about you. Tell Wainwright he owes his publicist a raise for turning the tide so quickly. If I didn’t know better, I’d have almost believed the pictures of the two of you outside that bakery last weekend.”
I scoffed. “What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t believe you have any kind of future with that man. If the wedding happens, I’ll be shocked.”
With my back against the door, I glared at this…this stranger. “Why are you even here? What is the purpose of your visit? To berate me? To make me hate you more than I already do?”
Beneath his five-thousand-dollar suit, Saul Goodman shuddered. He closed his eyes and rubbed the top of his nose.
“You haven’t called,” he finally said.
“Why would I?”
He opened his eyes. He looked tired, worn out. His clothes were pristine, his hair immaculate, but there was a tattered quality underneath it all I had never seen before.
“You always call, Adelaide. You’ve always been an excellent daughter.”
“I’m still an excellent daughter, I’m just not living under your thumb anymore. I’ve been working my butt off for the dream you wouldn’t let me have, and I’m accomplishing it. I don’t know why that threatens you so much, but I see it does. The thing is, I’m not willing to bend because you’re threatened by the idea of me changing and growing. I’m still an excellent daughter, but I’m also an adult woman making my own choices.”
“Bad choices,” he groused.
“How do you know? All you do is tell me what I’m doing wrong and threaten me without asking a single question. It’s your way or nothing. You were holding on to me way too tight. So tight, it was suffocating. I can’t do that with you anymore. I love you, but I can’t live my life for you.”
“You don’t have to live your life for me. But I’ve been in this world a lot longer than you. I know what’s best for you.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “We’ll have to agree to disagree. You stuck me in a job I was miserable doing and encouraged me to date men who treated me like an object. If you really looked at those pictures of Adam and me, you’d see I’m happier than I have been since Mom died. I’mhappy, Dad. The only thing that would make me happier is having you in my life, but that won’t happen while you’re withherand you very ironically continue to bash the man who is my future.”
He exhaled heavily through his nose. “Come to my brunch on Sunday. It’s Mom’s birthday—”
“I know it’s Mom’s birthday. I’m surprised you remember.”
“Natalie will be visiting her parents. I’d like you to come over to celebrate your mom.”
Sudden tears pricked the backs of my eyes, but I held them in. “I’ll come if Adam is invited too.”