daddy's girl ❥ luke hemmings ✔️

33. "will this table break?"

SOPHIE

"This is so wrong."

"Look-"

"No! Stop it. Don't even try it. This is illegal, goddamn illegal-"

"Chris-"

"She's seventeen, for god's sake!"

"Eighteen. She is eighteen," my mother says in defense. "And you would know that if you'd even bothered to stick around."

"Don't-"

"Don't what? It's true. You were never there for her and now you're surprised when something like this happens?"

"Don't bring a mistake I made years ago into this, Rachel," Chris warns her. "You know more than goddamn anyone in the world that this entire situation is wrong."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't, and maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But can you blame her?" I hear my mother try to reason.

I press myself up against the wall, listening behind the closed door with an ear on high alert, the words of my parents speaking about me like I'm some sort of prized possession echoing in my mind like some sick song.

"She was so close to having no father figure at all in her entire life! I'm grateful Luke even stepped up to guide her through it all as much as he could,"

"He did more than that, alright," Chris snaps. "Did you hear? What he said? On live television?!"

"Chris, I heard him-"

"And then he had the nerve to take my daughter away! She's lucky I got there the morning after, he was probably just using her-"

"What? Like how you used her?" my mother interrupts, sharply. Silence ensues. "I know your little stunt with Chase's publicity, Chris. You used my daughter-"

"Our daughter."

"My daughter," she retaliates, not bothering to correct herself. "For your own personal gain. What kind of 'father' does that?!"

"What kind of 'father' has sexual relations with a little girl he calls his own but isn't even his?" Chris bites back. I bite the insides of my cheeks, biting back a scream, biting back humiliation.

My mother is silent once again. I'm quiet, too. I don't want them to know that I'm listening. I've avoided almost everyone I know, Luke included, since the red carpet incident- mainly because Chris won't let me out of his sight, partially because I don't have the will to fight back. I don't really know when I'll have the strength to face reality again, either.

"What they've done together is none of our business," she finally replies, in a surprisingly smooth, calm tone. A breath hitches in my throat. It's like she's my mother but not.

I can imagine Chris' reaction; his shocked face, the look of surprise that forces his eyebrows to rise. I can imagine his scowl stretching, even as he speaks, and I can imagine my mother putting up a brave front to counteract his anger.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asks, rudely. "Of course it's our damn business!"

"Chris-"

"She is our daughter!"

"No!" my mother suddenly yells, making me jump in surprise. I hit my shoulder harshly on the frame of the door, but thankfully neither of them notice.

"You cannot call, or think, of that young girl as your daughter. I refuse to let you assume that after all of these years refusing to even communicate with me about her, you can suddenly waltz into her life again as if nothing had happened!"