Candid

Chapter 51

Fair warning, don't hate me. It's my birthday tomorrow (Friday) so you can't get mad at me this time, lol.

** Side note: for this chapter, mainly towards the end, I had the song Let It Be by JP Cooper playing on repeat. Yes, it's originally sung by The Beatles, but this cover is spectacular in my opinion.

Enjoy!

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Monday morning at the beginning of March I had decided enough was enough on every front imaginable. My bedroom door slammed behind me, the rattle echoing throughout the quiet house, no doubt making my annoyance known before I entered the kitchen.

"Madeline Maria Hayes, do we slam doors in this house?" My mother demanded the second she saw my face.

The expression on my face was regretful towards her but hardened when I turned my attention to my father. For the last month all I had gotten were short clipped answers in terms of questions, he still refused to have a sit-down conversation with me and I was finished with the men in my life ignoring me.

I strode over to the kitchen table, throwing an apologetic glance over my shoulder to my mother who stood at the island counter with a cup of coffee in her hand and sat across from my father. His eyes stopped following the words on the paper in front of him and he glanced up at me silently.

"What is it going to take?" I asked in a formal tone, linking my fingers together and resting them on the table.

He raised a single brow. "For what?"

"For you to sit and have a proper conversation with me," I said in a stern tone.

"Are we not conversing right now?" He asked slowly.

It only made me bristle in anger. "You know what I mean, it's been over a month since I told you and mom about the rape," he stiffened at the word, "and you have barely strung a full conversation with me or have just up and ignored the topic altogether."

My father sighed and set down his fork. "Maddie, I don't have time for this-"

"Are you mad because I didn't tell you sooner? Is it because I won't tell you his name? What did I do wrong?" I asked in a pleading tone, forgetting the stiff resolve I was supposed to be showing.

His eyes flash in anger. "You did nothing wrong, Maddie, don't ever think that you are the problem."

"Then is it you?" I asked unabashedly. "Because mom is fine," my mother cleared her throat, indicating that she was not, in fact, fine but she was dealing with it, "and you've avoided your eighteen-year-old."

He sighed and leaned back in his chair rubbing his chest a little and dropped his arms to his side, showing just how exhausted he really is. "I have run every possible conversation through my head for the last few weeks and not one of them has ended with me not ready to flip a table." I furrowed my eyebrows. "You are my baby and the fact that this happened to you has defeated any thought of me being a good father," he trailed off and I could hear my mother gasp, "you have been sitting with this trauma for three years and you didn't trust us-"

"The fact that I told you at all just shows how much I trust you," I told him sternly.

He closed his eyes for a second and ran a hand through his hair. "You told us because you slipped up, not because you wanted to, don't mix the two," he said evenly, his voice calm. "And there is nothing wrong with that," he added softly.

The comment made me pause because he's right. The only reason I told my parents about the rape was that my father had grilled me so much that I had blurted out the words to defend my opinions.