The Sinner

68

"Now that we're finally home I think we should talk about something," My father tells me.

I look up from the bowl of salad I was eating. I feel my brows furrow together.

"Talk about what?" I ask as I slowly chew the food.

We just returned back home from the truck bed, which was filthy, and undoubtedly contained some sort of dead animal at a certain point. I had to lay flat on my back the entire ride back home from the cut. If we were spotted associating with Ward, they could think we were in on this too.

While taking a shower, I scrubbed my skin for what seemed like an eternity to remove the dirt and grime. I can't tell you how happy it made me to be clean again.

"Ward filled me in on their, situation," My dad admits.

"Okay," I say slowly. I figured that much. He looked pissed when he saw that I was at Barry's with Rafe.

"I don't want you seeing him anymore."

What?

"You aren't being serious," I say and put the fork down.

"I am Corrine."

My eyes flash to Maggie, she keeps her mouth glued shut. I look back at my father and feel my forehead scrunch.

"You don't get to tell me who I can and can't date, I'll be nineteen in a week."

"I do," He says, "I do when he's a murderer."

"That's not fair," I say, "You don't know the circumstances of what happened-"

"Clearly neither do you if you still want to be around him," He tells me, "Aren't you scared he's going to hurt you?"

"Why would he? You saw how he acted with me," I tell him. We all basically lived together for a couple of days. "Why are you saying all of this stuff? He was protecting his dad, what did Ward tell you?"

"He told me he shot Peterkin."

"Nothing else?" I say, he doesn't say anything else. "He was protecting Ward, he thought she was going to shoot him. You heard what he said when he told Rafe the plan."

"He also told me you were sleeping at the time," He says, "So who told you that protecting bullshit, Rafe?"

"I wasn't sleeping through the whole thing," I defend, "Dad you can't do this, not when Rafe's actually someone who would never hurt me."

My father glances at Maggie, and then back to me. He leans onto the granite island and stares at me for a couple of seconds.

If only he was this invested in my life when I was actually dating someone who was abusive.

"Corrine, he's not good for you. Take a look at where he's at in life; there's a warrant out for his arrest because he murdered someone. Who knows what else he has done behind your back?" He says, "The next thing you know, he could drag you under and you'd land up in jail too."

"That wouldn't happen!" I raise my voice, "He loves me, he would never hurt me in anyway!"

"I simply don't believe that, I'm sorry Corrine," He says, "My job as your father, is to look out for you and take care of you. By allowing you to stay with him, you're only hurting yourself in the end."

"You haven't looked after me for years dad," I tell him, "I mean that with no disrespect but Maggie's been the one that has been here for me the past month or so. You weren't here."

"Because I was-"

"Because you were working? Yeah, everyone works dad. There's millions of people in this world who can balance family and work."