Then There Was You

Maybe

It was nearing 10pm by the time Vivian had made it back home from Niall's place. She had noticed the lights were on in her father's study as she drove up to the front of the house, the glowing deep yellow color seeping past the curtained window onto the manicured lawn. Her initial plan was to sneak upstairs to her room, as quiet and unnoticed as possible, and then hopefully get a chance to speak to her mother in the morning. She needed time to work out what she was going to say, or more so how she was going to say it, and then confront her mother first thing, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. It seemed like a good plan anyway, but Vivian couldn't help the nerves that were jumbling through her body at racing speed every time she tried to think about how to even start the conversation. She wasn't looking forward to it.

Putting her car in park, Vivian carefully stepped out and started her way up to her front door. Chewing on the corner of her lip, the young woman could hear a bit of hushed chatter coming from her father's study as she quietly walked in, her eyes narrowing in curiosity as she glanced over at the half open door.

"Thomas, please tell me you didn't..."

Her mother's words, spoken in a tone that Vivian rarely heard, caught the girl's attention as she had begun to make her way up the winding staircase. Something didn't feel right. Something felt heavy inside Vivian at the worry, and almost disbelief, she heard in her mother's voice. It made the back of her throat tighten and her mouth go dry.

"I did what I had to do, Helen."

With her feet coming to a stop on the stair and her fingers squeezing around the smooth surface of the wooden banister upon hearing her father, Vivian whipped her head around, her wide green eyes fixated on the dim light of the study that was spilling out onto the marble floor of the foyer. She knew she had to find out exactly what they were talking about.

Tiptoeing her way back down, Vivian's heart was pounding so fast, it almost hurt and nearly stifled her breaths, but the young woman remained as quiet as a mouse as she stood outside the cracked doorway. Her back was pressed to the wall, just out of view of her parents.

"She's your daughter, Thomas, our only daughter, how could you do something like this?"

"I'm doing this to protect her. She doesn't know what's right, or what's good for her. She's not old enough to know these things!"

Vivian dropped her head, her brows furrowed in perplexity as she fought to settle the uneasiness that was knotting up in her chest. Her fists curled into the cotton material of her skirt at her sides and there was a belligerent nauseousness forming quickly in her stomach. "She loves the boy, Thomas, she will never forgive you for this."

A shallow gasp spilled past her lips and she pushed her hand to her mouth, struggling to keep herself quiet. Her mind began to clamber; vivid thoughts of Niall crashing over her and she swallowed hard, straining to calm herself enough to continue listening.

"She doesn't have to forgive me," her father said, Vivian easing her eyes closed as she rested her head back against the wall. "Now she'll have no choice, she'll have to move on with her life. Without him."

The young woman was shaking, fire-red anger mixed with fright encompassing every part of her as she fought to dissect what she was hearing. 'Without him' – what did that mean? "I don't condone this, Thomas," she heard her mother whisper, a slight break in her voice. Vivian wrinkled her brow and turned her face towards the doorway. "The man that I love, the man that I married would never do something like this! I just don't understand!"

"You don't have to understand!" her father yelled back, his menacing tone booming off the bookcases that lined the walls of his study. It made a chill ripple down Vivian's spine. "I did this! I did this for our daughter! End of discussion!"