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“I’ll go ask your husband for it.” And Karl would tell the man to get lost without even blinking. Except…
“Please, Dad. If you love me at all, just drive away and don’t come back. Ever.”
Vivian’s love for her father and the struggle it caused her was written in every tear on her face. Karl could see her physically wrestling with herself as she said those words. He knew enough people that he could make her father go away and never come back, but that would be the easy solution. And it probably wouldn’t be the right solution.
“You’re asking me to never see you again and never know my grandchild.” As much as Vivian’s father was here to ask for money, Karl could hear the sadness in his voice at these words. The man loved his daughter and had raised her the only way he had known how, as damning as those ways were.
“I’m not like you,” she pleaded. “I don’t think moving in the middle of the night is exciting. I could have a permanent home here. I’m asking you not to destroy that for me.”
There was silence, and Karl could almost hear the thinking coming out of the salt-and-pepper-haired man sitting on the couch. Finally his father-in-law said, “How much…”
Karl coughed to make his presence known before the man could ruin his relationship with his daughter forever by putting a price on their relationship. “I’ll give you fifty thousand dollars, cash, to never ask your daughter for money again.”
Father and daughter turned to face him, looks of surprise on both their faces, though Yap’s was touched with unabashed greed. Karl would have turned the man out of his house without blinking, but he had to blink twice at seeing how similar father and daughter looked, from their golden skin tones to their pointed chins and rounded cheeks. Was the father disappointed to have the apple seemingly fall so close to the tree yet be of a completely different nature?
“Conditions?” the man asked.
“Dad! You can’t take his money.” She whirled her head from her father to Karl. “Karl, you can’t offer it to him. I told him no.” Her voice was sure for the first time since he’d walked in on the conversation.
“As long as he knows you have access to my money—or any money—he’ll keep asking.” Karl was surprised at how calm he was.
“I’ll tell him no again. I’ve told him no before.” She stood and crossed the room to face him.
Karl put his hands on her shoulders in reassurance. “And he’s returned to ask again. And he’ll keep returning until you’re so sick of it that you put off seeing him and our child will never get to know his or her grandparent.” Karl didn’t like Yap, would prefer to keep Yap on the other side of the country, but the man was his wife’s father, and Karl understood the value of family. And he was beginning to understand how Vivian could love a family member she didn’t approve of and maybe didn’t even like.
“Then you’ll start ignoring his phone calls,” he continued. “Maybe he’ll show up at our door again, maybe he won’t. But your dad’s greedy schemes will kill your relationship and it matters because we have a child to think of. A child who deserves to know his or her family.”
“I get the money and you won’t try to stop me from seeing my daughter or my grandchild.” The greed in Yap’s eyes was no longer hidden, but the man was looking at his daughter with love. Karl wondered if the man was self-aware enough to ever struggle with his greed and his love for his daughter, or if whatever emotion was strongest at the time was the one that came out.
“I won’t try to stop you,” Karl said over Vivian’s shoulder and her objections. “But if I hear you’ve asked Vivian for money—or any of our children when they’re older—I will send the hounds of hell after you. Your schemes haven’t caught up with you yet, but I will make sure they do if you don’t agree to these terms. If you need money, you will ask me and I will decide if you can have it, not Vivian.”
“Can I talk with you in the kitchen?” his wife snapped, looking pissed at what he thought was a very fair offer.
