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Dad looks back at my sister. “You should have told me earlier than this, Tara. Now it’s nearly too late for...”
“For what?” Tara asks, holding Dad’s gaze, daring him to finish his sentence.
“For getting rid of it.”
The food I’m chewing turns to cardboard in my mouth, and I barely resist the urge to spit it out onto my plate. The food I’ve already swallowed is churning in my stomach.
“Gordon!” my stepmother cries. “That’s our grandchild you’re talking about. How could you suggest such a thing?”
“I’ll be doing no such thing, Dad,” Tara says, her back straight, her posture perfect as she puts down her glass with composure I envy.
How is she staying so calm?
“I’ve already had one dropout.” His gaze flicks to me briefly. “After all the money and time we’ve invested in you, there’s no way I’m letting you walk away from your Doctor of Medicine.”
“It isn’t your decision to make. It’s my baby and I’m keeping it.”
Absurdly, and completely inappropriately, Madonna’s song pops into my head and starts playing.
“You should be happy for her, Dad,” I say. “She’s happy, and you’re going to be a grandfather. This is a momentous occasion.”
He ignores me, his gaze still locked on Tara. “You’ll lose everything you’ve been working towards.”
“Everything you’ve been working towards, you mean?” Tara shakes her head, her voice full of sadness.
I look at my dad. He still has the same bald spot on top of his head, with blond tufts on either side of it. His eyes are still blue. He still wears glasses. His face is so familiar. Yet I no longer see a man I want to please. Instead, I see a man who has let me down tonight, one who has his priorities so far out of whack that he suggested my sister get rid of her baby just so he can have at least one daughter follow in his footsteps. It’s so, so wrong.
I knew that when Tara made her announcement, my father would be disappointed. But I never thought he’d tell her to abort it. All my life, I’ve believed his disapproving attitude just extended to me. I was sure that after he got over the initial shock of the announcement, he’d hug Tara and tell her he was proud of her; he’s always seemed to love her so much more than me. But his disapproval isn’t personal. I see that now. The way he treats me isn’t about me. No, it’s about my father and the type of man he is. And his reaction tonight has been... despicable.
“I’m happy, Dad,” Tara says. “I want this baby. Why can’t you be happy for me?”
“Did you really think I’d be pleased to have you show up here tonight and announce you’re throwing your life away?”
“I’m not throwing my life away!”
“Mr Campbell,” Simon tries. “I think—”
“You didn’t think at all,” Dad says, glaring at Simon. “You knocked my daughter up and ended her career.”
“Gordon, that’s enough,” Elkie says sternly.
My father doesn’t listen to his wife. And he hasn’t listened to Tara tonight, either. Has he always been this self-centred and selfish? Why do I care so much about what this man thinks when it’s clear he puts his own wants and needs before everyone else’s?
“No, it’s fine, Mum. I was wrong to think he had any fatherly instincts in him.” Tara stands up. “Come on, Simon, we’re going.”
Her partner immediately obliges.
“Don’t go, Tara,” Elkie pleads.
Dad’s face is red as he watches Simon put his arm around my sister’s waist. “We’re not done yet, Tar—”
“Oh, we are done, Dad,” Tara cuts him off. “I’m twenty-two, not fifteen. You can’t tell me what to do, and you don’t get a say in this. If you don’t want to be a grandfather, you won’t be one.”
“Tara!”
Elkie is up and running after her daughter and Simon while I remain seated at the table with my father.
As soon as I stand up, Dad’s gaze locks with mine.
