Chapter 446.
<strong>Chapter 446. A Father and Some Stupid Horses: Chatting with a Father in the Bathroom. (2/2)</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… who’s fault is it exactly?” Was it the doctor I saw her with? He did say before during our conversation in the barn that Aurelia left him because of what that doctor did.
<span style="font-weight:400">When I suddenly spoke up, his head stiffly jerked to the side and our eyes met. It looked like he’dpletely forgotten I was here when he lost himself in that tsunami of emotions.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry… kid… I identally let yuh see a pretty unsightly and unbing side of me just now. This is uh haha… pretty embarassin.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t sweat it. Everyone’s got a side they don’t want others to see.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Right…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Kid… what about you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What about me?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You listened to me rattle on just now and everything… you got anything you wanna get off your chest?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Get off my chest? Hmm… I’m just a stupid kid, I haven’t really lived long enough to haveplicated problems like that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No shit, I meant some more normal stuff. You gettin bullied in school and want to vent or anythin?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Bullied? No, I don’t get bullied.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What? Not even a little?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then what about problems with friends.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“None.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No way, there’s got to be something.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“There really isn’t.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“How is that even possible?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, what makes you think I have friends to fight with in the first ce?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Wait, are yuh suggesting yuh got no friends?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No, I don’t have any friends.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That’s… a bit too sad. Kid, yuh should really make some friends. Yuh don’t want to end up alone like me. Oh, wait, I forgot yuh got your girlfriend so I guess yuh wouldn’t.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You''re not alone either though, you have your daughter there for you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haha… yeah, I guess yer right. I do, don’t I?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, about just now…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“When you said it was all someone’s fault… who were you referring to and how is it all that person’s fault? Is it the doc-”
<span style="font-weight:400">I was cut off when he let out an abrupt sigh, “Haaaaaaah. It’s best if you don’t know or stick your nose into it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I can’t exin more than that. All I will say is it was someone from the university that Aurelia and I attended… that person was someone… I once considered a close friend in university.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“The reason... my suppliers turned on me... was the result of his handiwork. I only found out a few yearster about his involvement in all of it from one of my suppliers. After I found that out, the pieces of the puzzle all fell into ce. Every misfortune that transpired that year I was married… they could all be traced back to him.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It turned out that all the disasters I faced had been part of his n to ruin my life because I married the woman he’d had his eyes on for a very long time. I… stole her from under his nose.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“We both fell in love with Aurelia and fought over her, but I won her heart in the end. He was doing quite well in life. Born into a wealthy family in the city, received the best education fully paid for by his parents, yet he lost out to a farm boy like me. He must have found it unbearable. At the time, he epted his loss gracefully on the surface though.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I could have never guessed he was secretly hiding such a venomous side deep down and holding a grudge. I didn’t suspect a thing. I was too naive. I never imagined the lengths he’d go to to get revenge on me. I just couldn’t imagine it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. The only saving grace in all of this is the fact that he didn’t know Aurelia gave birth to a child during the year we were married and living on the farm. Since he didn’t target Dawn after Aurelia returned to the city I don’t think she told him about her either. She probably felt too ashamed to let anyone know she removed herself from her daughter’s life.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see. You really think he’de after Dawn if he knew about her though?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“With the sorts of things he did, I have no doubt he desires to take everything from me to make me suffer as much as possible.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then… is part of the reason you want her to leave here because you’re afraid he’lle after her if he finds out about her?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“A little, but after so many years have already passed peacefully, I can’t really see it happening. Right now... I just want what’s best for her.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see.” I shut off the water, stepped out, and headed to the door.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yuh done already?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I picked up the towel I entered with and started to dry my hair. With the towel over my head, I asked, “Out of curiosity, just how far would you go for your daughter? Would you sell your soul if it was for her sake?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“In a heartbeat.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You didn’t even hesitate.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What’s there to hesitate over? She’s my precious little girl.”
<span style="font-weight:400">So this was what a good father who actually cared for and loved their child looked like.
<span style="font-weight:400">He really drew the short end of the stick in life though. Betrayed by a close friend, his life ruined, plotted, and schemed against, he still turned out a good father in the end. Why do the good people in life always get screwed over so badly?
<span style="font-weight:400">The world really isn’t fair.
<span style="font-weight:400">I dressed myself and exited the washroom alone with a deep frown. I entered the living room where I found Rosa and Dawn blow-drying their hair. They’d already changed out into a fresh set of clothes. Rosa only had my ck hoodie on. Her legs were bare and it seemed she didn’t have a bra on underneath.
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn just had a long-sleeved white cored shirt on with long tight blue jeans.
<span style="font-weight:400">I copsed on the couch with the towel over my head. I took a deep breath in and thought over everything I’d just learned.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is something wrong?” Rosa asked when she realized something seemed off about my mood.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just feeling a bit fatigued I guess.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“We have been driving a lot and camping out for thest five days, I suppose it’s not unusual to be tired out from it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”
<span style="font-weight:400">When Rosa finished drying her hair, she stood up, approached the couch I was on, and said, “Can you sit up for a second.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Just do it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I sat up as requested. As soon as I did, Rosa took a seat before she ced her hand on my forehead and forcefully pulled my head back down onto her soft exposed thighs.
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa tenderly caressed my cheek with her hand in a loving fashion.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You two sure are… intimate…” Dawn chimed in awkwardly from the side.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hehe, you jealous?” Rosa joked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… a little. I kind of wish I had someone to do those sorts of things with.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then just go out there and find someone. I’m sure a lot of guys would line up.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’d like to, but I can’t.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why not?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Because she’s worried about her father.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s… too hard…”
<span style="font-weight:400">For her to leave her father behind to chase after a guy.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Of course it’s hard. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m fine alone.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Like her father.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaaah. If you say so.” Rosa shook her head regretfully.
<span style="font-weight:400">I shut my eyes and allowed Rosa to do as she pleased.
<span style="font-weight:400">Having spoken to Dawn’s father, I had a better understanding of Dawn’s internal conflicts. They weren’t easy problems to solve. One way to resolve them was to bring her mother back into the equation. But that seemed to be aplicated problem to tackle with the circumstances behind their separation.
<span style="font-weight:400">Even if she was brought back, so long as the one who caused all those problems for the farm wasn’t taken care of, history would only repeat itself. The only way was to eliminate the root of all those problems.
<span style="font-weight:400">On the other hand, there was a more peaceful alternative. It was to hook her father up with another woman. Theoretically, that was the simplest solution. But from the sounds of it, her father only had eyes for Aurelia. He must be aware of this solution too. For him to not do so meant he couldn’t bring himself to.
<span style="font-weight:400">That, or there just aren’t any women who’re interested in a farmer who’s a divorced father raising another woman’s child alone. That’s entirely possible when I consider how difficult it actually is for men to connect with women these days.
<span style="font-weight:400">But it really felt like he’d chosen to remain faithful to a single woman for the entirety of his life. Haaaaaah. His dedication is admirable to the point of foolishness.
<span style="font-weight:400">Deep down… I think I wanted to do something to help him. It wasn’t any of my business though, I shouldn’t stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.
<span style="font-weight:400">To help him also meant taking another person’s life. However, even if I wanted to do that, and had the means to do so, I technically hadn’t ascertained the identity of the target. Despite the odds being very high that it was the doctor I saw together with who I presume to be Aurelia, he still refused to tell me that person’s identity. All he confirmed was that it was a former friend of his.
<span style="font-weight:400">I currently had my own doubts about things as they stood. How could a doctor be able to pull strings with suppliers in agriculture? There was a bit of a disconnect there in my mind.
<span style="font-weight:400">It just didn’t make any sense to me. It’d make much more sense if the friend he spoke of was a farmer like him. Because of that disconnect, I felt an unsettling sense of discongruity. Something wasn’t adding up. Even if his family was wealthy, were they that wealthy? How much would they need to pay a supplier to get them to cut a farmer off? I had no idea.
<span style="font-weight:400">Was his family possibly involved in some shady dealings? What sort of shady things could they even be involved in though? Why was he so obsessed with Aurelia anyway? Actually, why’d Aurelia be a surgeon when it sounds like she wanted to be an agronomist? Did she simply lose confidence after her failures and setbacks on the farm?
<span style="font-weight:400">I suppose just because you like something, it doesn’t mean it’s what you’re talented in. Perhaps her talents simplyid elsewhere, that friend saw that, and wanted to bring her down a path she’d find more sess in. When it came torge clunky machines she might have sucked, but when it came to smaller instruments that required fine precision, such as in the medical field, she excelled.
<span style="font-weight:400">This was all spection though. At the end of the day, the only way to figure things out was to go undercover and investigate.
<span style="font-weight:400">What am I even thinking? I’m supposed to be on vacation together with Rosa here. I don’t want to do something so tiresome. I shouldn’t get involved.
<span style="font-weight:400">…