Lisa rushed towards her daughter and shook her, asking why she was complicating things more for them.
"He's dangerous!" Lisa tried pleading, but Chloe looked at her with a passive expression that made Lisa wonder whether or not Chloe was really listening to her.
"But you're in touch with him, right? Besides, he has been nothing but kind to us, mum. Why do you hate him so much?" Chloe asked, and Lisa shook her head and answered that he was just messing with her mind.
"Okay. I'm ready for whatever he wants to bring on," Chloe said in a determined voice as she let herself free from her mother's touch, an act that infuriated Lisa the more.
"Chloe..." Lisa called out with a heavy heart.
"I know you accepted the gifts to punish me for not telling you the truth about Martin and me. I will if that's what you want to know, but you have to promise me that you'll return everything to him after that."
Chloe nodded softly, too afraid to utter a word.
"I have always not wanted to think of him as your father, but he is..." Lisa softly said as she moved to sit on Chloe's bed.
"Why?" Chloe asked in a trembling voice, and Lisa shut her eyes as she thought back to her high school graduation party. The party sent her life towards a downward spiral. Things had never been the same since then, and she knew they never would.
"Because he is a beast, Chloe. He ruined my life," Lisa almost shouted as she thought back to months after graduation when she missed her periods.
She had bought a pregnancy kit with her hands trembling, and when she saw the two lines on the kit, she broke into a burst of loud laughter and told herself it was a false alarm. She had bought one kit after the other wanting each to give a different result, but they were all the same.
"I was so scared, Chloe. Your grandma had warned me against going to the party, knowing very well that people misbehaved in them, but I didn't want to be left out. Plus, Martin and I had been dating, and I had promised that we would seal our relationship after high school. I didn't want to break my promise," Lisa said between hiccups, her voice low from crying.
"So that day after the party, we got to his car and drove to his home. Everything went as planned, but when we got to the bedroom, and he closed the door, I felt afraid after seeing the sly smile on Martin's face. It felt as though he had won a jackpot," Lisa narrated as she wiped her tears using the back of her hands.
"I can't," Lisa said as she got down from the bed and started putting on her clothes.
"Can't do what?" Martin asked in surprise as he continued removing his pair of trousers.
"I have to go," Lisa said as she tried to move past Martin, who had become visibly annoyed.
"Are you for real? Goodness Lisa! We've waited all this time for this, and now you're changing your mind without giving me any explanations. What do you want me to do with this? Are you going to leave me with blue balls like this? "Martin asked as he looked down at himself in anger. His fists were folded, and his eyes had become red like a beetroot.
"I refused to give in to his demands. Your guess is as good as mine about what happened next, and here you are today. I later learned his friends had dared him to sleep with me." Lisa said in a faint voice.
"Wha…What! Wait!" Chloe asked in a stammer as she tried looking into her mother's eyes to see if she was lying and just playing with her emotions.
"You're not for real, are you?" She asked with a stammer as a hot volcano of tears rolled down her chubby cheeks.
"I'm telling you the truth Chloe," Lisa reiterated in a cold voice that punched Chloe so hard it felt like all the air in her chest had flown out. Her vision became so blurry, and her head was throbbing so loud she feared it could burst.
"You don't mean my father is a rapist. Do you?" Chloe managed to ask as she looked at Lisa with a lot of hatred that was uncalled for. Lisa slowly nodded as she fumbled with her fingers and looked down.
"You got to be kidding me," Chloe said in disgust as she clicked her tongue and pointed her index finger at Lisa.