Café Rouge

Chapter 24: Forecast of Dark Clouds and Storms

"No. No, I wouldn't have been able to do anything, you're right. But you could have. You could have not...shot him."
He stalks closer towards her to, which she responds by planting her feet firmly down into the ground and taking her stance.
Rolling his eyes he repeats, "I told you if it weren't me then it would have been someone else. You should be thankfully it was me because I can give you this!"

He practically slaps the piece of paper into her hand, which gives them a brief interlude to their verbal war.

She glances down at it, the scribbling's obviously her fathers but she doesn't understand what he's written down for her. Perhaps a letter would have been more appropriate than this...address.
"And were there words accompanying what this is supposed to mean?" she icily asks.
His eyes narrow as he seriously considers why he's bothering to put up with this, "that is the address apparently of your grandparents in France. He says they will help you."

So she does have family. Estranged and miles away but still...there's someone out there that shares some relation to her. They're just strangers though. Strangers she doesn't even know will care about her. The one person who truly did is now gone.
"I see," she quietly mutters before gazing up at him and stating, "but what can I do with it?"
"I won't risk harming you-"

"No, you won't let anyone else hurt me but you'll gleefully hurt me, right? You'll happily keep me captive her, pretending to play this ridiculous game of house while you slice off everything I hold dear until you're the only person left, right?" rhetorically asks Lola.
His face flares with shock as he retorts, "that's not true. You have no idea how many times I have prevented you from fates worse than living here so comfortably. I have done everything I can to accommodate you."

"But that's all just a con isn't it? You're worse than...than...your father! At least with your brother he's honest about the torture but you...you lie to me. You give me hope. You make me...make me think that there's something between us and then you tear it all apart and break me down.-"
"I am not a liar! Everything I have told you has been the truth. I have..I have bared my soul to you Lola. I have confessed things to you I have never done so for anyone."
"And yet if all that is true you wouldn't have shot my father!-"
"I didn't want to!-"
"Then why did you Carlos?! And don't you dare say it was just for protection.-"
"It was!" he insists.

Lola shakes her head, replying just as hotly, "No, it's because you're a coward."

There's a stunned silence from both of them at that proclamation. It's too late for Lola to recollect but even so she refuses to do damage control over it. So what if his fragile ego can't handle it? It's what he's doing anyway. This standing on the fence, this diplomacy, he believes he's conducting between his father's wishes and his own is completely ludicrous.

"And how do you figure I am a coward piccola?" he spits icily. 

"We have had this conversation before, Carlos, remember? You continue to sacrifice your happiness and wishes to be your family's hound. Sometimes in life selfishness is the only way."
He straightens his spine a snide smirk tugging at those lips which snarl, "if I were as selfish as you proclaim I should be then your father would have been long dead and you would be heeding my every command."

He's mistaken if he thinks he can threaten her with those old lines. She's truly lost everything she holds dear now. Her mother's is long gone, her parent's legacy ceased and her father murdered and she can't even give him a proper funeral. Who in the world cares anymore what he does with her? Why does she care anymore?

"If that makes you feel better then fine. Do as you will with me, Carlos because it doesn't matter anymore. I have lost everything I care about and not that I believe it will make much of a difference to you but you should know too, that I've lost all ounce of trust and respect I had for you."