She begins to walk away, but I remain planted.
“Asshole,” I say under my breath.
Roger turns around. “Excuse me?” he says.
I shake my head in disgust. “That’s your fucking daughter.”
“Seth, come on,” Molly says, tugging at my hand. “It’s fine.”
“You can’t give your own daughter a hug? Maybe act like you’re halfway happy to see her?”
“Enough,” Molly hisses. “Don’t do this.”
“Sorry, Dad,” she says over her shoulder. “See you in a week.”
She pulls me away and doesn’t look back as she walks quickly in the direction of our gate.
I put an arm around her but she shrugs it off. “That was humiliating,” she whispers. I assume she means her father’s profound apathy at seeing her, but she whirls around to face me head-on. “Don’t ever do anything like that again, do you understand?”
Oh, shit. She’s mad at me.
“I’m sorry,” I say immediately. “You’re right. It wasn’t my place to step in.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
I can tell by her tone she wants me to drop it, but I can’t let it go.
“It’s just that I can’t believe him,” I say. “He lied to you about being out of town? And who was that girl?”
She shakes her head, stone-faced. “Who knows. Not his wife. It doesn’t matter. It’s not worth getting into it with him.”
But itis.I want her to be as incensed as I am. To flay into that bastard with her poison dagger tongue. To storm over to Hudson News, grab the latest Mack Fontaine book, and whale on him with it.
“Baby,” I say at a much quieter volume. “Why shouldyouprotecthisfeelings?”
“Because he’s my father,” she says flatly. “At the end of the day, I want a relationship with him. And we’ve been getting along. I’m writing the next Mack Fontaine movie.”
I’m astounded that she would trust him enough to work with him on anything, let alone on one of his sleazy PI movies, but I know that isn’t my business.
“Okay. I get that. But you can still be angry with him for how he treated you.”
“That’s just what he’s like. I’m used to it. I have my mom. It’s fine.”
But it’s not. I can see in her complete lack of affect that she has disappeared somewhere inside herself. Idespiseit.
I pull her into my arms, but she stays rigid. It’s like hugging a piece of driftwood.
“Listen to me,” I say. “I pity him. Because his daughter is one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met. And he blew it. And he knows it. That’s why he’s like that. Because he failed you, and he’s ashamed.”
She takes a deep breath.
“Yeah? Well, he’s where I get it from.”
“Get what?”
“Being a selfish remote asshole with a cruel streak.”
I’m taken aback. “Molly, you are none of those things.”
