Page 57 of British Daddy to Go

She holds up her hand to stop me. “I will not meet the man who has ruined your life. I can’t believe you’d even ask me to do it!”

“Come on, Mom, please. You have to let me grow up eventually!”

“What is this man like? Is he rich? He must be if you met him at Havisham’s.”

Where is this line of questioning coming from? Is it possible my mom is starting to open up to the possibility of me dating Sean? “He’s amazing, Mom. He owns his own company. He has a lot of money, but he’s really down to Earth…”

Mom scoffs. “How much did he pay you for last night, huh? What’s the going rate for a prostitute like you?”

“I am not a prostitute!” I cry out. Sean should be here with me. Not only would he defend me to my mother, but he would understand that my comment from earlier wasn’t personal. It was a learned behavior from growing up with a mother like mine.

“So he didn’t even pay you for your services? I didn’t realize my daughter was so cheap!”

“Mom!” I say. “Stop that!”

“If you can’t handle the title, don’t take the job,” she yells.

I sob into my hands. “You’re cruel! Sean is a great man who would never pay someone to sleep with him. What we have is real!”

“You wouldn’t know real,” my father finally says. “You’ve lived in this house with our rules your entire life. How can you know what a real relationship is?”

“I feel it!” I say. “And that’s my point. I can’t live with you breathing down my neck all of the time. This isn’t a life at all! I need a chance to be my own person, to spread my wings. I want to be a designer, not a housewife. I want to go to college. I want to leave this house!”

My mother raises her hand as if to slap me but pulls it back quickly. “You will never leave this house!” she screams, blocking me in. She and my father force me up the stairs. “You are a slut and a prostitute. You are lucky to still be living under our roof after the stunt you pulled!”

“This doesn’t feel like luck; it feels like prison!”

Mom laughs an angry, pitiful laugh. “You don’t know prison yet, girl. Get in your room. You’d better get extra comfortable in there because you are never leaving again!”

“You can’t just lock me in my room!”

They continue to push forward until I’m standing in the center of my bedroom. Mom quickly closes the door before I have a chance to react. I try the knob, but it’s locked from the outside.

My parents have actually locked me in my room! I’m literally a prisoner in my own house now.

“We’re calling Reverend Jacobs,” Mom calls through the thick wooden door. “He can’t fix all of the mistakes you’ve made, but he may be able to help. Perhaps with his assistance, you’ll be a girl worthy of seeing the world again.”

I fall onto my bed in tears. How could my parents do this to me? I know it was a mistake to stay out all night. I understand that I broke their rules and their trust. Does that mean I deserve to be locked away like some princess in an old fairytale?

Jenna has always called my parents the wardens, and now the term fits more than ever.

Jenna! She can save me! I reach next to my bed to grab my laptop, but it’s not there. That’s where I left it last night when I left for my date with Sean! Where could it be?

I search my entire room and come up empty. A few minutes later, there’s a knock on my door. It opens slightly, and a plate of food is slipped through the small crack.

“Breakfast,” Mom says.

“Where’s my computer?” I ask in response.

She laughs behind the now closed door. “You don’t deserve technology. It is locked in the safe along with your phone.”

“So I’m stuck in my room with nothing to do?”

“There are plenty of books and a deck of cards to keep you busy.”

Mom’s quiet footsteps retreat down the stairs, leaving me alone. I consider jumping from the window, but I’m on the second floor and below me is concrete. I wouldn’t survive the fall.

I have no choice. I settle onto the bed with the first book I pick up. It’s one I’ve already read, so I decide to read it again.

This is what my life will be until my parents decide I can be trusted. How long will that be?

I might be stuck in this room for the rest of my parents’ lives.

If I’m lucky, they’ll replenish my supply of books when I get through all of these, but I’m not holding my breath.