Falling In Again

Episode 4: Rules

Roman found himself driving to his ex-wife’s house as he got word from his assistant that he could be able to track her phone with an app within his phone for paranoid parents like him. Angelica also texted him to know that she was taking Mia home to ground her but he didn’t get much more out from her.

His panic was set aside but it started once more when he thought of the different things that she could have been doing.

He thought that if his daughter was having s*x, she would at least used protection and he would kill whoever boy think they could get their hands on his daughter. He was suddenly angry and distraught and he realized that he never felt any of this before. All of his emotions were foreign to him and it really freaked him out as his knuckles became white on the steering wheel.

Before he knew it, he was sitting in Angelica’s driveway staring at the light that was shining through the windows from the bottom side of the curtain and he didn’t recall ever driving this quick to a place before and he wasn’t even sure what he was going to say when he saw them.

His feet were already moving before he could think of a good excuse to use and his hand pressing the doorbell. Nothing came to mind as the door opened and he saw Angelica’s face, her eyebrows narrowing and confusion in her eyes as she looked at him. “What are you doing here?” She asked him. He opened his mouth to say something when he saw a face peek out from under her arm and he was engulfed in a hug.

“Daddy!” Mia said as she ran into his arms and Angelica moved aside, letting him inside. “What happened?” He asked as he let his daughter down and she shook her head. “Why don’t you tell your dad what happened.” Angelica said breathing heavily.

Mia didn’t look at him as she stared at the ground in front of her. She didn’t make eye contact for a while, and he was already assuming that she may have been caught doing drugs or having s*x but she muttered, “Went on a date.”

Roman looked from his daughter to her mom and gave her a confused look. “And that is bad?” He asked Angelica and she shook her head, “One, she’s too young to be dating and two, she wasn’t on a date with a ‘boy,’ she was on a date with a man.” She said and it took a second before what Angelica said could register in his head. “A man?” He asked his mind going to s****l predators and he looked to Mia who hung her head even lower and he didn’t know what to say or how to even react.

“Tell your dad how you met this man.” Angelica said and Mia shook her head before she took off to her room, crying. “Calm down and let’s talk about this.” Roman told his ex-wife before he knew the short fuse that she always had would blow from a firecracker into an atom bomb.

“Talk about what? That you suddenly want to play dad when the last few years you were barely in her life? She’s my daughter and what she did is unacceptable on top of lying to me. What if, what if this man took her?” Angelica asked, her voice shaking from the idea of losing her daughter to become another statistic.

Roman just stared at her as he saw the tears gathering in her eyes and he reached a hand out to touch hers. “I’m sorry that I was never around. It wasn’t my intention to become a distant father.” He whispered to her and she shook her head. “That’s not the point.” She steeled herself as she wiped at her eyes before she glared at him. “I found messages on her phone from an app that was hidden on her phone. It has this man asking her to come out to dinner with him.” Angelica said as she gave him the phone and he saw logs of messages. “Are there…” He paused before having to swallow the knot in his throat, “Did she send any nudes?” He asked her, his heart beating quickly as he thought whether this man was as sick as he was expecting. He didn’t want to know the answer but he had to know to protect his daughter.

“I don’t think so. She said they have been messaging for about two weeks.” Angelica said as she breathed and didn’t know what to do or say. “Can I talk to her?” Roman asked and Angelica nodded at him as they went towards Mia’s room.

He knocked on the door and he could hear crying from the other side as he opened the door and found her small frame on the bed. He had to remember that this was no longer his baby but a teenager and she was starting to get into things that he would have no control over. “Munchkin?” He said as he sat next to the small bundle. There was crying and sniffing as she didn’t budge and Angelica stood at the doorframe, watching them.

“Sweetheart, we’re not mad at you. We’re mad at ourselves and this man.” He said as he rubbed what he thought could have been her back. She sniffled as she said from the covers, “But I didn’t do anything. We just ate food and talked.” She cried and Roman glanced over to Angelica.

“But you can’t lie to your mom about what you were doing. You have to understand that we care about you and you going off to meet a stranger is not safe. Don’t they teach you about the dangers of meeting strangers?” He asked.

“We chatted online though; he was my friend.” She mumbled and Roman wanted to kill the man. In what world was it okay for a grown ass man to ask a young girl to come meet him unless it was to do harm. He wished that he knew who the man was and he knew he had to get that information from Angelica before he left. “Look munchkin, there are dangerous men out there who want to do harm to young girls. You’re lucky it was just a date; some girls don’t make it home.” He told her and he heard the gasp from Angelica from the doorway but he knew he had to somehow scare some sense into her. This was his one and only daughter and he had to protect her and that meant telling her how it was.

“That only happens in the movies.” Mia grumbled and Roman blew out a breath. “Honey, this man lured you out, did he try to do anything else…did he ask for anything?” He asked his daughter and she told him “no.” He blew out a breath as he relaxed but it still didn’t change the fact that Mia had lied. Something could have happened to her and she needed to know that.

After a somewhat long talk with Mia, Roman left her to sleep and he saw Angelica drinking a glass of wine in the kitchen, rubbing her temples. “Whether you like it or not, I’m going to try to be more active in her life. I get the feeling that this happened was because I am not giving her much attention.” He told her and she blew out an exasperated breath as she gave him a ‘you think?’ look.

“I’m going to come by on nights that you work and maybe I can take her some weekends that you do work?” He asked and she gave him a weird look. “Why?” She asked him and he gave her a stern look that he gave clients. “She’s my daughter.”

“I know that.” Angelica said but she continued, “Why now? You never cared what went on in our lives, why now? Are you that bored?” She told him and her words hurt more than it should but it was because there was some truth to it. He had failed as a father while she grew up and now that he still had his daughter, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

“Our marriage had failed, but I’m not going to let my relationship with my daughter fail as well. And I’m sorry that it did.” Roman said looking at an almost frail Angelica. Over the years that they had grew apart, she went from being this fragile girl into a strong woman and he wasn’t sure if he liked the woman in front of him or missed her former self. At the same time, he knew he shouldn’t be having these thoughts about her but there was something in him that reacted to her and he wasn’t sure what it was.