Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Noelle
The moment Bentley walked out I went up to my room and stayed here for well over two hours. Now I sat in my reading nook, staring out the front window, wishing he’d come back and take me away from here.
Tears were still streaming down my face as I heard my bedroom door open and gently close. I didn’t turn to see who it was; I didn’t care. I literally felt like I could die!
“Noelle, honey…” I heard my mother say.
“Go away,” I bit out, playing with a tag on the pillow I held in my lap. When I didn’t hear her leave, I tore my eyes from the window to see her standing there.
She looked at me with sadness in her eyes, and that was when the tears started up again. I needed her to hug me and let me know it was okay, so I got up and ran into her waiting arms. Tears flowed freely down as I crashed into her, hugging her tightly.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, running her hand over my hair.
“It’s not okay. Dad threw him out. He wouldn’t even listen to what he had to say.” I sobbed.
Mom guided me over to my bed, and we both sat down. She then grabbed the box of tissues and held it while I grabbed a few and dabbed my eyes and blew my nose before she continued.
“Noelle, you should have seen how upset and angry he was last night when he got home. I’ve never seen him quite like that before.
He didn’t even speak to me for hours. Instead, he just sat there, mulling things over in his mind.
I knew it had to be something bad. I just wasn’t expecting this.
So, when he finally told me, it shocked me. ”
“Well, at least you deal with things better than Dad does.”
“I suppose I do, but it’s because I didn’t see what he saw. I might not be as calm as I am had I seen it. However, I also know what it is like to like someone that your parents don’t approve of.”
I looked at my mother, unsure what she meant. Had my grandparents not approved of my father at first? If that was the case, then they both should have been a little more open to hearing us out.
“What do you mean?” I questioned, swallowing hard as I waited for her to answer me.
“We aren’t going to get into that now, Noelle. What I can assure you is that your father will never approve of you and Bentley. He will never approve of any type of relationship the two of you have, aside from the one you had prior to this.”
A sob escaped my throat as my mother sat there watching me. Was that the truth? Would my father really not approve of a man he’d been in a friendship with longer than I’d been alive? That he’d trusted with his life? That he should trust with my life?
“Mom, that isn’t fair.”
“I know, sweetheart, but it’s the way it is. He just simply won’t.”
Anger began coursing through me. This wasn’t fair. I was an adult, simple as that.
“Mom, I can love whomever I want, and I can make my own choices. Dad has no right to stand in my way of who I want to love because of an age gap.”
“I can and I will,” my father barked as he stepped inside my room. “It’s not only because of his age.”
“You won’t. We are in love.”
“Young lady, you don’t know Bentley the way I do. You don’t know the type of person he is. You see what we’ve allowed you to see, but not what is really there.”
Was my father really saying those words? Was he really trying to suggest that Bentley was a completely different man from what I knew my entire life?
“Dad, you are wrong. I think I know him very well,” I answered as I crossed my arms across my chest. “I know he is trustworthy, a gentleman, and a fighter. I know he’d never hurt me, and he’d do anything for me.”
“That is true, but what you don’t know is how he has treated women in the past. That much I know, and I refuse to have my daughter, my little girl, treated that way. There is no way in hell he will do that to you.”
I frowned, not knowing what my father was talking about, but not really caring either.
“Bentley is a good man, Dad. To be honest, I don’t care what he has done or how he has treated women in the past. His past is behind him for a reason. People can change.”
“Noelle, this is just another reason you shouldn’t get involved with him. You are young and na?ve and you should care. That is a window into someone, the way he treats others, especially women.”
Anger was building inside of me. My father had zero right to tell me who I could and couldn’t love. He also had no right not to allow me to make my own mistakes, and if Bentley ended up being a mistake, at least it was on me.
“Noelle, I am going to tell you this once, and only once. I forbid you from seeing Bentley again. Your mother and I spoke about this at great lengths last night, and she feels the same as I do. Neither of us wants you to see him in any capacity. You are not to go to Dripping Whiskey ever again either, you got it.”
“No!” I screamed as I whipped around and stared at both my parents.
“Pardon?”
“I said no. I am in love with Bentley, and I want to start a family with him.”
My mother looked at me and then over at my father. When I glanced at my father, I could see the anger pouring out of him.
“Repeat that again. I swear, I thought you said you wanted to start a family with him.” My father chuckled.
“If you want to disown me, then do so. I’m in love with him, Dad. I want to start a family with him, and if you don’t want me in your life, that is fine. I have what I need with Bentley.”
“Oh my god, Noelle, give your head a shake!” my father shouted as he paced back and forth.
“Dad, I know how I feel about him. I know how I feel when I’m with him, and I know how I feel when I’m not. I’d rather be with him.”
“Noelle, you are so impressionable. You don’t even know what love is.”
“I do! Mom, please, tell him,” I said, looking at her.
She sat looking away from me. Was she going to side with my father? What was all her talk about knowing what it was like when parents didn’t approve?
“Noelle, you’ve never been in love, so there is no way you can know what it is!” my father yelled.
“Whatever, Dad. If you can’t accept us as being together, then I am sorry, but there is no way I am going to be without the man I love.”
I walked over to my closet and pulled out my suitcase, rolling it over to the bed.
“What do you think you are doing?” my father questioned, watching me with curiosity.
“I’m packing my stuff. I’m leaving.”
“Jenelle, talk some sense into your daughter. I’ve had enough of this.”
My father left the room, leaving my mother and me alone. I looked at her, but all she did was stare back, shrugging her shoulders, not knowing what to do.
I walked over to my closet and grabbed a couple shirts, bringing them back over and folding them, placing them into my suitcase before going back over for more.
“If you have nothing to say, then you can go too, Mom,” I said, keeping my back straight and my head high, even though I felt like crumbling at the fact that they would not support me and my decisions. I’d guessed they’d both be disappointed. I never guessed they’d walk away from me.
My mother nodded, turned, and left the room, leaving me alone. What a Christmas this turned out to be I thought as I glanced at the pile of things I’d already placed in my suitcase and continued packing up, trying to remember everything I needed before I left the house in the morning.