Aliza
She fumbled for her phone on the nightstand and saw that it was just past six in the morning.
“Who the hell is pounding on my door at this hour?” she muttered to herself.
She threw back her blankets and pulled on the hoodie she’d left draped over the chair.
The pounding came again, harder this time.
Whoever was on the other side of the door seemed to be very impatient and angry.
She hadn’t seen him in over a month—not since their last argument about her staying in school instead of taking the job he’d lined up for her.
He looked the same now as he had then, with his pressed suit jacket, rigid posture, and his jaw locked so tight it looked like it might crack.
Yeah, he was pissed about something, and she had a feeling that something, or in this case, someone, was her.
She took a deep breath to steady herself and opened the door.
He stood in the doorway huffing out his breath as though he had just run a marathon, not bothering to even say hello.
“What is wrong with you?” he snapped, pushing past her like she wasn’t even there.
“Do you have any idea what kind of embarrassment you’ve brought on this family? ”
“Dad, what are you talking about?” she asked, barely able to keep up as he marched into her living room, as though he owned it.
He spun around and shoved a folded newspaper into her chest. “This is what I’m talking about.
” The paper felt heavier than it should have.
Her hands trembled as she opened it. And there it was—a photo of her and Elias standing near the small auction stage, talking.
They were standing way too close, and she had her face tipped up toward him.
It showed a moment caught between surprise and something dangerously close to happiness.
She was sure that it had been taken when they decided to actually go out on the date that she had just bid on, and she looked happy—actually happy.
She quickly read the headline aloud to herself.
LOCAL DOCTOR AUCTIONED OFF TO YOUNG MYSTERY WOMAN: Hospital Charity Night Turns Heads
The words blurred for a second as she tried to make sense of them.
She had no idea that the hospital would have press at the function, or that she and Elias would be their feature story.
Shit—this was the last thing that either of them needed.
Elias would have to deal with a bunch of coworkers giving him a hard time at work.
Hell, she wouldn’t blame him if he decided that she wasn’t worth any of the trouble that she had been causing him.
“You bid on a man old enough to be your father,” he said sharply. “A married-looking, silver-haired doctor with a reputation. Do you know what people are saying about you?”
Her throat tightened. “He’s not married. And he’s not—”
“I don’t care!” he barked, cutting off her words as she tried to defend Elias. “You think anyone reading that paper cares? They see a pretty girl buying herself a wealthy older man, and they draw conclusions.”
“That’s not what it was,” she said, anger starting to burn through the shock. “It was for charity. And I didn’t buy him—”
“You raised a paddle and paid money for him, did you not?” he cut in. “However you want to spin it, that’s what it was.”
Aliza folded the paper slowly, deliberately, trying to steady herself. “You don’t know him. And you have no idea what’s going on between the two of us.”
“I know enough,” her father said coldly. “And you are done with him. Immediately.”
Her breath hitched. “You don’t get to decide that.”
“Oh, I absolutely do,” he replied. “While I’m the one paying for your apartment, your tuition, and your lifestyle, I get to make the decisions.
” The words hit her like a slap across the face.
When she told him that she wanted to go to graduate school, her father insisted that she’d be on her own.
He told her that he refused to pay for her reckless choices, but then, after a few days, he sent her a check for her tuition and a little extra for expenses.
She thought long and hard about taking his money, knowing that it might come back to bite her in the ass later, and she was right.
“I’m not a child,” she said, though her voice shook. “I’m in graduate school. I pay my own bills, too.”
“With my help,” he snapped. “And that help comes with expectations. You don’t get to throw away everything I’ve invested in you for you to become a doctor’s midlife-crisis fantasy. I’m pretty sure that’s all you are to this man.”
“That’s not what I am to Elias!” she shot back. “He’s kind, and he listens to me. He doesn’t treat me like I’m a project that needs fixing. I like him.”
“He treats you that way because he doesn’t have to live with the consequences of your choices,” her father said.
“He gets to enjoy you until you get complicated, or until you need something. Then he’ll walk away, and I’ll have to help you pick up the pieces.
” Her chest ached at the certainty in his voice.
“You don’t know that,” she whispered.
“I know men like him,” he said. “And I know what happens to girls like you.” Something in her snapped.
“I am not a girl,” she said fiercely. “And I’m not yours to control.”
He stared at her, eyes cold. “Then make your choice, but leave me and my money out of it.” The room went painfully still.
“You can choose him,” he continued, “or the life you’ve been building, that I’ve been financing.
Your degree and your future aren’t something that I’ll let you compromise, Aliza.
You keep seeing him, and I’ll stop paying for school.
I will stop helping you. You’ll be on your own.
” The words sank deep, twisting in her chest.
“You’d really do that?” she asked.
“Yes,” he breathed with no hesitation. The finality in his tone stole her breath. He turned and walked out, leaving her standing there with the newspaper crumpled in her hands and the door hanging open behind him.
“Make your decision, Aliza,” he shouted back over his shoulder. Aliza sank onto the couch, her legs giving out beneath her.
Her heart pounded painfully as she stared at the photo in the paper again. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Elias’s soft smile, and the way he’d looked at her like she wasn’t just something to be judged or controlled.
Tears burned her eyes. She didn’t know what she was going to do. But for the first time in her life, someone had asked her to choose between safety and something that felt real. And that terrified her more than anything else.
Aliza had gone back to bed after her father left, pulling the covers over her head like they could shield her from the weight of his words.
She didn’t mean to cry. Hell, she never really cried, but her father’s angry words played through her head, over and over, and she just couldn’t seem to help herself.
The quiet after he’d slammed the door behind him had been too loud, too heavy, and before she realized what was happening, tears had soaked into her pillow. Eventually, exhaustion dragged her under until she woke again to someone pounding on her front door once more.
It wasn’t as frantic as before, but it was just as insistent. Her heart leapt into her throat as she sat up, dread flooding her. For a split second, she thought her father had come back, and he’d be angrier, louder, and even more determined than he was during his first visit.
“Go away,” she whispered, even as she swung her legs out of bed.
The clock read just after noon. Sunlight spilled across the floor, too bright for how she felt.
The knock came again as Aliza wrapped her robe around herself and padded to the door, peering through the peephole.
She found Elias standing on the other side of the door, and her breath caught.
He looked worried, not angry or annoyed, as her father had earlier that morning. He just looked concerned. His brow was furrowed, phone in his hand like he’d debated calling again before coming over.
She opened the door slowly. “Hey,” he said softly. She didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded and stepped back to let him in.
He took one look at her face and swore under his breath.
“Aliza, what happened? You look like you’ve been crying.
” She looked like a mess; she was sure of that.
She was standing in front of the man she had been trying to impress during their first two dates, in her ratty old bathrobe with her hair a mess.
“I’ve been texting and calling you all morning,” he said. “I was worried, so I decided to cut out of work on my lunch break to check on you.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t answer,” she said quickly, words tumbling out. “I wasn’t trying to ignore you, I just—”
He shook his head gently. “I wasn’t mad.
I was worried.” That made her throat tighten.
She gestured toward the couch, and they sat down.
Aliza was sure to leave a careful space between them.
She wanted to be able to explain what happened and not have her body overreact to Elias’s touch as it had the night before.
“My dad came over this morning,” she said quietly, “at six in the morning, and he was furious.”
Elias stiffened. “Because of the auction? I take it he saw the newspaper article. I was worried about you when I saw the paper in the breakroom. I thought you wouldn’t want to see me again, and that’s why you weren’t responding to my texts or calls.”
She nodded. “I can’t believe that we made the local paper. He saw the picture of us and came all the way over here to say that I embarrassed him. He said that people are talking and that I’m an embarrassment to the family.”
Elias’s jaw clenched. “That’s ridiculous,” he growled.
“He told me you were old enough to be my father,” she whispered, eyes fixed on her hands, not wanting to look him in the eyes when she said this next part.
“He said that I am throwing away my future. And then he said that if I didn’t stop seeing you, he’d cut me off.
He’d stop paying for school and some of my expenses.
” Silence fell between them, heavy and painful.
Elias stared at her like he’d been punched. “He threatened you?” he breathed.
“Not really threatened. He called it consequences for my behavior,” she said bitterly.
“But it’s always been like that between us.
If I don’t live my life the way he wants, he uses money to pull me back into line.
He threatened to cut me off when I didn’t take the job that he had lined up for me after I graduated with my master's degree. I told him that I wanted to get my graduate degree, and he freaked out. He even called me his eternal college student, as though everything that I’ve worked so hard for has been a joke to him. ”
“That’s not okay,” Elias said fiercely.
“I know,” she murmured. “But it’s my reality.”
She finally looked at him, tears burning her eyes again. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to drag you into my family drama, and I didn’t want to hurt you either. So I just, well, I just shut down.”
“I’d rather you tell me what’s going on with you, honey,” he said quietly. “Even if it’s messy. You have no idea how worried I was that you wouldn’t want to see me again. I thought you ghosted me—wait, did I use that word correctly?” he asked, making her smile.
“You did,” she said. “I guess that I was scared,” she admitted. “I still am. I’m not sure what to do.”
He shifted closer, just enough that she could feel his warmth. “What are you scared of, Aliza?”
“That I’ll have to choose,” she said. “Between you and everything I’ve worked for.”
Elias swallowed. “You shouldn’t have to give up your future for me.”
“And I don’t want to give you up, either,” she whispered. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Elias reached out, taking her hand gently into his own. “We’ll figure this out—together. No ultimatums to cloud our decisions, and no fear.”
She reached for his hand and squeezed his fingers into her own. A fragile thread of hope winding through her chest. “I don’t know what the right answer is,” she said.
“Then we’ll take it one step at a time,” he replied.
“I’m not going anywhere.” For the first time since her father had left her standing in her living room, Aliza felt like she wasn’t completely alone.
She wasn’t about to give up on a man who might very well be her future, so she’d just have to find a way to keep both—him and the life she had been working so hard towards.