Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 25

Feeling nervous that her father wanted to have a chat with her, Vivian followed the man to his first floor office.

Once inside, he closed the door and motioned for her to take a seat.

Sitting behind his large oak desk, Samuel gave her a polite smile. “It’s nothing bad, Vivian. We just haven’t had a chance to talk about some things since you moved in, that’s all.”

Allowing her shoulders to relax, she nodded. “Okay.”

“First I want to ask how you’re doing,” he began, resting his elbows on the desk as he clasped his hands together. “I know this is all a big change for you, and I don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to me if something is too much, or bothering you.”

For a few seconds she said nothing, letting her mind flip through the different answers she could give to the question before settling on the one she preferred. “I’m doing fine.” Knowing he wouldn’t let such a short answer slide without probing, Vivian let out a bit of a sigh. “I’m used to things changing; none of this is really new, except where I am.”

This brought a frown to her father’s face and he didn’t seem to like her answer but let it go, instead changing the topic. “How are your brothers treating you? Gabriel said you’re hanging out with him this evening?”

“We talk a lot over texts,” Vivian confirmed with a nod, fingers fidgeting in her lap as she spoke. “We get along well enough.”

“What about Sebastian and Laurent?”

This time she hesitated a little. What about her other brothers?

Laurent was the biggest question mark; his attitude towards her varied a lot depending on the day. He was either completely cut off, or aloof towards her existence.

Sebastian, on the other hand…

“Sebastian texts me a bit, just general stuff like how are you. Laurent… I haven’t had a chance to talk to him much.” Not that he’d given her the opportunity, but she wasn’t about to say that to their father.

Her father let out a sigh. “I’m not surprised.”

“It takes time,” Vivian assured him. “Most siblings find it difficult to welcome a new one into the fold, especially without lots of notice.”

This caused her father to laugh. “You’re right. I know it won’t happen over night; I just want it to be like it should have been from the beginning.”

It was Vivian’s turn to frown now. “It will never be that way.”

“I know,” he sighed, leaning back in his chair a little. “It doesn’t stop me from wanting it all the same.”

Silence fell between them for a minute before Vivian, feeling uncomfortable, said, “was… there something else you wanted to discuss?”

“I wanted to go over the house rules with you, now that you’re more or less settled in.”

This comment brought worry to Vivian’s mind as she quickly reviewed what she’d done since arriving and whether or not she had unknowingly broken a rule.

As if sensing her unease, Samuel shook his head at his daughter. “You’re fine — you’ve done nothing wrong. I just want to lay out what I expect from my boys — and now you — so in the future you’re aware when making decisions.

“Okay…”

“Now that you’re in school, I expect you to keep your grades up; I don’t expect straight As, but I do expect an effort to be made to get the best marks you can.

“When you make friends, I would like to know their names. They can come here, you can go to their place, all that is fine, but I want to know who you’re hanging out with in case something happens.”

The second rule made Vivian wonder what he expected to happen, and if something had happened in the past with her brothers that had prompted such a rule. Maybe it was just a parent thing?

“Same goes if you want to date someone,” Samuel continued as he maintained eye contact this time. “You can date, but I want to know who he is, and to meet him. No, I won’t go over-protective father on him, but you are my daughter and I want to make sure you’re safe; that means meeting whoever you’re dating so I can see who they are first hand. If you try and sneak a relationship behind my back, and I find out, this rule will change and the consequences will not be fun for you.”

“Consequences?” She echoed, hoping her voice sounded curious instead of fearful. Consequences brought back bad memories she had to work to stamp down before they overwhelmed her.

“I base punishment on circumstance. If you tried to sneak a boyfriend into your room at night, for instance, the consequences of that would be different than if you started dating someone and didn’t tell me for a couple of weeks.”

“… because sneaking a boy into my room means we’re having sex?”

Samuel’s face suddenly blanked, as if surprised she’d be so upfront in her question. It took him a moment to regather his thoughts before answering. “The sex part is none of my business. I would prefer you to stay an innocent young lady for the rest of your life, but I’m not an idiot; teenagers are hormone driven and expecting you to be any different would be stupid.”

“Does that mean if, instead of sneaking a boy in, I simply told you he was staying over I wouldn’t be punished?”

Now Samuel was running a hand over his face, not enjoying the direction their conversation was going. It brought Vivian some amusement seeing the usually calm and put together man feeling uncomfortable with the situation he’d put himself in.

“Technically, that’s exactly what I mean,” he finally replied, voice sounding gruff as if forcing the words out caused him some pain, “though I would expect you to at least ask for permission and not expect it. As for the… sex part… so long as you don’t come home pregnant, or with an… infection… I will stay out of the conversation. Just use protection.”

This was the first time someone had given her this type of ‘talk’ without emphasizing what she should and shouldn’t do with her own body, and Vivian was startled at how hands off her father was about the topic. Would he actually keep his distance if she stayed within the bounds of his rules, or would he change his mind the moment she brought someone home to meet him and the illusion about his little girl shattered into a million pieces?

Part of her wanted to find out, but Vivian had no interest in finding a boyfriend, let alone losing her virginity just to test the limits of what her father would knowingly tolerate.

All she wanted was to survive her school years, graduate, maybe go to university, and get her life together before bothering with the extras.

“If you’re not going to be home, I’d also like to know where you’ll be and with who,” he continued, switching the topic again. “I don’t need specifics, just something like… ‘going shopping at the mall and out for food. I’ll be home by ten,’ is more than enough. I just want a general idea of where my kids are.”

“Can’t you GPS track our phones?” Vivian asked, wondering why he wanted them to do the leg work when he could have all this information without needing to ask.