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"But then she had me"

"Yeah, she had a baby So now she was alone and responsible for an infant She had no friends, no one to call Her own mother didn’t speak to her for over a year"

"But what about the aluht casseroles and soave us names of doctors and helped with the bills They made it possible, but it was never easy There were tiht so much we made you cry There eeks we hated each other and if we’d had the otten divorced a hundred tiain "Daddy, no"

He squeezed her fingers "We worked it out We realized we loved each other and ere going to have to try harder Then I signed with the NFL and ere able to ot easier You started school and Serena and I could finally spend soht it was different I thought it was a fairy tale"

"I know Maybe that was a ht He and Serena had paved the way to this disaster They’d practically illustrated a manual on how to screw up a life

"There’s no baby," Brittany whispered "I was sad before, but o on birth control, Dad"

Not a conversation he wanted to have

"You’ll have plenty of time to think about how you want to handle that," he said "You already have an appointment with your doctor in teeks"

She pulled back her hand "Dad! That’s so enant at seventeen Not that I see that happening again anyti out with Raoul for a while"

She glared at him "You can’t make me break up with him He’s my boyfriend and I love him"

"I’m sure you do, but this isn’t about him This is about you You lied to ot a fake ID I’ve always trusted you and given you a lot of freedoh to handle it"

"What?"

He stood "You’re grounded, Brittany You won’t be dating anyone for a while You’ll go to school, then sit in my office and do homework until I’m ready to leave"

"That’s crazy I’ll driveaway your car"

"What? You can’t!" She shrieked loud enough to injure the neighborhood dogs "Daddy, no!"

"No car for a rounded for six weeks The last teeks are to test your ability to be responsible If you can’t handle it, you’ll lose the car co you keep your cell phone and Internet privileges, but let es I can take thelared "You can’t do this"

"I can and I have"

"It’s not fair I wasn’t that bad"

"You were that bad and worse I worried so much about how you felt after your s easy for you and I did Too easy You’re spoiled, Brittany If so to become the kind of person no one likes I don’t want that I want to be proud of you again"

She began to cry again "Daddy, don’t"

He wasn’t sure what she wanted him to stop, but he didn’t care He walked past her and entered the kitchen Her car keys were lying on the counter He pocketed them

Brittany ran into the kitchen "You can’t do this You can’t treatlike one"

"This is so unfair I hate you"

"Right now, you’re not my favorite person, either I love you, Brittany, but you’ve crossed the line"

She turned and raced out of the room He heard her footsteps on the stairs, followed by the sound of her slaainst the counter and wondered how the hell he was going to get through the next month

It would be hard There wereto take any of it well He was fighting uphill--he should have done this years ago But with luck, he could still turn her around

He walked into his study, but couldn’t sit He felt too restless Soure out what it was He felt uncomfortable Like he didn’t fit in his skin any Everything was right What did he have that was…

Nicole, he thought He needed to talk to Nicole They’d fought and he’d hurt her She’d only been telling hi what he needed to hear He respected that, and he missed her

He walked upstairs and knocked on Brittany’s door

"Go away," she yelled

"Keep talking like that and you’ll lose your phone"

There were a couple of seconds of silence followed by her opening her bedroom door

Her face was pale and streaked with tears "Okay," she said, then sniffed

His knee-jerk reaction was to tell her not to worry, that they could put this all behind the to see Nicole," he said "I’ll be gone a while"

"You’re leaving? Now? After rippingme?"

Good to know Brittany hadn’t lost her flair for the dra your car keys with me, so don’t think you can sneak out I expect you to stay up here and think about what you did wrong"

"Daddy, no You can’t leave Not now" More tears slid down her cheeks "Don’t Don’t go to Nicole"

"Why not? I want to spend tio out"

He folded his arms across his chest "You didn’t just say that"

She sed "Sorry No I didn’t ht now You hurt me"

"I punished you There’s a difference"

"But, Daddy…" Her voice was a high-pitched whine One that grated on his last nerve

"What’s the real problem here?"

"I don’t know It’s just…Howquestion "I like her a lot"