The Daughter

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

She was born with epilepsy and struggled as a child. He would tie a puppy's leash around her leg so the dog could alert him to her impending seizures. She was ugly as a child and no one wanted to play with her. Even her own mother did not want to take care of her at times, whenever she had 'grand mal' seizures. She was a child only her father could love.

Now she was twenty four years old. She was still scarred from being rejected by her childhood playmates. She was not good with playing with others. She resented both of her parents because she couldn't live with them. Her own mother asked her to leave home, when she turned nineteen years old, because she wanted her to become more independent and learn how to take care of herself.

Forced to fend for herself, she lived with her boyfriend. He was kind to her but their five year relationship was now on a standstill. They were raised in different religions and her mother's boyfriend wanted her to convert to his religion before they marry. Even her own father has noticed how his boyfriend kept on evading the subject of marriage and commitment.

She learned to manipulate her father in order to survive. When she couldn't live with her boyfriend any more, she went back home to her father to live with him. She told him that she would pay rent out of her savings, three years ago. She signed a lease and told her brother to pay the security deposit for her. Afterwards, she breached the lease that was prepared by her father's fiancee and never paid rent.

"That Woman" was what she called her father's fiancee. It was a way of hiding her jealousy and envy at their engagement. Oftentimes, her thoughts focused on the audacity of "that Woman" who get engaged to her father while he was her meal ticket and cash cow. Right under her nose!

"I need You" was what she told her father when she moved in with him. He believed her and she's now one year away from her graduation in law schoool. Her mission was accomplished; she got three years of free rent and free tuition in law school, by making her father believe that she was poor, and needed his help to get out of poverty. He always wanted to be good and she got the upper hand by accusing him of being an irresponsible parent after his divorce from her mother. Anxious to repair her emotional damage, her father agreed to let her stay in his home.

She was satisfied with her actions. She had succeeded in getting her father's wedding postponed until after she graduated from law school. "That Woman" will have to wait another year and it will be enough time for her to further alienate the fiancee from her father's affections. She will make sure that they don't get married. After she watched her brother break up two previous romantic relationships of her father, she will get her chance to make him suffer.

All it took, to distract her father and focus his attention to her, were two 'grand mal' seizures in the bathtub and the stairs. She almost drowned in the bathtub and actually fell down the stairs. During these seizures, her father saved her and she knew then that she could wrap him around her little finger.

She thought of her father as distant, stuck in a cloud of unfulfilled personal ambitions. She didn't love her father but needed him to financially support her so she could finish law school. She has been successful for the last three years but did not know if it would last after her graduation.

Her father's fiancee, "that Woman" had already bought a home one thousand miles away from the home where she lived. After her move, her father had asked her to sign a lease-purchase agreement, so she could buy the home from him, after her graduation. He was not letting her stay unless she paid rent or bought the home from him. She had to pass the bar and accept a job, in order to buy the home. Although she had very good job offers, she was not sure if the law firms will take her, unless she passed the bar examinations and got her license to practice law. If she was only hired as a paralegal, her income would not be enough to buy the home.

As she prepared her warm bath tonight, she could see outside the bathroom window. She thought about how her father had left for Europe on a job assignment three months ago. He has not returned and it was a very lonely Christmas that she spent with her boyfriend and brother. They had not shared her desire to buy the home from her father. She will be without a home after a year as both of them had other plans.

She poured red wine in a glass and slowly sat in the warm bath water while holding the glass to soothe her nerves...still deep in thought, she drank the wine ... the 'grand mal' seizure came...and she drowned in the bathtub.