Chapter 446. A Father and Some Stupid Horses: Chatting with a Father in the Bathroom. (2/2)

“Uh… who’s fault is it exactly?” Was it the doctor I saw her with? He did say before during our conversation in the barn that Aurelia left him because of what that doctor did.

When I suddenly spoke up, his head stiffly jerked to the side and our eyes met. It looked like he’d completely forgotten I was here when he lost himself in that tsunami of emotions.

“Sorry… kid… I accidentally let yuh see a pretty unsightly and unbecoming side of me just now. This is uh haha… pretty embarassin.”

“Don’t sweat it. Everyone’s got a side they don’t want others to see.”

“Right…”

“...”

“Kid… what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You listened to me rattle on just now and everything… you got anything you wanna get off your chest?”

“Get off my chest? Hmm… I’m just a stupid kid, I haven’t really lived long enough to have complicated problems like that.”

“No shit, I meant some more normal stuff. You gettin bullied in school and want to vent or anythin?”

“Bullied? No, I don’t get bullied.”

“What? Not even a little?”

“No.”

“Then what about problems with friends.”

“None.”

“No way, there’s got to be something.”

“There really isn’t.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Well, what makes you think I have friends to fight with in the first place?”

“Huh? Wait, are yuh suggesting yuh got no friends?”

“No, I don’t have any friends.”

“That’s… a bit too sad. Kid, yuh should really make some friends. Yuh don’t want to end up alone like me. Oh, wait, I forgot yuh got your girlfriend so I guess yuh wouldn’t.”

“You're not alone either though, you have your daughter there for you.”

“Haha… yeah, I guess yer right. I do, don’t I?”

“Hey, about just now…”

“What?”

“When you said it was all someone’s fault… who were you referring to and how is it all that person’s fault? Is it the doc-”

I was cut off when he let out an abrupt sigh, “Haaaaaaah. It’s best if you don’t know or stick your nose into it.”

“Why?”

“I can’t explain more than that. All I will say is it was someone from the university that Aurelia and I attended… that person was someone… I once considered a close friend in university.”

“The reason... my suppliers turned on me... was the result of his handiwork. I only found out a few years later about his involvement in all of it from one of my suppliers. After I found that out, the pieces of the puzzle all fell into place. Every misfortune that transpired that year I was married… they could all be traced back to him.”

“It turned out that all the disasters I faced had been part of his plan to ruin my life because I married the woman he’d had his eyes on for a very long time. I… stole her from under his nose.”

“We both fell in love with Aurelia and fought over her, but I won her heart in the end. He was doing quite well in life. Born into a wealthy family in the city, received the best education fully paid for by his parents, yet he lost out to a farm boy like me. He must have found it unbearable. At the time, he accepted his loss gracefully on the surface though.”

“I could have never guessed he was secretly hiding such a venomous side deep down and holding a grudge. I didn’t suspect a thing. I was too naive. I never imagined the lengths he’d go to to get revenge on me. I just couldn’t imagine it.”

“Haaaaah. The only saving grace in all of this is the fact that he didn’t know Aurelia gave birth to a child during the year we were married and living on the farm. Since he didn’t target Dawn after Aurelia returned to the city I don’t think she told him about her either. She probably felt too ashamed to let anyone know she removed herself from her daughter’s life.”

“I see. You really think he’d come after Dawn if he knew about her though?”

“With the sorts of things he did, I have no doubt he desires to take everything from me to make me suffer as much as possible.”

“Then… is part of the reason you want her to leave here because you’re afraid he’ll come after her if he finds out about her?”

“A little, but after so many years have already passed peacefully, I can’t really see it happening. Right now... I just want what’s best for her.”

“I see.” I shut off the water, stepped out, and headed to the door.

“Yuh done already?”

“Yeah.”

I picked up the towel I entered with and started to dry my hair. With the towel over my head, I asked, “Out of curiosity, just how far would you go for your daughter? Would you sell your soul if it was for her sake?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“You didn’t even hesitate.”

“What’s there to hesitate over? She’s my precious little girl.”

So this was what a good father who actually cared for and loved their child looked like.

He really drew the short end of the stick in life though. Betrayed by a close friend, his life ruined, plotted, and schemed against, he still turned out a good father in the end. Why do the good people in life always get screwed over so badly?

The world really isn’t fair.

I dressed myself and exited the washroom alone with a deep frown. I entered the living room where I found Rosa and Dawn blow-drying their hair. They’d already changed out into a fresh set of clothes. Rosa only had my black hoodie on. Her legs were bare and it seemed she didn’t have a bra on underneath.

Dawn just had a long-sleeved white collared shirt on with long tight blue jeans.

I collapsed on the couch with the towel over my head. I took a deep breath in and thought over everything I’d just learned.

“Is something wrong?” Rosa asked when she realized something seemed off about my mood.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just feeling a bit fatigued I guess.”

“We have been driving a lot and camping out for the last five days, I suppose it’s not unusual to be tired out from it.”

“Yeah.”

When Rosa finished drying her hair, she stood up, approached the couch I was on, and said, “Can you sit up for a second.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

I sat up as requested. As soon as I did, Rosa took a seat before she placed her hand on my forehead and forcefully pulled my head back down onto her soft exposed thighs.

Rosa tenderly caressed my cheek with her hand in a loving fashion.

“You two sure are… intimate…” Dawn chimed in awkwardly from the side.

“Hehe, you jealous?” Rosa joked.

“Uh… a little. I kind of wish I had someone to do those sorts of things with.”

“Then just go out there and find someone. I’m sure a lot of guys would line up.”

“I’d like to, but I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Because she’s worried about her father.

“It’s… too hard…”

For her to leave her father behind to chase after a guy.

“Of course it’s hard. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”

“I’m fine alone.”

Like her father.

“Haaaaaah. If you say so.” Rosa shook her head regretfully.

I shut my eyes and allowed Rosa to do as she pleased.

Having spoken to Dawn’s father, I had a better understanding of Dawn’s internal conflicts. They weren’t easy problems to solve. One way to resolve them was to bring her mother back into the equation. But that seemed to be a complicated problem to tackle with the circumstances behind their separation.

Even if she was brought back, so long as the one who caused all those problems for the farm wasn’t taken care of, history would only repeat itself. The only way was to eliminate the root of all those problems.

On the other hand, there was a more peaceful alternative. It was to hook her father up with another woman. Theoretically, that was the simplest solution. But from the sounds of it, her father only had eyes for Aurelia. He must be aware of this solution too. For him to not do so meant he couldn’t bring himself to.

That, or there just aren’t any women who’re interested in a farmer who’s a divorced father raising another woman’s child alone. That’s entirely possible when I consider how difficult it actually is for men to connect with women these days.

But it really felt like he’d chosen to remain faithful to a single woman for the entirety of his life. Haaaaaah. His dedication is admirable to the point of foolishness.

Deep down… I think I wanted to do something to help him. It wasn’t any of my business though, I shouldn’t stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.

To help him also meant taking another person’s life. However, even if I wanted to do that, and had the means to do so, I technically hadn’t ascertained the identity of the target. Despite the odds being very high that it was the doctor I saw together with who I presume to be Aurelia, he still refused to tell me that person’s identity. All he confirmed was that it was a former friend of his. 

I currently had my own doubts about things as they stood. How could a doctor be able to pull strings with suppliers in agriculture? There was a bit of a disconnect there in my mind.

It just didn’t make any sense to me. It’d make much more sense if the friend he spoke of was a farmer like him. Because of that disconnect, I felt an unsettling sense of discongruity. Something wasn’t adding up. Even if his family was wealthy, were they that wealthy? How much would they need to pay a supplier to get them to cut a farmer off? I had no idea.

Was his family possibly involved in some shady dealings? What sort of shady things could they even be involved in though? Why was he so obsessed with Aurelia anyway? Actually, why’d Aurelia become a surgeon when it sounds like she wanted to be an agronomist? Did she simply lose confidence after her failures and setbacks on the farm?

I suppose just because you like something, it doesn’t mean it’s what you’re talented in. Perhaps her talents simply laid elsewhere, that friend saw that, and wanted to bring her down a path she’d find more success in. When it came to large clunky machines she might have sucked, but when it came to smaller instruments that required fine precision, such as in the medical field, she excelled.

This was all speculation though. At the end of the day, the only way to figure things out was to go undercover and investigate.

What am I even thinking? I’m supposed to be on vacation together with Rosa here. I don’t want to do something so tiresome. I shouldn’t get involved.

…