DAD, CAN I LOVE YOU?
Andrew had a reputation as a thief in his small English village. He owned a sturdy cottage, kept a prosperous garden, his wife was mild and hardworking, and his elder daughter, obedient and sharp, was much like him in spirit.
Living with them was their younger daughter too…
All would have been well, but the villagers knew that all Andrews comfort hadnt come from honest work but from things nicked from others. But as the saying goes, innocent till proven guilty, and Andrew had never been caught. He worked his trade in the surrounding townsnever at home. His own village was sacred ground.
The first time Andrew married, he was just twenty. It wasnt a grand romance. The girl happened to come from quite a respectable family. Her father was a professor, her mother a university dean, and she was strikingly beautiful. All these things stroked Andrews ego. He wasnt about to make a fool of himself and so threw a wedding the whole county envied. He could afford it, too.
Luck was on his side…
A year or so into their marriage, the young wife started to suspect something was amiss. Her husband never seemed to go to work, yet money was never short. She pressed him for answers but never got a straight one.
Their daughter was born. Andrew continued to provide generously. Everything for his wife, everything for his girl. Then one day, Maryfor that was her namedecided to repot a plant. To her shock, tucked into the soil at the bottom, she found a small bundle. She unwrapped it and nearly fainted! Gold rings, pendants, chains, earrings a whole treasure trove. “Heavens above! Where on earth? Could this really be Andrews doing? This is proper crime!
When Andrew came home, Mary confronted him.
Care to explain yourself? Where did all this come from?
Andrew replied calmly, Dont be naive. Really dont know? Im a thief. Satisfied?
Mary was stunned. The next day, Andrew found a note on the kitchen table. Leave. Take what you want, I dont want stolen happiness. Forget about me and our daughter forever.
Andrew was ready for this. Mary was simply too honest, too clean to cope with his way of life. He knew there was no persuading her. Gathering his things, he left.
For the next four years, Andrew spent time in prison for stealing. Reform was the last thing on his mind. Haunted by memories of a lonely childhooda drunk mother, no father, always hungryhe swore his own family would never want for anything. Hed do anything to keep them fed and safe.
When he finally got out, he resolved to be smarter, work alone, and find a wife who wouldnt ask questions.
He didnt have to wait long. His next partner was a mere girl of seventeen, easy to shape, ready to please. She lived with her mother, a woman given to sitting round campfires singing folk songs. Her father had left years ago. The girl was eager for a proposal from anyone. Her mother didnt mind, either.
Andrew courted Emily and her mother for a year, showered them with gifts, moved in, redecorated their flat, and bought every modern convenience for the house.
Emily and her mother never asked how he got his money. Andrew realised they were willing to play by his rules. Unexpectedly, Andrew found himself truly fallen for her. They had a big, beautiful wedding.
They had a daughter and called her Sophie.
Andrew worshipped his little girl. Family life seemed perfect. Yet trouble soon loomed.
Andrew adored Emily, but Emily never learned to love him back. Grateful, yes, but that was all. As Sophie grew, Emily bloomed into an attractive, well-off young woman longing for real passion. And why not? She was young, pretty, and comfortablewhy shouldnt she enjoy life, especially when Andrew was often travelling for work?
It didnt take her long to find a lover. She fell madly for her friends brothera witty, charming physics teacher. Comfortable and enchanted, Emily wanted for nothing.
Her double life didnt last long. Eventually, gossips let Andrew in on the secret. He confronted her: Go to him if you love him, but Im keeping Sophie.
Emily was distraught and spat back bitter words as she stormed out.
Not six months passed before she was back. Forgive me, Andrew, I was wrong! But Emily never really stopped loving the physics teacher. Life on a teachers salary was too hard, and she couldnt bear life without Sophie. Andrew forgave herlove forgives, after all. Love lingers in the heart of a scoundrel, a cheata heart you cant drive it from. He would suffer and howl with heartbreak, but still, hed love.
Andrew decided to move his family far from all physics teachers. Emily agreed. Perhaps in the countryside, her heart would be calmer.
He bought a place in a tiny, tucked-away village. They settled in, and soon another daughter was born. Andrew was over the moon.
But that bliss didnt last.
The baby was positively the image of Emilys physics teacher.
Even Emily herself hadnt expected it to be so obvious.
Andrew, burning with anger, left before he could do anything foolish. He stayed away for a month, refused to look at the baby, couldnt stand her crying, acted as if she didnt exist. Emily kept out of his way, her guilt gnawing at her. Andrew turned all his attention on Sophie. She, he believed, would be his heir.
Im a thief and youll be one too! Thats why youre called Sophie, after Light-fingered Jennythe queen of pickpockets! Thats who youre meant to look up to!
Emily stayed silent, knowing shed sinned enough.
The girls grew. Everything good for Sophie; whatevers left for Tessathe younger. Andrew never accepted her, called her the molecule, always making fun of her name. Well, Tessa, when are you going to dissolve?
Poor Tessa was sickly, shy, and hardly ever smiledalways huddled close to Sophie. She was afraid of her own mother, who, eager to please Andrew, often took it out on her, as if all the familys troubles were Tessas fault.
When Tessa was about eight, she went up to Andrew and asked quietly, Dad, is it alright if I love you?
He replied coldly, Go love your mother. I dont need your love.
Even the neighbours pitied Tessa and voiced their concern. Why does Tessa seem more like a stepchild?
Andrew snapped back, Mind your own children.
Soon, Tessa was finishing school. The girls boasted of their dresses for the leaving partyeach more dazzling than the last. Tessa timidly asked her mother for the simplest dress. She didnt dare ask Andrew. He would only scold her.
Emily bought her a modest blue dress, one that brought out Tessas eyes. She was thrilledshe couldnt wait for the party, dreaming of dazzling everyone, and hoping perhaps sweet Valerian Wells would ask her to dance. Maybe, one day, shed marry him. He was a kind lad.
While she was dreaming, Andrew suddenly burst into the room in a rage, seized her dress and shredded it to rags, bellowing, Heres your party, you wretched molecule! Serves you right for stealing my money, you useless girl!
Tessa was shocked. Dad, I didnt take anything! I promise!
She couldnt even cryshe was too stunned, too heartbroken. Why did it have to be like this?
Later, it came out that it was Sophie who had taken the moneyshe simply forgot to mention it to their father as she desperately needed it.
Andrew never apologized.
Tessa didnt go to the prom. She wept into her pillow the whole night.
Years passed. Tessa married Valerian Wells. They moved to the city, and had three sons. She never once returned to the family hometried to erase it from memory. Sophie married a vicar. They had no children, but years later adopted two little girls from an orphanage.
It seemed Tessa had forgotten about the village. But one day, traveling on the train with her family to pick mushrooms, she bumped into her old neighbour, who said, Why havent you visited your father? Hes paralysed now, living with me. His wife ran off to the city; neither of his daughters writes or visits. Your old family home was struck by lightning and burned to the groundimagine, out of all the houses, the highest was hit. You should visithe hasnt got long.
Tessa packed at oncenot so much for love as for a quiet reckoning. She would come and tell her father what he should have done as a dad. Now hed have to listen but couldnt answer back. She would finally unload a lifetimes worth of pain on him! The adults had laid all their sins at her feethow could a child possibly bear all this? She guessed her mother must have run back to the physics teacherlove is stubborn that way. As for fathers, Tessa didnt care about her biological oneAndrew was the only dad shed ever loved. And yet shed always assumed she was the one at fault: she was the problem, the unlovable girl. Why would her dad never stroke her hair, hold her, or buy her an ice cream? Oh, Dad you wanted me to dissolvebut I only melted from love for you, from your rare smiles, your scent. You were a thief, but where are your riches now? Dust and ashes It wasnt lightning that struck our home, but you, with the burdens you brought on us all.
When Tessa saw Andrew again, all her harsh words vanished. She felt nothing but endless pity. They cried and sat together silently.
Tessa brought Andrew to her home in the city. She cared for him for two years, right up to his last breath.
In the end, she understood that love is true strengthnot what you are given, but what youre capable of giving, even when its never returned. And sometimes, forgiveness is the only thing that truly sets us free.
