Chapter 47: Home and Gathering
Chapter 47: Home and Gathering
That evening, Lance dropped Patricia off near her home. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her to stay, but having her stay over might lead to marriage talks—and Lance wasn’t ready for that yet. It wasn’t about shirking responsibility; it was simply that his career was in a pivotal growth phase, and everything else needed to take a back seat.
Patricia lived in a middle-class neighborhood. Working at the Commercial Services Bureau at such a young age already indicated that she wasn’t from a purely lower-class background.
Before entering her home, she adjusted her clothes. When she opened the door, she saw her father sitting on the sofa, his face darkened.
“Hmph!” he grunted. Though he knew his daughter had been on a date, the father’s heart couldn’t settle.
This was a universal fatherly dilemma—handing over a daughter who’d been by his side for twenty years to another man. Even as a father, it felt like a betrayal.
From an emotional perspective, it was its own brand of suffering.
Patricia’s mother, however, took it all in stride. “William, your newspaper is upside down.”
The middle-aged man paused and then set the newspaper back on the coffee table. “I was working on a word puzzle.”