Chapter Twenty

On her way to her parents' home, Charlotte had talked to her father about what had happened. He had both scolded her and sympathized. Now, when there, at their house, she was trying to convince him, and her mother, that she wasn't almost a lunatic the way her husband had said. But they both insisted, to their daughter's disappointment, on not trusting her.

ـِـ Clearly, her father said, we need to hear his version as well.

Her mother smiled smugly at her.

ـِـ Yes, and also some psychologist's!

Charlotte sighed.

ـِـ I'm not sure if I wan to see a psychologist about it! It's not about psychology! It's about that I left my husband because the marriage didn't work!

ـِـ How about a marriage counsellor's, then, her mother asked.

Her daughter sighed again.

ـِـ No, as I said to dad on the phone, we're already divorced. ...

ـِـ We are, her mother answered.

ـِـ Yes we are, her father said too.

But he was a bit frustrated on lending her their spare room. He wanted there to be one there for his business colleagues, who occasionally visited this town, and then usually needed a room.

ـِـ I'm going to let you stay there on the condition that you move back as soon as I've convinced him into letting you rent a room from him instead.

Charlotte looked at him.

ـِـ I'm not sure if he ever will, she whimpered.

Her father examined her face.

ـِـ I don't believe my ears and eyes, he told her.

At this Charlotte started crying. She hadn't bargained for that even her own father would be stubborn with her. After a while she sobbingly asked her mother:

ـِـ Mom, do you also feel that it's not quite OK that I have had this problem with him? I mean that there was a divorce and that I can't really easily at all move back to him?

ـِـ No dear.

Her father broke in:

ـِـ I pretty much have to be able to let that extra room be an open possibility for my colleagues. They do business in this town occasionally, and then they very often need the extra room I have for dwelling.

His daughter looked at him.

ـِـ Well, I'm sorry that I don't fit in with your business deals, dad! But here we are and I don't have any other place to live. I'm the daughter you have to be taking care of! Remember that, for a change!

Her father looked a bit sternly at her.

ـِـ I do recall that it's you who moved to him saying that it was totally obvious that you would never move back here again!

ـِـ At the time, dad, I thought so. But who do you think he was during that marital relationship? He was the guy that never understood me, who never was there for me, at least the way I needed it, and who at the same time wanted me to look so satisfied that I really needed to have at least one other lover on the side! ... which he didn't allow of course, so I had to sneak whit them as well!

Her father looked at her in astonishment.

ـِـ Oh, so it's that, he said at last.

Her mother who had also looked astonished now said that:

ـِـ There is reason, in that case, to show him that you also were about making the marriage work when doing it.

Charlotte smiled a bit happily.

ـِـ Yes! I suppose we can be working on that mother!