Walk A Mile (Camren)

XXVI

"Hey, what did you have to tell me?" Camila cut right to the chase once they'd gone to a more private area. The way he mentioned how they needed to talk outside made her uneasy. When Lauren gave them their requested privacy, she began prodding at his arm to see what he wanted. He'd lead her into his bedroom and closed the door in silence. She was staring at him curiously while she sat on the edge of his bed.

"Have you been talking to Sofia lately?" Alejandro asked warily, already well aware of the answer. The heated phone conversation he'd had to endure was more than enough evidence. "You went back to the house? A few days ago?"

"Well, yeah. It was pretty unexpected. Lauren and I-" Camila started to divulge the entire story of how they ended up there, but found that he wasn't too interested in hearing the details.

"Don't go there anymore," he interrupted rudely, not really caring about her motives behind it. He didn't need Sofia adding to his bottomless pit of problems, and involving his daughter would just make it that much worse. "Don't you ever go there anymore unless I take you, do you hear me?"

"Why not?" Camila asked rather defensively, taking major offense to his sudden hostility. He'd switched gears in the blink of an eye. "It's still our house... I was just showing Lauren where we came from... What's the problem?"

"I'm telling you not to. And if I find out you went there again, you're going to be in big trouble," Alejandro admonished her grimly.

Who did he think he was? Was he really just going to waltz in here and start trying to dictate things after completely missing from the picture for the last few months? After years of neglect? Now he wanted to run the show and put his foot down? Out of nowhere? Camila didn't appreciate his tone, nor how abrasive he was being. He was called her father, but she sure didn't see him as such - and she wasn't going to take instruction from him.

"I'm 'going to be in big trouble?'" she challenged his authority, mocking his words with air quotations. Because he had sat her down in private to have a one on one conversation, she figured that it would be civil. He was proving her wrong, and she had a hard time reading his face.

"I won't have you going there and potentially disrupting any sales we might be having. That's the end of it," he pointed a stern finger at her and didn't expect it to be questioned. Why she was taking his instructions so personally, he didn't know.

"You can't just tell me not to do something without giving me an explanation, especially after you've gone around hiding everything. The only reason I even know about it being up for rent was because I had to find out myself. I thought you said you would try to be a little more honest?" Camila reminded him pointedly. She was not a child, and she wasn't going to allow herself to be dismissed as one. She was astonished by her nerve, speaking to her father this way, but she was fed up with him. This was her final attempt at trying to have a mature conversation with him about their status as a family. "Can you at least try to talk to me about it?"

"You wouldn't understand," he disregarded her. This was difficult for him. He'd never really had to speak to his apparently temperamental daughter one on one before, unless it was absolutely necessary. A quick greeting in passing was usually how they got along. She expected him to just start including her in his discussions and such when he had ever done so before. He'd always been a private person, and he didn't know why she was so set on bonding with him and being involved in his business now.

"Stop telling me that. You don't know what I would understand. You don't even talk to me," Camila grumbled irritably. This was bothering her way more than it should've been.

"Which is all the more reason for me to keep this from you," he sighed and used another shortcoming as an excuse. "It's too much for you to deal with. I'm protecting you, mija."