The Obstruction of Love

Her father sat in his favorite recliner in the den, staring at the family photo that hung above the fireplace. Sweating profusely, he pressed a semi-automatic pistol against his right temple. Sabrina had just returned home to this terrifying scene.

"No Daddy!" she screamed, running over to stop him but tripping as the heel of her left shoe got caught in the hem of her taupe satin prom dress. She careened head-first into a nearby wooden end table, her forehead hitting the edge. A piercing pain shot through her body as everything faded to black.

Now awake and trembling, Sabrina recalled the actual day - exactly two weeks before she thwarted her father's suicide attempt - when she returned home from school to find her mother reclining against her friend Yvonne on the beige living room chaise lounge. Yvonne held Sabrina's weeping mother in her arms.

"What's going on?" Sabrina asked suspiciously, her eyes zooming in on their slender hands, clasped in solidarity.

"Honey, sit down," her mother sniffled. Both women awkwardly repositioned themselves, sitting straight up.

"That's okay - I'll stand," Sabrina insisted.

"Your father has decided to move out after you're done with school," her mother sobbed.

Sabrina stood there in silence as she stared at the two women. There was something very unsettling about their physical closeness. Puzzled, she looked at her mother, then Yvonne and back at her mother, who shifted nervously in her seat.

"So this is why Dad's leaving?" Sabrina abruptly spewed at her mother. "Because you'd rather be with your girlfriend? I can't believe you Mom! You're disgusting!"

Long after that heart-wrenching day, Sabrina was still haunted by the memory of her mother's tear-filled eyes. She had found a job and moved out of her childhood home shortly after her high school graduation and her father's departure. She severed all ties with the woman who had brought her into the world.

Three years later, Sabrina's pride succumbed to fate as the opportunity to make amends expired. Her estranged mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Though she'd kept in close contact with her father, Sabrina had so many questions - questions that she hadn't mustered the courage to ask him regarding the beginning of the most painful period in her life. The time had finally come to seek answers. Sabrina decided that this would be the day.

By noon, she sat in silence across from her father in the den of his three-bedroom home, where he lived alone. Her bloodshot eyes probed his as she struggled with how to initiate the conversation.

Her father cleared his throat.

"Her name was Arielle," he began, as though he had read Sabrina's mind. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet-sized photo. His hand trembled as he handed it to his daughter. She inspected the headshot of the young, beautiful brunette with wavy hair that barely touched her shoulders. Her slanted eyes were dark brown. Her pouty lips blew a playful kiss.

"We were in love. So I thought," her father revealed.

"What are you saying Dad?"

"Bri, regardless of how things may have appeared, your Mom and I once loved each other very much. But things happen-"

"Please don't tell me anymore," Sabrina interrupted, raising her hand in a "stop" motion.

"We met at the bank," he continued, ignoring her plea. "Arielle was only 24 at the time. When I was with her, nothing else mattered. She made me feel like a love-struck teenager. She ended up getting pregnant. I told your mother all about her and the baby that was on the way."

Sabrina was stunned and speechless.

"I told your mother I was leaving her. She was devastated, but asked me to stay until after you finished high school. She loved you so much."

"But what about Yvonne?" Sabrina inquired.

"I had always known about your mother's attraction to other women," her father replied. "But that didn't matter to me. She had been faithful all the way up until I ripped her heart in two."

"But Dad, what about prom night when I-"

"I had made plans to divorce your mother and marry Arielle," Sabrina's father continued. "What I didn't know at the time was that the child that Arielle was carrying wasn't mine. When the baby's father asked her to marry him, she decided to tell me the truth and end our relationship. I had broken up my family for her. I didn't think I deserved to live."

Falling suddenly to her knees, Sabrina erupted into a series of gut-wrenching sobs. She wept for her family. Most of all, she wept for her mother, whose twice-broken heart had never healed.