Driving down the road along the Berkshire Estates, he glanced up at the roof he was working on the day he first saw Chloe. His heart softened and a wide smile spread across his face until he saw the big wrought-iron gate and guard post in front of the Burlington's mansion. Matthew slowed his truck down and watched as the guard stepped out of the booth.
"Can I help you, sir?"
"I'm here to see Earl and Sylvia Burlington."
"One moment, please."
The guard recorded his license plate number and checked his driver's license. He went back inside the booth and returned a couple of minutes later.
"Mr. Sharp, I'm sorry but the Burlington's aren't able to see guests this evening."
"Great." Matthew got out of the truck and walked to the intercom and pressed the button. "If you don't let me in and sit down and talk with me, I promise I'll go to the press, and then everyone is going to find out exactly how you both are. Don't test me."
The gates instantly opened. Matthew got back in his truck and drove up the long driveway. He knocked on the large front doors and waited. No one answered. He'd been at that house before and knew there was a side entrance by the pool. As soon as he stepped off the porch, the doors opened. Sylvia herself had answered them. She had to give the staff time to leave, because with Matthew's threats, she couldn't afford to have their conversation overheard. But the staff was already well aware of what went on under that roof; they'd seen the pain in Chloe's eyes over the years, especially during the holidays and her birthdays.
"Come in and have a seat, Matthew. It is Matthew, isn't it?
He noticed she had the same nervous look on her face that she wore during the interview on television. Matthew walked inside and followed her to a study, where Earl sat quietly in a chair. He had no desire to become friends with the two of them this evening. He was there to say what he needed to say, and they were going to listen. Matthew remained standing.
"I'm marrying your daughter and you don't even know me. Don't you think that's a bit odd? Your daughter is going to live with a man, forty minutes from your house, and you don't even know the guy. Does that picture seem off to you?"
Sylvia looked down at her hands resting in her lap, and Earl's shoulders began to slump.
"I've come here to read you something. Your daughter has been having a really hard time emotionally, and it has everything to do with the both of you. She wrote you a letter, but never had any intentions of ever letting you see it. Chloe doesn't know I'm here, but I didn't know what else I could do to help her, except by doing something to wake the both of you the hell up. I'm going to read, and you're going to listen. I can't hand it to you and have you read it. You'll just blow over every word that you don't like, and that'd be the whole thing. So I read, and you listen. That's how this is going to work."
Matthew unfolded the letter while Sylvia and Earl avoided having eye contact with him, or each other. He stood straight and read every word of Chloe's letter with as much feeling as he could muster. When he was finished, he folded it neatly back up and placed it in his pocket. Earl had glistening tears on his face, and Sylvia never lifted her chin to look at Matthew.
"How could you be so hurtful to her? All she wants is a mom and dad. She's the most remarkable woman I've ever met, and neither of you have a clue. She's breaking, and you don't even care. What was that crap you pulled at the hospital? Didn't any of that affect you in the least?"
"It's not what you think," began Sylvia as she lifted her face and looked Matthew in the eyes.
"Well why don't you explain it to me then, because I would move mountains for Chloe, so I'm not opposed to moving you either."
"I'm afraid of getting close to Chloe."
"How can you be afraid of her? What did she ever say or do to make you feel that way?"
"Because I'm a horrible mother and a horrible person." Sylvia knew she'd have to take off her armor after all these years. "Where I grew up, you didn't exactly learn the ways of the world. I didn't have parents or a family. I was dropped off as a child and forgotten about. I think I was psychologically afraid to ever get close to another person again. They rejected me, and I thought they did it because I was some kind of God awful person. I knew when my daughter got older, she'd see the same kind of person my parents did and wouldn't want me either. So I stayed away to avoid that. As her relationship with Lois grew, I saw that as my way out. I knew our cook would do a better job with her than I could. I'm just speaking the truth, Matthew, I'm not excusing my behavior."
"So you couldn't forget all about that and take care of your daughter when she got hurt?"
"I cry, but I do so in private. If I show others I'm vulnerable, I set myself up to be rejected. In reality, I did to Chloe what my parents did to me, and there's no excuse for that. The problem is, I want to be with my daughter more than you could imagine. I just don't know how to fix it. She'd never forgive me, and I can't expect her to. What would I say? Everything that came out of my mouth would seem pathetic."
"So you don't even try? Chloe was devastated, the word she used, when she saw you lying on the news. You haven't talked to her, yet you want the rest of the world to think you're this good mother. Then her bridal shower you were invited to…why didn't you bother coming to your own daughter's shower when you were just a few minutes away?"
"Because I've already ruined everything, Matthew. There's no hope for me at this point."
"Maybe she'd listen if you showed this side of yourself to her, instead of that nasty woman I met at the hospital."
"I act that way so no one will get close to me. That way I don't have to go through people not wanting me."
"Earl, are you going to just sit there? That's what you've done all of your daughter's life, isn't it?"
"No, Matthew. I did something worse. I traveled nonstop. I was more preoccupied with making a lot of money for my wife, Chloe, and her children, than I was with actually taking care of her. Lois seemed great with our daughter, and my wife wasn't being honest with me. But that's neither here nor there. I'm guilty of being an absent father. I want to have a relationship with my daughter like you wouldn't believe. But I don't know how to make all this better. I don't know if it's possible to make up for twenty-four years."
"So I'm a roofer, my clothes are always dirty, my boots are worn, I don't have any money, and I'll never be able to afford this kind of lifestyle for your daughter. But I love her more than life itself, and when she got in that accident I changed. I learned the hard way, that it's the simple things in life that matter, not the money you have, your prestige, or fame. I would die for that woman, and I've had to sit back and watch the both of you destroy her from the inside out. You did all that to her, put everything above her, abandoned her, and you put me down because of my status?"