When the barman picked up the glass she ran her finger around in the wet ring it left behind as she began. "I was away for a month, a man and an engagement that never was, I won't bore you with the details. Anyway, I come home and see Papa, he's really sweet and understanding about the whole thing. I suppose that should have tipped me off, but I just thought he missed me at the time and left it at that. A few days later I go to put something in his room and there's this ginger hag laying across his bed, humming to herself and thinking she's queen of sheba."
Another sigh left her left her lips, though this one was angry. "She tells me that my papa has moved her in to his room. That he wants her there and that he is mad about her, so there is no chance in hell that I could do a thing about it. And get this, she'd been there for a few weeks! He did not tell me about her when he welcomed me home, like he thought he could keep me from knowing!"
She shook her head and let her eyes stare through the bar. "I talked to papa about it today, which was a mistake. She's got him wrapped so tight around her little finger he doesn't seem to realize all I want to do is help him. We fought, I mean fought like we never have before. He kept defending her and acted insulted when I tried to tell him what she really was, tried to spin it like there was something wrong with me. So he said I didn't think much of him and to get out of his sight, so I have and that's why I'm here."
She looked back to Mary. "I won't let her hurt him, I would let her do to him what my mother did. I'd sooner kill her than let her stay. And I'm afraid he won't see it until it's too late, when she's broken his heart and tossed him aside."