Chapter Forty-Two

"Dad! Stop!" Alice yelled as Mike swung a fist at Keanu's face, but Keanu dodged it and shoved the hand on his collar away. Several diners sped over and held Mike away from Keanu.

"You fucker!" Mike roared at Keanu.

Keanu stayed silent.

"I told you to stay away from my daughter, you miserable fuck!" Mike said, struggling against the arms around him.

"Alice is already 21," Keanu said calmly. "She can make her own decisions. Why don't you stop treating her like a child and let her choose what she wants?"

"You met her when she was 16! You must've fucking groomed her or something!" Mike yelled and one of the men holding him back glanced at Keanu weirdly.

"You're not going to believe me but I didn't," he said. "By the time I developed feelings for her, she was already an adult. And I never touched her or led her on until she was of age."

Mike glared at the men holding him back. "Let go of me! He's a fucking pedophile!" But they didn't let go. "Leave her alone!"

"Dad, stop this!" Alice said, her voice raised. "What Keanu said was true. Nothing happened until I was 21." Mike glared at her. "I'm an adult now. You don't get to control what I want to do with my life, I'm only letting you know I'm with Keanu now because I love you and I want your approval."

"My approval?" Mike said. "Forget it! I'll never agree to this twisted relationship!"

"It would be nice to have your approval, Dad, but it's not necessary," Alice said. "I'm not breaking up with Keanu because you don't want me to be with him."

Mike turned his attention to Keanu, his eyes still blazing with rage. "What does your son say, huh? How does he feel about you betraying him by stealing his ex-girlfriend?" One of the men holding him back shook his head and left for his seat, and Mike shrugged out of the other hands. He adjusted his shirt in anger, not attacking Keanu.

"I'll tell him when the time is appropriate," Keanu said.

"Let's see what he says! If he'll smile and congratulate the two of you!"

"It doesn't matter what he says, because Alice and I are not changing our minds."

"Alice and I? You think you belong with her? You sick fuck! There is no world where it will ever be right for the two of you to be together!"

Alice and Keanu did not reply.

Mike laughed derisively. "I know Alice is old enough to make her decisions, and I can't change the fact that she thinks she loves you, but I swear on my grave, the two of you will never ever receive my approval!"

"Fine, then!" Alice said. "Let's do it your way!" She turned around and held onto Keanu's hand. "Let's go, we're wasting our time here."

He grasped her hand tighter. "Let's go."

Over the next few days, the rest of their families got wind of their relationship. Keanu's sisters expressly conveyed their disapproval to him, but he wasn't having any of it. He didn't listen to what they had to say and told them that he wasn't leaving Alice simply because they thought the relationship was wrong.

Rachel, however, was the one who was most vehemently against the idea of them dating. Having worked for the FBI for a long time, she was well aware of many cases where underage girls had been preyed by older men, and because of that, Rachel criticised him sharply. She knew that they had met when she was still underage, and she told him that she couldn't be more disappointed that he had chosen to pursue something with Alice even after she had told him about all her tales from work.

Keanu made it very clear to her that his relationship with Alice was nothing like what had happened in her cases, but Rachel wasn't listening. She tried to contact Alice privately to convince her to stay away from him, and it eventually got to a point where Keanu was kicked out of the family group chat.

Things didn't go well for Alice either. Her aunt, Gabby, was someone who grew up with incredibly close ties to church, and when Alice told her that she was dating Keanu, her face on the video call instantly scrunched up in disgust. Alice tried to get at least one person on her side, and she thought Gabby would agree with her because she loved her so much since she was young, but she thought wrong.

Aunt Gabby quoted the Bible on her repeatedly through several video calls with her, but Alice stood her ground. She refused to listen to her and repeated to her what she had told her father, that her approval was desired but not necessary. Eventually, Aunt Gabby told her that she was going to Hell and she didn't want to have to do anything with a girl like her.

Hearing that dealt her a big blow, and she cried so many times. Despite that, she knew in her heart that being apart from Keanu would cause her more hurt, so she chose to accept the severed relationships in her life.

Worst of all, her relationship with her parents seemed like it was hanging by a thread. She felt like she was waking on thin ice every time the subject changed to a romantic one. They treated her with coldness, and that broke her heart.

Sighing in despair, she walked up to her front door, her heart heavy with sadness. She didn't want things to be like this, but she could not control what others thought of her. And hell if she was going to change what was right for her to appease them.

Stopping before her door, she sighed again before she removed her keys. Sticking the into the lock, she turned it. She pushed down on the handle, but the door didn't budge. She turned the lock over and over, pushing the door repeatedly but it didn't work.

She was locked out.