Twelve years after my husband, George, left me with a newborn, I received a call that he desperately needed to see our daughter. But when my girl returned from that meeting in tears, I knew my ex was up to no good.

Some people in my life have said that what I did wasn’t nice, and that I may have alienated my daughter’s chance to have a relationship with her father. But I disagree.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Twelve years ago, my then-husband George disappeared as soon as we returned from the hospital with our newborn daughter, Jennie.

He just packed his bags the next night, and I never saw him again. I couldn’t reach him, and his friends supposedly had no idea where he was. I didn’t think that was true, but I wasn’t going to push.

With a newborn and no job, I had enough to worry about.

Over the years, he never showed any interest in reconnecting with his daughter and never called to ask how we were doing.

So, I divorced him through our lawyers and didn’t even ask for child support.

You can imagine how shocking it was when I was just going about my business and a phone call from his old number popped up.

 

I picked up automatically, almost expecting it to be a mistake, but it was his voice.

“Emily? It’s me! I need to see my daughter. I have terrible news!” he panted into the phone.

“Wh-what?” I stuttered but recovered quickly. “George! It’s been 12 years! You think you can just see Jennie?”

“Emily! I have no time to debate this. I need to see my girl. I’m sick. It’s terminal,” he explained, and his voice even got choked up.

I didn’t expect this at all. My first instinct was… suspicion. “Are you lying to me?” I asked, not quite angry, but very serious.

“NO! How can you think that of me, Em?” George asked, offended.

“You left me,” I retorted, and my voice turned to ice. “Left me without a single word or a way to reach you. But you also left her! I don’t know what to think of you! Because you definitely weren’t the man I thought I’d married!”

“Please!” he wailed, and I heard sniffles. “Please, I’m not asking for much. I just want to meet her, make my amends, and go in peace.”

I closed my eyes and stopped myself from yelling some more. I had so many years of resentment built up, but would it do any good to release all that anger then?

Would it be better for my daughter if I just allowed her to see the father she has always wanted to meet?

I opened my eyes, looked up at the ceiling as if asking for divine help, and sighed. “Fine, I’ll let you meet her,” I said.

***

“I’ll be right outside if you need anything, okay?” I touched Jennie’s cheek. We were in my car right outside a coffee shop near our home.

We had agreed she would meet George there. I wanted to go inside, but I also thought it would be too hard to see him and not yell… or cry… or hit him for abandoning us.

So, I would let Jennie go in alone and wait for her here.

When I told some of my friends, they didn’t think I did the right thing, especially because I lied to Jennie.

But I stand by my actions, and I know I’ll have to tell Jennie the whole truth someday. But for now, all I wanted was to protect her. Was that so wrong?

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