My daughter is shattered by betrayal… She only cries and stares at the ground.
I am her father.
At 73, I always believed I understood life and what was right.
But my children had other ideas.
I have a son and a daughter. Their mother passed away several years ago, leaving me to wait for grandchildren, to help and guide them with the wisdom I gained over the years.
I raised them to respect tradition. In our family, marriage wasn’t just a formality. It was a commitment, a promise of support when times get tough.
They laughed at me.
“Dad, that’s so outdated!” my son would say.
“Nobody does that anymore,” my daughter would echo.
A wedding? An official marriage? Those were ancient relics.
“We love each other without signing a piece of paper,” my daughter insisted. “A marriage certificate won’t change anything.”
I watched them in silence.
I knew life would eventually set things straight.
And it did.
She was discarded like a useless object
Early one morning, there was a knock at the door.
I opened it to find my daughter.
With a suitcase.
With a baby in a stroller.
With a three-year-old girl clinging to her coat.
I saw her face.
Pale, thin, with tear-streaked eyes.
“Dad… can I stay for a few days?” Her voice trembled. “George kicked me out. He found someone else…”
At first, I struggled to grasp her words.
Kicked out?
Like an animal?
Like trash?
“And the children?!” I exclaimed.
She sobbed.
“He said he’ll pay, as the law requires. But he doesn’t want me or them anymore…”
I clenched my fists.
How?! How can someone erase their family, reject their children like this?
I wanted to confront him immediately, demand answers, but instead, I simply embraced my daughter and welcomed her inside.
We didn’t talk about it for days.
She just sat by the window, her eyes downcast, tears streaming down her cheeks.
I looked at her face and knew—she was broken.
A wife? No. A servant in a grand house
She graduated from teacher training college, dreaming of working with children.
But George didn’t want that.
“I don’t need her money,” he bragged. “She should manage the home! I earn enough; I need a wife, not some overworked teacher!”
She stayed home, cooking, cleaning, raising the children.
He returned to hot meals, a tidy house, and cared-for kids.
She never complained.
She believed he appreciated all she did.
She thought he needed her.
But he didn’t.
Once he found someone else, she meant nothing to him.
“I’ve found new love,” he calmly told me when I called. “And the kids? Well, I’ll pay what’s required.”
He sent her 40 pounds a month.
A paltry sum.
Exactly what the law mandated.
“I’m getting by,” he said when I asked him to do more. “I’m not supporting you all! That’s the past.”
The past.
What was once his family.
What he erased in a heartbeat.
My daughter is broken… How will she live on?
A year has passed.
The three of us live together—me, my daughter, and her two young girls.
I’m retired, receiving just over 40 pounds. She gets a small benefit.
It barely covers the kids.
She isn’t working—the youngest hasn’t turned one.
But that’s not the main issue.
The main issue—she isn’t living.
She merely exists.
She doesn’t laugh, doesn’t smile, doesn’t speak unnecessarily.
She’s like a broken doll.
Her eyes are empty.
Her gaze stays fixed on the floor.
And I know her thoughts.
That if she had listened to me then, insisted on a proper marriage, everything might have been different.
He might have left.
But he couldn’t have erased her so easily.
He would have had obligations.
She wouldn’t be left destitute, with two children to care for.
I am old.
I don’t know how much longer I can support her.
And then what?
How will she survive?
How will my granddaughters live?
Will there be a man who loves her—a woman with two children?
How did I ever think I’d be asking myself these questions?
Ladies, don’t repeat her mistake!
Now, I’m sure of one thing.
Open relationships don’t offer freedom.
They lead nowhere.
Marriage isn’t just a piece of paper.
It’s protection.
It’s responsibility.
I want to reach out to all fathers and mothers with daughters.
Don’t let them make the same mistake my daughter did!
Guide them, explain, encourage.
A woman without marriage is left unprotected.
I curse the “trend” that slipped in from the West, this false freedom where a woman ends up with nothing.
I see what happened to my daughter.
I see how it destroys her.
And I don’t want it to happen to anyone else.
Watch over your daughters.
Marriage isn’t a guarantee of eternal love.
But it is a guarantee of protection.
Don’t let your children make the same mistake.
