23March2023
Dear Diary,
Tonight the house feels heavier than ever. I heard my eldest, Ivy, burst out, Dad is it true? Her voice trembled, as if it might shatter the very walls. I tried to stay calm, and when he finally answered, his eyes avoided mine. What exactly? he asked, barely louder than a whisper. That youre leaving us and that the woman youre with expects a child, she demanded.
The silence that followed settled like a thick fog. Motherme, Annestared into the empty corner of our modest cottage in Westfield, my cheeks still raw from tears. My two younger girls, Ada and Mabel, clung to each other, looking for any sliver of comfort amidst the fear.
At last, he sighed and said, Yes, its true. My life has to move on.
Ivy exploded, Move on? With who? With a girl my own age? With the woman who has humiliated Mum and mocked her? After twentytwo years of marriage, after everything shes done for you?
He bowed his head, shame flickering across his face, yet he did not stop. Lucy, twentyfive and as brazen as a storm, had already wrapped him in a cloak of youthful flattery. She never hesitated to proclaim, I am his future. You are merely the past. Accept it. Her voice was loud, rude, and unapologetically loud in front of everyone.
I could not answer. My heart had simply run out of fight. After years of love, sleepless nights, and giving him everything I owned, he walked out, leaving me with a hollow ache and three children.
Months have since slipped by, and the tension in this house has only grown. Ivy, who watches Lucy constantly belittle me, finally snapped, Youre nobody! Youll never be part of our family! Lucy screamed, grabbed her phone, and began recording, threatening to turn this all into a scandal.
A few weeks later a summons arrived. He had sued his own daughter for moral damage caused to his lover. I stood there in court, my eyes brimming, whispering, How could you, Dad? I am your daughter Ive always been proud of you and now you do this to me? He answered coldly, You should have respected Lucy, while holding her hand as if that made any sense.
Mother sat aside, biting my lips until they bled. My younger sisters wept in silence. That day marked the last time we truly saw him as a father.
Blinded by desire and a counterfeit youth, he lost not just his family, but himself. Ada and Mabel remained with me, forced to grow up too quickly, learning through our own pain that a real family isnt always bound by blood.
Years have passed. I have kept my dignity, even in solitude. The girls have built their own lives. As for Lucy she left once shed taken everything she could£30,000, the house, even the last of his strengthleaving him penniless, a lone soul with a toddler and an empty heart.
Last night he returned, greyhaired and gaunt, the look of a man whos lost everything. On the doorstep stood Ivy and Ada, staring at him in stunned silence. Their eyes asked the question he could never answer: How could you betray us, dad? How could you place another woman above us? How could you tear apart everything we had? He said nothing, only lowered his head.
In the hush that followed, the only thing that remained unbroken was the lingering ache and a grief that arrived far too late.
