“You’ve got nothing without me,” he said one night in the kitchen. “No job or savings. I’ll take the kids and erase you from their lives.”
“I’m not leaving my kids!”
He shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “We’ll see.”
That’s when I realized it wasn’t something I could fix anymore.
Sean barely hid it.
Only one person didn’t abandon me: Sean’s father, Peter.
Peter was a quiet, observant widower. He showed up to his grandkids’ birthdays more often than his son did. He sat on the floor with the kids and listened to them as if they mattered.
When I got sick a couple of years back, my father-in-law (FIL) was the one who stayed at the hospital. Sean stopped by once. Peter stayed daily. My FIL even watched the kids when I couldn’t.
And somehow… he became my only support.
Only one person didn’t abandon me.
