Alarm bells rang in my thoughts, and my heart fell. I became enraged as he reached out to brush her hair back.
I screamed, “Don’t touch her!” and ran out of the car. My breath caught as I approached, and the man retreated.
My ex-boyfriend, her father, vanished after I told him I was expecting.
He muttered something about wanting to “make things right,” while my kid clung to me. We left after I angrily informed him he had no role in her life for leaving us.
Something inside of me exploded when I saw his hand extend to sweep her hair back. A wave of protective instinct propelled me jumping out of the car as my heart raced.
“Avoid touching her!” My voice sliced through the air like a razor as I yelled.
The man retreated instantly, taken aback by my abrupt reaction. My daughter turned to face me, her confused eyes wide. Then my breath stuck in my throat as I approached.
He was the one.
The man who disappeared the instant I told him I was expecting a child. The man who vanished into thin air after whispering promises of eternity. My former partner. Her dad.
I felt a wave of emotions sweep over me, including rage, disbelief, and a pain I had long since forgotten. Even though he appeared older and different, his eyes remained the same. The same people who, before totally shattering me, had previously given me hope in love.
He parted his lips, struggling to find the right words. He stumbled, “I—I just wanted to see her.” “To put things right.”
It nearly made me chuckle. Put things right? Following years of quiet? After missing her first day of school, her first word, her first step? When he vanished into whatever life he had chosen rather than us, leaving me to fight alone?
As though sensing the tempest brewing inside of me, my daughter clung to me, her tiny fingers pressing into my jacket.
I growled, “You don’t get to come here and act like a father right now.” “You went out. You made a decision.
I didn’t care, but his face sank. It made no difference how much sorrow or shame he felt at the moment. He had left us. I was left to pick up the pieces by myself after he left.
I scooped my daughter into my arms and turned my back on him. She was everything to me and the reason I kept going when it seemed impossible. And I had no intention of letting him waltz in and upending that foundation.
I left him behind, just like he had left us all those years ago, and left him without saying another word.