A few days ago, I called our daughter at home. After the usual obstacles that I experience when I call the mother's house phone -- the rudeness, the scoffs, the sarcasm-- a young woman told me Megan was not available. When I asked if she knew where she was, to my surprise the voice on the other end answered that Megan was with her mother. After I asked who I was speaking to, she told me it was none of my business. I asked to speak to an adult and she repeated it to whomever was there and shortly afterwards, someone simply hung up the phone. No adult ever came to the phone.
I then called her mother's cell phone. No one answered.
I then called her mother's cell phone. No one answered.
Ten minutes later I received a call from Megan from her home phone. I said hello and asked her what she was doing and she said she was eating dinner.
We spoke briefly, but mostly I was making small talk while Megan's responses remained short and were tainted with attitude. At one point she referred to my wife (whom she has always affectionately referred to as mom) as Tammy. I said, "you mean mom right?" Even before I married Tammy, Megan had always called her mom. Megan also refers to her step-father as dad. That's who just Megan is.
Megan answered defiantly and overly confidently that no, she did indeed mean Tammy. Megan is usually on speaker phone so everyone could hear her voice and say hi to her. Her sisters enjoy talking to her on the phone. Tammy was in the room and she simply shook her head.
Our friends and family who are aware of what we are going through say that I am handling this well considering... I disagree, think that I am not handling it well, but I keep up appearances for the sake of those around me especially our other beautiful girls.
Tammy, I know, is heartbroken. I know I am too, but working on this website, researching this issue and putting our case together has kept me from breaking down. Our daughters as well as the support from our friends and family keep me going and remind me that there is so much more to be grateful for.
Right now whats keeping me going is that Sophie is here with me and she is running around the house yelling, "Daddy, I'm hyper!" and she sees me smile because yes, she is. "You like it when I am hyper huh dad?"
"I love it when you are hyper." I say.
"I love YOU when I'm hyper too," and she runs into the toy-room. And for a moment I forget that I have another daughter who says she never wants to see me again, but can't tell me why.
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