Daughter's Wedding

April 2004, Allen Richards was sitting in his apartment going over his daughter's wedding plans. His ex-wife and daughter along with a wedding planner had planned a very elaborate wedding. He followed the plan known as "Triple S" (sit down, shut-up and shell out). As a devoted father, he was happy to do it.

Allen grew up in rural South Carolina. He was the second youngest of seven, four older sisters, an older brother, and a younger sister. They had a traumatic childhood, having been raised by emotionally unstable parents. They all survived but come away scarred. He loved to stay in touch with his siblings, but as they grew older, they drifted apart. One of the side effects of his childhood was it was hard for him to get close to anyone.

1975, Right after he graduated high school, he joined the Air Force as a firefighter. His first assignment was 85 miles from his father's house, at Myrtle Beach AFB. After a couple of years, he got an assignment overseas to Japan. While there, he met and married Patricia M. Howell. She was the daughter of a senior NCO and a Japanese mother. The wedding was a civil ceremony held at the American Embassy in Tokyo. His wife got pregnant soon after. They were then stationed in England for 3 years and finally returned to the states. There, they had their last daughter. With 3 kids in 3 ½ years, his wife had her tubes tied.

Soon after the birth of their third daughter, Allen got out of the Air Force. He got a civil service job under temporary conditions, and, after a year, he got a job in Saudi Arabia. He returned to South Carolina in 1988 where his civil service job was waiting. He was able to be on permanent status. That allowed him to have benefits including a retirement that he could contribute to.

Upon his return to South Carolina, he had saved enough money to put a down payment on a 3-bedroom 2 bath house with a basement. He finished the basement and made it into a fourth bedroom and third bath.

His daughters were 6,5 and 3. Tatyka was the oldest, Jessica was next and finally Jennifer. As the girls got older, Pat went back to school to finish her degree in business. Upon graduation she got a job at a local bank. Allen worked 6 days out of 14, so he was able to spend a lot of time at home with the girls while Pat worked. Every other week he was off for 3 days in a row. He had an arrangement with his sister to pick the girls up after school on the days he worked. When his sister could not pick them up, he arranged for a neighbor to watch them.

As the girls got older, he got a second job delivering furniture. After a couple years he decided to go into the moving business. He initially hired a couple of guys and handled local moves. As his business grew, he hired more people and expanded his area. His daughters helped in the office when they reached their teens.

Pat advanced in her career using her linguistic skills. She was fluent in Japanese, French and English. As her career advanced, she spent less time at home. She never went to any school events.

Over the years, she seemed to be losing respect for her husband. He was a good man and a great father, but he appeared not to have any ambition. She knew he had a side business but thought it did not earn much money. He did not have a business account at her bank. She was unaware he was moving up and was now an Assistant Chief of Operations.

As the girls got older, they started to want to spend less time with their father and seemedto be getting closer to their mother even though she had little to do with them. After work, she would come home, take a bath, read and then go to bed. She even ate in the bedroom and started having "girls nights out."

As soon as the girls started withdrawing from Allen, his business was starting to take off. The girls had stopped working with him.

One day, Allen came home from work starting his 3-day break. Pat was at home, which was very unusual, but the girls were not.

Pat: "Allen sit down I have a lot to tell you. I have filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. I have already seen a lawyer. I am asking for half of your salary and retirement, plus, the house until the girls graduate college or get married. They will be living with me. I also need a copy of what is in your Thrift Saving Plan as of today's date. You will be required to vacate the premises immediately. That's about it. I did love you once, maybe you can find someone else."

With that she left to go to work.

Allen just sat there for a few minutes getting over the shock of what had just happened. He got on the phone to his work and requested sick leave for a couple of days. He then called his sister and asked if he could stay with her for a few days. He made an appointment with a lawyer. He explained his wife made 3 times his salary and wanted to keep the house in spite of the fact that her name was not on the deed and she had not contributed a dime to the purchase. He caved. He told the lawyer to accept her terms as he just wanted out.

He found a studio apartment.

Over the next couple of years, he tried to reconnect with the girls, but they refused. Finally, he got a letter from his youngest daughter informing him she was getting married. She said she expected him to pay for it. He started working with the wedding planner to arrange everything. The wedding was scheduled for June. This is where the story started.

Allen got a call from his daughter asking to visit him. He was delighted to hear from her. When she arrived, he invited her in and offered her a soda. He tried to hug her, but she rebuffed him.

Jennifer: "Mom asked me to come talk to you. I am going to ask Mom's boyfriend to walk me down the aisle and give me away. Mom says you do not like weddings anyway."

Allen: "Let me get this straight, your mother kicks me out, takes half my retirement and salary, while she makes 3 times what I do and you all basically tell me to get lost and have nothing to do with me. Now you deprive me of a father's favorite duty. Maybe you should leave and tell your mother to go to hell."

She left without another word.

He immediately got on the phone with the wedding planner and cancelled everything. He informed her he would no longer be responsible for any more bills regarding the wedding. He also asked her to not say anything. Told her not to lie, but not volunteer anything either.

A month later he gets a knock on his door. He opened the door and said: "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?"

Pat: "What is the big idea of cancelling everything? The flower shop, the caterer and the church called, asking if we were going to reschedule the wedding and the reception. The travel agent called and asked for the payment for the honeymoon trip. You were supposed to take care of all that. You want them to go to the courthouse to get married like we did?"

Allen: "See how that worked out. You kicked me out of the house, moved your boyfriend in, turned my kids against me and took half my pay. With all that I was willing to pay for the wedding as a dutiful father if I got to walk my daughter down the aisle. I would have done that and then left, but you had to take that away from me too. When did you start hating me so much?"

Pat: "I never stopped loving you. I just lost respect for you and I could not live with a man I could not respect. You have no ambition and waste your time and money on that stupid moving company. I did not want to hurt your feelings, but I never knew what good sex was until I met my current boyfriend."

Allen walked over to his desk and handed her his business account statement. She was amazed at the amount.

Pat: "How the hell did you get this kind of money?"

Allen: "Let me answer you as I see fit. As far as ambition I am one step below chief which is as high as I can get currently and I am in line for promotion to Chief. As far as our love life, I can only work with what the good lord gave me. Also, I am not a mind reader, I thought everything was fine. As far your current boyfriend is concerned, I would check the house for valuables and get an accountant to check your books. You also might want to find who else he is having sex with, hint check in house."

Pat : "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Allen: "You have a 24,23 & 20-year-old female living in a house with an unemployed 40-year-old male. You do the math; your boyfriend has a big mouth. He has been bragging about all the sex he is getting, even "the old bitch with big tits he is with and her daughters" you want to hear? A co-worker recorded him. You destroyed me. I loved you."With that she got up and left. She seemed to be in deep thought as she left. The wedding was called off. The groom bolted. A week later He got a call from his youngest daughter. She was in tears.

Jennifer : "Daddy, Mommy is in the hospital. She came home from visiting you and lit into him, he denied everything, but we confessed sleeping with him. He seduced us. I am so sorry for everything. He got violent and severely beat her. We tried to stop him, but he struck us too. We called 911 and recorded the assault on our phones, By the time the police got there, he took one of our cars and left. The ambulance got there about the same time as the police. We called Nana and Panka. They are at the hospital now. We debated on calling you at all. We did not think you would care. Please come, we all are so sorry.

Allen : "I will be there in a few minutes; I just started my 3-day break." Allen got to the hospital in a few minutes.

He was stopped by an FBI agent: "What is your business here?"

Allen: "My ex-wife was severely beaten by her live-in boyfriend. Why is the FBI involved in a local matter?"

"When the head of the Japanese Mafia shows up, we get interested. Do you know if your in-laws know any members of the Yakuza or have any contacts in Japan?"

Allen : "My mother-in-law is full bloodied Japanese and her father was Japanese Naval Officer. My wife told me her great uncle was number 2 man in the Yakuza. That was one those stories that I felt was 95% bs."

"What is your mother-in-law's maiden name."

Allen : "Mariko Matsumoto."

"JESUS CHRIST, she is the sister of the current head of the Yakuza. There is a half a million-dollar bounty on the boyfriend, you will not hear from him again. Hope your wife recovers."

Allen said good by to the agent as he left. He said hello to his in-laws and was hugged for the first time in years by his daughters. They all apologized and promised to be in his life again.

Epilog: They never heard from the boyfriend again, but they did recover the car. When Pat got out of the hospital and before she went back to work, Allen took 2 weeks leave. The whole family went on a 2-week vacation to Europe. Relationships were strained but everyone decided to put their problems on hold until they returned to the states. They never got back together as a family unit, but they got more involved in each other's lives.

PS: My wife did tell me her mother's uncle was number 2 man in the Japanese Mafia. Her grandfather was in the Japanese Imperial Navy. I have seen a picture of him in Uniform. My wife also told me a story of her aunt by marriage who disappeared. They were told she was at the bottom of Tokyo Bay. I asked her how she knew. Years later she told me the person who put her there told them.

Tejmjm55