Shattered

I began to get angry. Furious, actually. The sadness turned into rage. My mother and Jerry, I had made the decision to never again refer to him as my father, had robbed me of my daddy for my entire life. When I got here and began talking to my daddy, I had visions of him walking me down the aisle on my wedding day. I could envision him cheering proudly as I walked across the stage to receive my doctorate. I was imagining hundreds of other events I could share with him. Now, that had all turned to dust. My anger increased when I realized how my daddy felt as well. They had robbed him of his daughters. They had stolen the life he should have had with his children. I was beginning to hate them and what they had done.

We had finally calmed down. Fuck it! If I only had a couple months, then I would take what I could. We ended up talking for several hours. There was a small town about 45-minutes away, so I had planned on finding a motel room and spending the night there. Instead, he offered me one of the spare rooms. I accepted. Yes, I hear you screaming. A young woman alone, spending the night in a secluded cabin with a strange man. Four things.

1. This was actually my biological father.
2. I had done a lot of investigating, and everything confirmed that he was actually a very nice man.
3. The room that I was using had a lock on it. I used the lock.
4. Since it was likely that he had a key to that lock, I shoved a chair under the doorknob.

David:

Seeing my ex-wife standing at my door (OK, it wasn't actually her, but it was a young woman who looked exactly like she did in her early 20s) brought back a flood of memories that I had thought I had banished years ago. Most of those memories were very unpleasant. Our one-year courtship, then the first two years of our marriage were great, but it went downhill after that.

I had felt like something was off after two years of marriage. It took me a couple of weeks of snooping to find out about it. That snake Jerry Michaels had been sniffing around my wife. The trouble was that she was doing some sniffing of her own. No, I didn't bother hiring a PI. I didn't need to. I simply hacked into her email and followed her for a bit. It didn't take much time before I figured out the pattern. That morning, while Pat was in the shower, I cracked the blinds on the bedroom window just a bit. I finished getting dressed and 'left for work' at my usual time. Instead of going to work, I went down and parked at a local grocery store. I waited for about half an hour before watching her drive past, oblivious to my car parked amidst the sea of other vehicles. Once she had passed, I drove back and parked around the corner -- opposite from the direction she would be coming. I then walked back to our house and hid in the back yard.

It was an hour later when she and Jerry came waltzing into the house. I was ready with my trusty video camera, crouched down outside the bedroom window. The odds of them noticing the lens of the camera in the bushes at the bottom of the window were pretty small, since they were so intent on each other. I managed to get some pretty good video while they were fucking each other silly. I also got enough usable audio to know that this had been going on for a couple of months, and they had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

OK, so the above sounds rather clinical and emotionless. Let me set the record straight on that. I was D.E.V.E.S.T.A.T.E.D! My whole world had just been annihilated. I loved Patricia with every fiber of my being. She was my everything. She had been the one thing that caused the sun to rise in my life. Worse yet, we had started discussing having children soon. In fact, we had already started the planning for them. My entire reason for living was wiped away in an instant.

Crushed beyond repair, I snuck out of the yard and walked back to my truck. I drove back to the store parking lot to wait for my soon-to-be ex-wife to leave again.

Once I saw her drive past, I went back to the house and packed up the necessities. I didn't need much. I didn't want much. Most of the stuff would just remind me of what I had lost. I only took my important papers, a few changes of clothes, and as many of my tools as I could fit in the back of my truck. The last thing I did was hook up my old car trailer and pull my '68 GTO onto it. I made two stops before I left town. First to the bank and pulled out all the cash I could from both checking and savings. The second stop was to see Lydia, my Mother-in-law. We had always gotten along great. She was a very sweet lady. I felt that I should at the least give her an explanation. Besides, I wanted to say goodbye. I left the video with her, since I didn't see a need to see it again.

So, there are probably three camps out there screaming at me. There are those who think I should stay and take it because I love her. Sorry, no. You may enjoy taking it up the ass and bowing down before another man, but I won't do that. There are those who think I should stay and fight for her. I already fought for her and won. I shouldn't need to fight for her again. If I have to fight for her after winning her the first time, I have already lost. Besides, if she's stupid enough to leave me, I'm smart enough to let her. Then, there are the BTBs. Yeah, I thought about it. I just couldn't think of any scenario where I wouldn't end up in prison. It was better to just walk away and not have to deal with her anymore.

One of my great uncles had managed to purchase some land in the mountains and build a cabin. It wasn't in really good shape anymore, but that wouldn't bother me much. It kind of fit my mood. Dark, dreary, and needing some serious repairs. None of the family ever used it anymore, preferring Disneyland and beach resorts for vacations instead. I asked and got permission to stay in it for an extended period. I even offered to work on the needed repairs. After a few years, my second cousin decided to just sign it over to me.

I really didn't need much. I had managed to get about $30,000 in cash when I left. I would subsidize that by doing some computer work for several of the businesses in the small town nearby. That's what I used to do before walking away from everything. I continued doing that until technology and price made it feasible to install solar panels and a satellite dish on the property. That made it easy to do most of my work from home. Yes, those small jobs for the locals turned into a fairly profitable business. As I said, I don't need much.

So, now I was standing in front of a vision of my ex-wife in her younger years. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why she was here. The only possible explanation was that she wanted to torture me for leaving her slut of a mother the way I had. When she finished convincing me that she was actually my biological daughter, and she had a twin sister as well, I lost it. That bitch had denied me my daughters' childhoods. She denied me the chance to be a daddy. That was the one single thing except for being married to Patricia that I had wanted most in my life. It had hurt when Patricia betrayed me. This just heaped gasoline onto the inferno that laid my life to waste.

After telling her that I was dying, and only had a few months left, we fell into each other's arms and cried for a long time. We finally composed ourselves and talked well into the evening. Yes, I made dinner for her. I broke out the bottle of scotch that I had, and we both had a few of those as well.

Jenny:

I ended up staying for a week. I was working on the outline of what I wanted to do my thesis on. I had called my sister a couple of times letting her know that I was OK, and I was just hanging out at a quiet little place to get my outline done and do some research on it. She seemed satisfied.

OK, so you are asking me why I didn't tell Julie about daddy? There were a couple of reasons. First off, she really wouldn't care. She was a big-time daddy's girl -- for Jerry. She would have only gotten pissed at me for turning my back on the man who raised us. Second, she would have immediately called mom and told her all about it. I'm sure that she would have done something that would have only caused Daddy more pain. No, Julie had her daddy, and I was going to have mine for as long as I could. I was also determined to protect him from as much pain as I could. Was I being selfish in denying Julie the opportunity to meet her real dad? Maybe, but to her, Jerry was, is, and always will be her real dad.

I went back every chance I could. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. When I wasn't there, we communicated by email, text, and phone calls. Sharing an apartment with Julie, meant that she began seeing me communicating with him. She would hear his voice through my cellphone. She saw the occasional text alert from David. Word quickly spread through the family that I had a boyfriend. If they only knew how completely wrong they were.

The end came fast. I was there with him. I had one last confession to him. I could have let him go without it, but I had been open and honest with him about everything else. I had to tell him this truth.

"Baby," he whispered. "The one thing that I regret the most is not being able to walk you down the aisle when you get married. Do me one thing. Take your time and find the right man. Whatever you do, do not betray him. It's better to divorce him than cheat on him. When your mom cheated on me, it ruined my life. I take some of the blame for that. I could have picked myself back up and moved on, but I didn't. She hurt me so bad that I just couldn't see the point in it. Find the right man and don't ever cheat on him."

"Daddy, I'm like you. You are a one-woman-man. You could never have cheated on your wife. I'm the same way. I am completely faithful. The other thing, daddy, I hope you don't hate me for this. I've always been completely honest with you, and I'm not gonna stop. Daddy, like you are a one-woman-man, I am a one-woman-woman. Daddy, I'm gay."

He looked at me and started a wheezing laugh. After it ended in a fit of coughing, he looked up at me. "I could never hate you. As long as find yourself a good woman to love you, I will be watching from above cheering for you. As long as you're happy, I will be happy."

That was the last conversation we had. An hour later, and he was gone. It was only me and the funeral director there. I had contacted a couple of his relatives, but they were all too far away, and he had severed all contact with them years ago. He knew he was going to die, so he had already set everything up. He was cremated, and I took the urn with his ashes. I told him I wanted it, and he had changed his will accordingly. That brings me back to the beginning of this sad tale.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Mom screeched about 30-seconds after walking in the door. I noticed that she had suddenly gone pale.

"It's a memorial." I answered calmly. I had 6-months to wrap my head around this. She had less than a minute.

"Who is that?" Julie asked. "And why do we suddenly have a memorial for him?"

I looked my mother dead in the eye and spoke. "That's my daddy. I have a memorial for him because I love my daddy and want to remember him."

Mom collapsed into a chair as her legs suddenly gave out. Julie was having a hard time getting her head around what I just said.

"But, but, but...." Julie stuttered.

"No. It isn't Jerry. This is our real dad that was stolen from us. More precisely, we were stolen from him by Jerry."

"What are you talking about?"

"Maybe you should ask mom about that, although I doubt you will get a straight answer out of her."

"Mom?" Julie asked.

"Jerry is your father." Is all she mumbled.

"No, he isn't" I replied. "He's just a snake who stole mom and us from her husband."

"What do you mean? Are you saying mom was married before she married Jerry?"

"Yes. That was the real reason she and Jerry didn't get married for two years after we were born. They had to wait until the divorce was final."

"HE ABANDONED ME!" Mom finally shouted out.

"Of course, he did, MOTHER. You were cheating on him with that snake. You were fucking Jerry while you were still married to David. That's why you always thought that Jerry was the one that got you pregnant with us. He caught you with Jerry. Gramma still has the video he took of the two of you fucking in HIS bed."

I really didn't think it was possible for mom to turn any whiter. "Th, th, there's a v, v, video? Oh shit."

"OK. Whatever." Julie started. "Do you have any proof of this?"

With that, I smirked as I pulled the box out from behind the chair. I went through it all. I explained how it started with the results from the website. I showed her the documentation and how it showed that Jerry was not biologically related to me. I showed her the marriage license to David. I showed her the divorce decree and the date. We didn't actually watch it, but I showed her the video tape that David had taken that day. Mom just sat there and looked sick. At the end of everything, Julie reacted exactly as I expected.

"Well, that's all very interesting, but as far as I'm concerned, Jerry is still my dad. He's been there all along. He stepped up and took care of us. Frankly, this is the first I've heard of that guy, and, since he's dead, I will never meet him."

"That's fine. That's pretty much what I expected from you. He did want me to give you this, though." I said as I handed her a small packet.

"What's this? I'm not sure I even want anything from that guy."

"That is the information on the trust fund he set up for you. Right now, it has $100,000 in it. It will continue to grow with interest until you turn 30 and access it. There are some other rules and conditions, but the lawyer whose card is included can explain all that to you." I explained.

She just looked at me stunned. I continued explaining. "He was devastated to find out that he had two daughters. He lost out on their entire childhood. He wanted to do something for us before he died. He set that up for you so maybe you will forgive him for never knowing about us before it was too late."

"Did he do the same thing for you?" Mom asked.

"No. I told him that I really didn't need anything like that. All I wanted was something small that was important to him for me to remember him by. I have that outside. Truthfully, that's all I wanted. Then his lawyer called me. Since there was nobody else, and he wanted to keep it in the family, I inherited his cabin and all the property around it. The $5 million in his investments will keep the taxes paid for a long time." Seriously, I had no clue that he had redone his will a couple weeks after I first showed up at his door. I didn't even know that he even had any money.

I went and visited Gramma. I told her all that happened over the last several months. She was delighted. I even gave her a letter that my daddy had written to her. I refused to even talk to Jerry again. After what I saw he had done by seducing a married woman, I saw nothing but a scum-sucking asshole. Yes, it takes two to tango. Mom didn't get off scott free either. Our relationship has definitely gone downhill. When/if I ever have children, she won't be a big part of their lives.

My relationship with my mom has gone completely downhill. After finding out the truth, I can't even be civil to Jerry. He still insists that I call him 'dad', but that's not ever going to happen I found my true Dad. I can't forgive what they did to him. I saw the pain he was in during his last couple of months. I saw what it did to him as he realized what was stolen from him. I had finally found what was missing from my soul, and it was too late. I felt that I had found the missing piece, and I only had a short time with it before I was taken from me again. I was shattered when my daddy died.

Jimmy and Jill are innocent in all this. I would welcome a relationship with them, but they have taken to blaming me for the friction in the family. That's their choice. Maybe I am, but I just can't get over the hurt that Jerry and mom caused my daddy. He was an innocent victim of their actions. On top of that, they cheated me out of 23-years with a fantastic father. I am very saddened by their complete rejection of me. I live in hope that something will change, and we can have some sort of a relationship. It's just one more thing that Jerry's and mom's actions have caused.

I have a somewhat strained relationship with Julie. We are full sisters, after all. There is also the fact that we are twins. I do truly care about her. I can even look past her rejection of our true dad. She doesn't really appreciate the memorial I keep in the livingroom of the cabin. Money is another obstacle. I have the money, and she wants a large piece of it. I do give her money when she actually needs it, but most of the time it's for some stupid frivolous waste. 'Look, Jules. You need a car, pick out a nice decent car, and I'll buy it for you. I'm not gonna drop $200,000 on a Lamborghini.' Seriously! I'm still driving dad's old pickup. Well, I still have the GOAT too.

The other reason is love. More to the point is who I fell in love with. Hey, was it my fault that she invited her current at the time boyfriend's older sister to join them when they visited me at the cabin? Of course, they asked if it was OK, and I said yes. It really wasn't my fault that she was witty, intelligent, and absolutely gorgeous. How was I to know that she was also gay? They never bothered to tell me that. Just because she never bothered to tell them is no excuse to blame me. And, if Julie would have ever asked me, I would have told her I was gay. Fuck sake! She should have figured that out years ago. Did the fact that I never -- EVER went on a date with a boy not clue her in?

So, he ended up cheating on her several times before he ended up dumping her. She gets reminded of that every time she visits Amber and me at our cabin now. It's even more awkward when they are both visiting at the same time. We try to avoid that as much as possible, but there are some occasions where both families are here at the same time. Really, how is it possibly our fault that she got involved with a cheating asshole. OK, maybe I really should stop thanking her for introducing us.