When Love Comes to Town

Susie nodded back at me before leaning in for a final goodnight kiss.

At work on Monday morning, I got a text from Susie asking that I not come over this afternoon to see them, that she'll let me know when it's okay. After the weekend we'd just had together, I was more than a little confused along with her not giving me a reason for the sudden change of heart.

I texted her back, but all I got was a 'Sorry' and a 'chat later' from Susie. What the hell is going on? After lunch I decided to call her, something just wasn't sitting right with me.

"Hi Ben, I'm sorry about this afternoon. There's a lot going on." Susie answered quietly when she took my call.

"What exactly is going on?" I asked her.

"It's Bill, he's here." Susie responded.

"What? Have you asked him to leave?" I asked, surprised by the turn of events.

"Not yet, it's complicated." Susie answered.

"What does that mean? Have you broken up with him or not?" I replied.

"Yes, of course I have. It's just not that straight forward. Also, Halie is happy that her dad is home with us."

"Again, not her dad. This is why we should've told Halie right from the start. Hell, you should never had let him convince you to tell her he was her dad in the first place." I responded with some frustration clearly present in my tone.

"I know, I know. Just let me deal with this Ben, please. He'll be gone soon enough, I promise." Susie responded sounding a little tired.

"So, I can come and see Halie this afternoon then?" I added.

"No, Ben. He probably won't be gone by then. He's flown all the way from Honolulu to see us."

"What are you saying? You're going to let him hang around because he made a long flight? Is he going to spend the night there with you?" I quickly followed up.

"Ben, everything is going to be okay, I just need you to stay away for a few days until I can get him to leave. That's all I'm asking for." Susie replied, sounding frustrated herself.

I didn't reply, I wasn't happy that this guy was again trying to lay claim to both the woman I love and my daughter.

"Ben? Please, just tell me you won't come over until I say so." Susie asked once more.

"You have one day, then I'm coming over to see my daughter whether he's there or not." I responded forcefully before ending the call.

Was I being unreasonable? Maybe, I don't know. But I'm angry that right now he's trying to win Susie back and reclaim my daughter as his own. What annoys me is that Susie wants me to stay away while he attempts to do that, without me being able to fight for what is mine.

This call put me in a bad mood for the rest of my day, and sitting at home thinking about it while I should've been spending time with my daughter that afternoon didn't make my mood any brighter.

By early Tuesday afternoon I still hadn't heard back from Susie, I was annoyed that she'd soon force me to call her once more, making me feel like I'm being the bad guy. My real concern was that maybe he'd be able to talk her into going back to Hawaii with him, taking both Susie and Halie with him.

I felt helpless sitting here at work while giving him free reign to do his best to convince her to leave me once again.

I held off calling her, but my frustration and anger continued to grow. After I left work, I decided I couldn't wait any longer, I told Susie yesterday that she had one day, then I was coming over. As I got in my car, I decided to text her to say I was on my way.

Within moments I could hear my phone pinging with incoming messages, but I was already driving. A minute or so later, yet more messages arrived. I didn't read them, I kept driving. Then Susie called me.

"Hello." I answered.

"Why didn't you answer my messages?" Susie started with.

"I can't, I'm driving." I responded.

"Are you on your way here?"

"Yep. I told you I was coming over to see my daughter." I replied.

"Ben, stop. I asked you to give me some time, if you come over here, you're just going to make things a lot worse." Susie replied.

"Worse than what? Right now, he's there trying to win you back and to take my daughter again. What could be worse than that?" I asked her.

"That you'll do something stupid. You've already assaulted him once, if you do it again, he'll want to press charges for sure and I won't be able to get him to drop them this time." Susie responded, sounding almost frantic.

"I told you the other night that I'm more responsible and resilient now, right?"

Susie didn't answer my question.

"I won't hurt him, I swear. I will however make it clear to him whose daughter Haile is, though." I responded.

"Ben, please. I just need a bit more time, I'll call you when you can come over." Susie pleaded one more time.

"I'm sorry, Susie. I'm not letting him take my family from me a second time." I replied as I ended the call.

As I pulled up out front of Susie's parents' house, I could see an expensive rental car in the driveway. Just typical, he always has to flaunt his money.

As I made my way into the front yard, Susie came out the front door, she had no doubt been watching for me, to try one more time to get me to go home.

"Ben, please. You're not coming inside. I want you to go home. Just please listen to me for once, dammit!" Susie stated forcefully.

"Is he here? Is he inside with my daughter? Did he stay here last night, or did you make him get a hotel room?" I asked as I stood in front of her.

"Yes, he's inside with Halie. He slept on the couch last night, I swear." Susie replied.

"Why is he here? If you've broken up with him, you had all day yesterday to send him on his way." I followed up.

"It's not that simple. He wanted to talk, there are other things I have to consider." Susie responded.

"What things? What could take more than a day? It sounds like you're making excuses to me. What is it that you actually want, Susie? Do you want me back in your life or do you want him? Either way, Halie is my daughter, not his. This charade has gone on long enough." I responded as I was about to step past Susie when the front door opened, and Bill stepped outside.

He walked towards me confidently, he's obviously forgetting what happened last time we met.

"When are you going to get a clue in that thick scull of yours? This is my wife, and inside is my daughter, you don't belong here." He said defiantly to me as he approached.

I gave him a wry smile and shook my head.

"What's the matter old man? Are you shooting blanks? Can't have your own kids so you got to try and steal someone else's?" I responded.

"Well, it was easy taking yours. You're such a fucking loser. How's your mom by the way?" He fired back with his own smirk.

Susie still had her back to him, facing me. She grabbed my arms with her hands and shook her head 'no' at me as she could see my anger building.

He was clearly trying to provoke me, so I smirked back at him, then smiled once more.

"Nothing you can do or say will change the fact that you're just a lonely old man, with no wife, and no daughter. Just why are you here? Susie broke up with your old ass." I replied calmly.

"That's funny coming from you. I'm still married to Susie and Halie is legally my daughter now, not yours. Oops, didn't Susie tell you that? I legally adopted her a year ago." Bill retorted.

I looked at Susie, she closed her eyes before slowly opening them to nod at me.

"How is that even possible?" I said softly to Susie.

"He has lawyer friends in Hawaii, they got the family court there to deem you an absent father as you hadn't paid any child support. Bill was then able to adopt without your consent." Susie quietly spoke back to me.

"And you let him do that? Without telling me? How could you? I didn't pay child support because you wouldn't take my money, you wouldn't even give me your address where my daughter was living." I said to Susie, shaking my head.

My anger and frustrations were quickly growing once more, I needed time to think without exploding, so I turned and walked back towards my car.

"That's right, walk away again you pathetic loser! You won't be seeing Susie or Halie ever again, remember that." Bill called out, taunting me once again.

I turned, making my way towards him, my temperature boiling. Susie quickly stepped in front of me and wrapped her arms around me, telling me no, to not do it. Luckily, I was able to calm myself just enough to tell Bill to go fuck himself, before I walked back out to my car and drove away.

I was pissed, more with Susie than her prick of a husband. How the fuck could she allow him to adopt my daughter, how the fuck does that even happen without the court telling me or giving me the chance to fight it. I felt betrayed by her, there was no other way to put it.

Susie tried to call me later, but I didn't pick up, I ignored her texts too. Yeah, I cheated on her once, but I never tried to take our daughter from her. What she's done is almost unforgiveable.

The following morning as I stepped out of the shower, I could hear a loud knocking on the front door of my small apartment. I threw on my boxers before opening the door, seeing Susie standing there in front of me. I shook my head at her and walked back towards my bedroom.

"Ben, we need to talk. Can we just sit down and talk about this please?" Susie pleaded as she followed me inside my apartment.

After putting on a shirt, I walked into the kitchen to start making myself a coffee, ignoring Susie all together.

"Ben, Goddammit!" Susie yelled at me as I stood there with my back to her in the kitchen.

After a minute or so, I finally spoke to her.

"I spent the good part of last night trying to understand how you could do that to me. I get that you hated me for cheating on you, but that was like four years earlier. Did you still hate me that much just a year ago to take Halie away from me for good? And now you've come home and act like you're happy to see me, that you want to be with me, I really don't understand you at all." I quietly said as I made my coffee.

"Ben, it wasn't like that. I don't hate you; I never have." Susie replied.

"Really? Taking my daughter away from me, moving halfway round the world, refusing to tell me where she was living or how to even contact her. Telling your parents that you didn't want me in her life and to stop sharing any details about our daughter with me. Refusing to take my money then using that against me to declare me an absent father so that some other man could legally adopt her. It sure looks like you hated me, you couldn't have done anything worse to me if you tried." I responded, as I turned to face her.

"That wasn't me, I know this sounds like an excuse, but I didn't want any of that, I swear." Susie pleaded.

"None of that happens without you, Susie. Are you just going to blame Bill? Is that where you're at?" I fired back.

"I'm so sorry that I let him do this. You're right that it's my fault too, that I didn't stand up enough to him, that I always let him get his way. But you don't know what Bill's like, how manipulative he can be. He has a way of making you feel like shit if you don't go along with him, if you don't give in to what he wants. I was young and stupid, he promised me a way out of the situation I was in, it seemed too good to be true, and it turned out that way." Susie responded.

"Are you going with that? That he manipulated you because you were too dumb to realize it, really?" I asked.

"Ben, you need to understand the position I was in, I'd just kicked you out and couldn't afford the rent, I had Halie to provide for and I didn't have a job that could cover any of that. I was in so much pain from what you'd done that I was about to go running home to my parents when Bill showed up and promised me and Halie everything I could ever wish for. I didn't leave for Hawaii to hurt you, I left because it was a second chance, my chance of giving Halie a good life." Susie replied.

"Yeah, a life where Halie has no contact at all with me." I reiterated.

"That was never my intention. Bill was adamant that you'd be happy to be free of us, that you could start your life all over again. He refused to take a dime from you and didn't want you being in contact with me or Halie after what had happened before we left. That having you in her life still would make it harder on her as she got older." Susie offered.

"Who the fuck was he to decide what was good for Halie? We're her parents, not him, and that you clearly agreed with him is what gets me." I shot back.

"No, I didn't. I told him you'd never give up on Halie like that. But he said that he could guarantee that you wouldn't come knocking on our door any time soon. And that would be proof enough that you didn't care." Susie answered.

"Yeah, that's because he knew it was nearly impossible for me to do that. Just how would I show up exactly? I still had a restraining order on me at the time, let alone everything that was going on with my mom. He knew I couldn't afford to travel over to Hawaii, and even if I did, how would I find you? I didn't even know where you lived, you refused to tell me." I answered back.

"I know, Bill was just using that to stop me from letting you see or talk with Halie. It was clear that he wanted us as his family right from the start, and that meant making sure you weren't a part of that anymore. At the time, I'm sorry to say that I didn't fight it enough. He loved me and seemed to love Halie as his own too. I knew it was unfair on you, but I'd have to fight Bill to have it any other way, and to be honest, I was afraid." Susie offered.

"Afraid of what? Of Bill?"

"Not at the beginning, I was more afraid of being on my own again with Halie, trying to support us. But later, yes, I was afraid of Bill and what he might do." Susie responded.

"You could've gone home to your parents' at any time. You knew that." I responded.

"Ben, It was a big decision for me to go with him, to take Halie away from you and her grandparents. I wanted to prove that I made the right choice, I was determined to make it work. If I hadn't been so stubborn about it, I probably would've returned home a lot sooner." Susie answered.

"Still doesn't explain why you let him adopt Halie without telling me. I'd never do that to you." I answered her.

"He had everything done before he even presented the papers to me, all I had to do was sign. He'd been working on this for months with his lawyer friends. I told him you'd never agree to it, he told me that it no longer had anything to do with you, that you'd already been deemed an absent father by the family court in Honolulu and that you didn't fight it." Susie responded.

"How would I fight it? I didn't even know it was happening, they never even contacted me." I fired back.

"I know, I asked him if he or his lawyers had spoken with you, he said he didn't have to. That it was up to the courts, but that they couldn't find you. He had a big grin across his face when he told me that; I knew then that they didn't even try. I could've told them how to contact you within five minutes if they actually wanted to." Susie responded.

"So, you signed anyway?" I asked her.

"No, not at first, not for another two months. We argued about it plenty from then on, he accused me of not respecting him, of still being in love with you. He finally wore me down though; I should've held my ground. That's the reason I eventually broke up with him, that I knew he was prepared to manipulate me like that, that he didn't truly love me or Halie. He just wanted his perfect little family so he could portray himself as a successful businessman with his trophy wife and beautiful daughter. Bill is all about Bill, he'll use anyone he has to get him what he wants." Susie explained.

"So, if you know all that, what the hell is he still doing at your parents' house? Why haven't you sent him on his way?" I replied.

"Because he was threatening me with him getting full custody of Halie if we didn't go home with him, that's why."

"What? He'd never get custody of her over you, not in a million years or in any family court." I responded.

"He might in Honolulu. His lawyer friends work with the family courts there, he told me he could easily arrange for me to be deemed a bad mom, a risk to our daughter. All it would take is a few people to submit a witness report or two saying they've seen me making 'poor choices' in front of Halie." Susie replied.

"There's no way you'd do anything that'd be a risk to Halie, are you saying he'd bribe people to make up shit about you in witness reports?" I asked her.

"That was the threat, yeah. I've been trying to get him to backdown, to quietly go home to Hawaii and to forget about me and Halie." Susie replied.

"Didn't seem like that was going too well." I answered.

"Well, it was going better before someone showed up and made him double-down on his threats." Susie replied to me.

"What was I supposed to do? That asshole is trying to take my family again." I responded.

"Ben, you need to let me handle this, okay?" Susie offered.

"Alright, alright. So, now what? Am I supposed to sit around and do nothing while he tries to win you back?" I asked her.

"Look, I just need him to figure out that it's in his best interests to go home and let us be. What I don't need is for you to be there complicating things." Susie replied.

I sat down, scratching my head a little, sipping my coffee.

"This isn't easy for me to sit back and do nothing, Susie. For the first time since I fucked everything up, things have been looking up. You're back home with Halie; and I was feeling that connection between us once again. I got to see my little girl, even seeing your parents again has been good. Then my mom passes, and then he shows up. It's like nothing good ever lasts." I spoke, almost as if to myself.

Susie stepped forward and rubbed her hand through my hair, it felt comforting.

"It's just a speedbump, Ben. Remember? We're going to be just fine." Susie replied.

I looked up at her, the only woman I've ever loved. I wanted to believe that it was all going to be alright.

It was just before knock-off that afternoon when Susie texted me again, asking if I could come over after work. I didn't need to be asked twice. When I got there, I noticed there was no flashy rental car in the driveway, maybe Bill had finally caught on and left.

As I approached the front door, Susie once again stepped outside to talk with me in private.

"I finally got Bill to see some sense, the real issue is now dealing with Halie. She's upset because I sent her daddy away for good. She hasn't spoke to me since, she's just as stubborn as I am, I think." Susie offered as I walked up to her.

"How'd you convince Bill to leave?" I asked.

"Well, while I've been trying to get Bill to be reasonable for the last two days, my parents had lawyers doing up my divorce papers along with rebuking any claim of his for custody of Halie. They served him this morning, along with a restraining order due to fears that he'll try to kidnap Halie and take her back with him to Hawaii." Susie responded with a sigh, obviously all this has taken a toll on her.

"I wish I was here to see that." I responded.

"You can watch it later if you like, my mom recorded it on her phone so he couldn't dispute being served. It's been a good but very tiring day." Susie stated before finally smiling up at me.

"So, Halie didn't take it that well then?" I asked further.

"No, she saw and heard us arguing, with Bill claiming that I was trying to take her father away because I didn't want Halie to be happy. He said that shit just for her to hear, that fucking asshole. She's been blaming me all day ever since." Susie responded.

"Well, maybe I can talk with her." I offered.

"I was hoping you would. Be gentle with her though, she's gone through quite a lot today." Susie responded as we made our way inside the house.