Semua Bab After Three Years Away, My Daughter Calls Me Mister: Bab 1 - Bab 10

Heather Whitfield quickly came back to her senses and crouched down to soothe our daughter. “Nicole, sweetheart, this is your daddy.”Nicole Lowe furrowed her little brows and looked at me. “But Daddy isn’t—”Before she could finish, Heather quickly covered her mouth and said, “It’s been too long since she last saw you. She’s just shy around you.”She looked up at me. There was a note of reproach in her voice. “You know you’ve barely been home in three years. Little kids don’t have the best memories. It’s perfectly normal.”I wanted to tell her it was not that I did not want to come home.The first year, I was assigned to a project under strict lockdown. I had already bought my plane ticket for the New Year when she told me Nicole had just recovered from the flu and she was worried I might bring the virus home.The second year, I arranged time off, but she said her mother was staying with her and the house was a mess. There was no point in making the trip.The third year, I told

Heather shot to her feet. “Nicole!”The smile on Wesley’s face froze for half a second. Then he looked up, saw me, and quickly regained his composure. “You must be Desmond. Heather talks about you all the time.”Desmond. He knew exactly who I was. He knew this home had a husband, a father. Yet here he stood in my doorway, with my daughter clinging to him and calling him 'daddy'.What was even more ridiculous was that he did not ask where the slippers were after coming inside. He bent down, took the pair of gray men’s slippers from the second shelf of the shoe cabinet, and slipped them on with practiced ease.It was as though he had always had a place in this home.I pulled out my phone and started recording. Heather’s expression darkened.“Desmond, what are you doing?”I did not answer.Wesley set the breakfast on the right side of the dining table, then took a cup from the cabinet and poured Nicole some milk. The cup was covered in cartoon stickers. It looked as though he ha

There was complete silence on the other end of the line.A few seconds later, Heather shrieked, “Desmond! You’re going to regret this!”I ended the call. Barely thirty seconds later, her name flashed across my screen again. I let it ring out, one call after another, until the messages began pouring in.[Are you really going to stand by and watch Nicole and me suffer until we have nothing left?][Are you even a man?][What kind of husband does this to his wife?]I turned off my screen. Heather called from noon until evening, but I did not answer a single call.She started sending me pictures of Nicole eating her meals, practicing dance, and falling asleep with her stuffed animal in her arms. Finally, she sent a voice message. In the background, I could hear Heather trying to stifle her sobs.Nicole spoke carefully, almost timidly. “Mr. Lowe, can you please not be mad at Mommy? Mommy said if you send us money, I can keep going to dance class.”After listening to it, I turned m

The day I finally confronted them, we met in the conference room at Gareth’s law firm.Heather arrived late. She wore a white dress, her eyes red and swollen as though she had prepared herself to cry in front of everyone.My mother-in-law, Eleanor Frost, followed close behind. The moment she stepped through the door, she pointed at me and started yelling.“Desmond, do you have a conscience at all? My daughter gave you a child and waited for you for three whole years, and now you’ve got a little money and think you can just divorce her?”I did not get up. Gareth gestured for her to sit down.Eleanor slapped the table. “You're telling me to sit down? We’re settling this today, once and for all! The house belongs to Heather and Nicole. They need somewhere to live, and the child belongs with her mother. You’re a grown man. Why can’t you just buy another house?”Heather lowered her head and began to sob. “Desmond, I know you’re angry, but Nicole is still so young. She can’t grow up wi

Heather did not last much longer.The supplementary card had been canceled, Wesley was avoiding her, the credit card bills were piling up, and even her mother could not afford to bail her out.She started waiting for me outside my office building.On the first day, she stood in the wind for two hours wearing a thin dress.The receptionist called me. “Mr. Lowe, there’s Ms. Whitfield here claiming to be your wife.”I replied, “Have security handle it according to visitor policy.”The following day, she came with Eleanor and several relatives.Eleanor stood in the lobby and shouted, “Everyone, come take a look! This man gets a little money and suddenly he doesn’t want his wife or child anymore!”At first, the relatives joined in.“What married couple stays mad at each other forever?”“The child is still so young. How can you be so heartless?”When I came downstairs, Gareth was with me. He handed Eleanor a condensed list of the evidence.“Would you like me to play the recording