Chapter 3 - Caroline Had Cut Her Father Off for a Reason
Ellie was too young to remember her mother clearly.
I remembered everything.
Including how Caroline reacted the only time I suggested inviting Raymond to our wedding.
“No.”
Not hesitation.
Not anger.
Fear.
She eventually told me why.
Raymond had been controlling when she was growing up.
He tracked Linda’s movements.
Exploded when challenged.
Punched walls.
Destroyed property.
Once dragged teenage Caroline out of a friend’s house because Linda had permitted her to stay overnight.
The family survived years of apologies followed by another explosion.
When Caroline was nineteen, Linda finally left him.
Caroline cut contact at twenty-four after Raymond showed up outside her apartment demanding money and threatening the boyfriend she had at the time.
By the time I met her, five years had passed.
She had one rule.
Raymond would never be around her future children.
I respected it.
When Ellie was born, Raymond apparently learned through extended family.
He sent a card.
Caroline returned it unopened.
Then another.
Returned again.
Finally she wrote one letter.
I had seen it.
You are not entitled to my child because we share DNA. Do not contact us again.
Raymond stopped.
Or we thought he did.
May you like
Now he had been hiding under my deck reaching toward the little girl Caroline explicitly protected from him.
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