Chapter 11 - Preston Tried to Come Back to the Girls Too Quickly
Two weeks after paternity was confirmed, Preston requested:
an extra weekend.
His message:
I need my daughters right now.
Rachel Kim read it.
Then looked at me.
“What do you want?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they are not emotional emergency supplies.”
Good answer.
Preston had spent days grieving:
the imagined son,
the breakup with Brielle,
his humiliation.
Now suddenly he needed:
Sophie,
Emma.
I understood why.
He had lost the identity:
father of male heir.
He wanted proof:
I am still a father.
But the girls were not there to stabilize:
him.
We maintained the existing schedule with one change.
A therapist recommended that Preston first address:
what he had said on the tarmac.
Not adult paternity details.
His words to:
Lena.
His words about:
girls.
He resisted.
“This is ridiculous.”
Then:
“They shouldn’t have heard an argument between adults.”
Rachel replied through counsel:
“They were standing there.”
Correct.
Eventually Preston agreed to a therapeutic parenting session.
Sophie asked him:
“Why is a boy worth keeping?”
He cried.
I heard about it afterward.
He told her:
“You aren’t worth less.”
She answered:
“Then why did you say it?”
There is no legal strategy for that question.
Only:
truth.
Preston said:
“Because I was being cruel.”
Better than:
I was angry.
Then:
“And because I believed something stupid for a long time.”
“What?”
“That having a son would prove something about me.”
Sophie asked:
“What?”
Preston had no good answer.
May you like
That was useful.
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