5
Dad’s eyes were practically bulging out of his head with rage. If people hadn’t been holding him back, he would have beaten me to a pulp.
“Sharon is not my child. From now on, she has nothing to do with me. The house, the cars, the company–I built all of that myself. You two can get the hell out with nothing but the clothes on your backs.”
His decision was final.
I tried one last time. “Uncle Ben and Mom are siblings. Genetically, it’s normal for nieces and nephews to resemble their uncles. You can’t just listen to one side of the story and forget that Mom has been by your side through thick and thin. You know better than anyone how devoted she’s been to you and this family.
My mom once told me that when she and Dad were dating, my grandparents were dead set against it. He was an orphan. Marrying him meant no dowry, no big wedding, and no grandparents to help with the kids. I‘ ve seen pictures of my mom when she was young. She was beautiful. She could have had any man she wan- ted.
When I was little, we were poor. Dad worked odd jobs while Mom woke up before dawn to make and sell tofu and bean sprouts. With her hard work, they saved up their first bit of money, and she gave it all to him to start his business. She said he was a brilliant man who just needed a chance.
All these years later, her judgment was both spot–on and dead wrong.
She thought she was happy. Her husband was still the same loving man, and they were financially secure. Just yesterday, my dad was washing her feet, calling her his ‘darling wife.”
So this sudden, absolute betrayal from him left her more confused than anything. She just kept staring at him, her eyes blurring with tears that she stubbornly wiped away, again and again.
Finally, her voice was a broken whisper. “David… I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
My dad’s eyes were red with fury and disgust. “No, you’re the one who’s been fooling me for twenty years! You are the most vile, shameless woman I have ever known! There’s nothing more to say. I never want to see. you again!”
My grandparents rushed forward, pleading with my dad to calm down, to at least get through the funeral for my uncle’s sake, to not make such an ugly scene.
My dad had a great reputation. He was known as an honest, hardworking, doting husband. He was always good to my grandparents. Everyone always said my mom had hit the jackpot.
Today was the first time he’d ever lost his temper and hit his wife and child in public. So when this bomb dropped, everyone instinctively sided with him.
Fine, my dad said magnanimously. “For the sake of the family we once were, I won’t make a scene here. But the divorce is happening.”
Chapter
He took Mandy’s hand and started to leave.
I stopped him. “Since we’re airing our dirty laundry, we might as well get it all out.”
15-43
I looked him straight in the eye. “You’re the one choosing to disown me. So from this moment on, you’re no longer my father. You’ve been waiting a long time for this day, haven’t you?”
He glared at me, a look that said he wanted to kill me.
I had already contacted a lawyer, hoping to handle this quietly, to minimize the damage.
But now? Now I was ready to go to war with my own father.
