"Get lost! You and your mother both make me sick."
She stumbled to the floor, her tiny hands scraping against the cold, hard ground.
She didn’t cry. She didn’t even make a sound. But her wide, tear-brimmed eyes spoke of the silent wounds only a child could bear.
She was only six. Just a little girl longing for her father’s love.
Yet the man who should have cherished her had never once let her call him "Daddy."
One time, in kindergarten, a bigger classmate bullied her, mocking her for being a fatherless child.
She had come home in tears, her small hands wiping at her swollen eyes as she sobbed.
"Mommy, where is my daddy?"
"Why doesn't Daddy come home? Aurelia misses him so much."
For my daughter's sake, I had swallowed my pride again and again, forcing myself to seek out Nathaniel.
But by then, he had already made Ophelia’s place his home, shutting the door on us without a second thought.
I gathered my daughter into my arms, her tiny frame trembling against me.
The pain clenched at my heart like a vice, tightening until even breathing felt unbearable.
"Nathaniel, you're nothing but a beast."
"From now on, my daughter and I will never disturb your life again."