A splitting headache sent me home early, and I hoped for a quiet afternoon alone. But seeing my daughter, who should’ve been at school, and her stepdad behind that closed door shook me to my core. What I discovered tore my heart in two and left me in tears. “Mom, I just can’t get along with Mike! I have my reasons, okay?” my daughter Lily often said whenever I brought her stepdad up. It would hurt. This scene had played out countless times over the past four years, ever since I married Mike. My 12-year-old daughter, usually so sweet and bubbly, turned into a completely different person around her stepfather.
I’d watch helplessly as Lily’s eyes would harden, her small hands balling into fists at her sides. The transformation was as swift as it was painful to witness. “Sweetie, please,” I’d plead, reaching out to her. “Mike loves you. He’s trying so hard…” But Lily would always cut me off, her voice trembling with anger and something else I couldn’t quite place. Was it hurt? Fear? I didn’t understand what it was then. “You don’t understand, Mom! You never will!”
