Seeing my son marry the woman of his life felt like a dream come true for me as a father, and then, just three weeks after the wedding took place, the wedding coordinator gave me a call. She sounded freaked out for some reason and told me not to tell my kids that she was calling.
Was there any issues with the billing? Have we been overcharged or maybe we still owed something? I was certain I paid for the whole wedding at a vineyard out in Napa. Ethan anted it to be there because he wanted everything to be just perfect, and since I only had him and my daughter Marissa in my life, I was willing to cover everything.
The moment I got to the venue, Claire closed the door, and then she locked it. Honestly, I got a bit concerned because I couldn’t possibly understand what was really going on at that moment.
She went on to say that while she was making voice notes regarding some dispute with a vendor near the bridal suite after the reception, somehow she picked up my children talking.
She played the tape for me. It was just noise initially, but Marissa came in clearly, “Dad looked very pathetic during his speech. He does think Ethan loves him.”
Ethan started laughing. And then his wife, Vanessa, chimed in, “Keep him emotional until he transfers the lake house ownership and then we don’t have to act anymore.” And Marissa continued, “He will. He is so alone. Just mention Mom and he will do anything.”
And then Ethan said those words which made my world come crashing down: “As soon as we move the property and accounts, we can put him in a retirement home. He will not resist, as he still thinks we are a family.” Vanessa laughed and added that he had paid for the entire wedding and he didn’t know he was no part of our family any longer.
Claire tried turning her laptop off, but I made her wait until it was over. Once it did end, she apologized for making me go through the recording, but I told her that she had actually saved my life.
I loaded up the file on a USB and spent ten minutes sitting in my car, since my hands wouldn’t stop trembling enough for me to unlock the ignition. All I could do was sit there and feel empty. I helped raise Ethan, and paid off his debts after his first business went under because he needed one clean shot. Marissa held my hand through her mother’s funeral, swearing to protect each other. I paid for her first car, hired a divorce attorney for her, and babysat her children whenever she needed time to herself. And they looked at me like a favor to run or an obstacle to remove.
Without even stopping at my house for a moment, I headed straight to see David, my lawyer and old friend. After listening to it twice and becoming angry, David opened my case folder and went over the documents I had to sign for Ethan a few days ago. Ethan and Marissa assured me that it was just routine stuff to ensure the avoidance of the probate court, but David showed me the fine print. The lake house was now transferred into an LLC that would be completely owned by Ethan, while Marissa was granted full power over my finances the second any two family members signed a paper saying I was mentally unfit. And they were trying to use my deceased wife’s memory to steal from me and lock me away.
David started working immediately. He froze my accounts, cancelled all pending authorizations, revised my medical directives and removed them as my emergency contacts. That very evening, every door they planned to walk through was locked.
At 8:03 on the next morning, my phone started ringing – Ethan, Marissa, Vanessa. I was just observing the ringing phone. At 9:10, they arrived at my place looking irritated rather than worried.
When I opened the front door, the screen door remained locked. Ethan asked me why his bank access was disabled. Marissa wanted to know why my lawyer contacted her regarding my medical directives and what I was up to.
I didn’t really answer any of their questions, I just took my phone out and played the recording.
Ethan started asking over and over again where I found it. Their only concern was that I found out what they were up to, they didn’t care about me at all. Ethan tried to get himself out of it by saying he wasn’t even aware of what he’d said because he was too overwhelmed with the wedding. Marissa started crying and told me she loved me. Did she? Not really. She only said that because she got caught.
Ethan begged me to let him get inside so we could talk, but I stood my ground and didn’t let him in.
I informed them that the house would stay in my trust fund, the accounts were frozen, and David had backups to turn over to the authorities in case of any signatures being forged.
Vanessa asked whether I should go ahead and ruin the entire family over one conversation, although she was well aware that the conversation was proof enough that there wasn’t much left of the family at that point.
Eventually they left. In the weeks that followed, everything was revealed. Claire gave an official statement, and the notary that Ethan was using decided not to get involved in the situation due to legal issues, leaving Ethan in a huge pickle. I changed my locks, changed my will in order to give everything away, and compensated Claire for her troubles.
Some two months later, I visited the lake house all by myself and sat on the deck where my wife and I used to have our morning coffee. I believed I would feel alone, but for some reason, I didn’t.
Did I miss my children? Certainly, but knowing what they were willing to do to me made me gather the strength to move on without them.
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Bored Daddy
Love and Peace