Family Fight

Many people say that blood is thicker than water, that family is all you have. To always forgive family no matter what, because they love you. “But he’s your dad.” Do you know that saying? That blood is thicker than water. Well here is the real saying, “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. I learned the hard way about the true saying and how people twisted it to their own advantage, here’s the story of my father betraying me.

I was only fourteen years old, a freshman in high school. I was dating my first real boyfriend. We had a mutual friend that we would stay the night at so we could spend time together. This happened almost every weekend until summer hit. My family moved four hours away and I refused to go with them. My whole life was in Council bluffs, my friends, school, and my boyfriend. We decided that I could live with my aunt, in the same house I already live in. She worked multiple jobs at once, including being an EMT so she wasn’t home often. A month or so had passed and she decided that it would be best for me to go live with my papa in Underwood, IA, it was only about 20 minutes away from Council Bluffs so I still could visit often. I got a text from my friend asking if I wanted to come over and stay the night, I told him that I would ask my papa. I asked and he said that it would be fine but not to say anything to my dad until we left as he was unsure how he would react.

At my friends’ house and we were waiting for my boyfriend to get off work so he could come over as well. We were hanging out and having fun until my dad messaged me on Facebook saying that he was on his way with my step-mom and I was not allowed to stay at a boys house. I messaged my mom and asked her what I do, as my dad had no legal rights over me at all. I didn’t have a phone so I couldn’t call my aunt for help. My dad showed up and I refused to go as I always stayed there and never did anything I wasn’t supposed to. All we ever did was watch movies, play video games and talk. We were really close friends. My friend and his mom got involved and it turned into a huge screaming match. Someone called the cops, unsure of who it was. My dad was threatening to beat my minor friend up and there were multiple neighbors watching, I was scared and embarrassed. I had no clue what to do, my dad was yelling, my stepmom, friend, friends mom and a neighbor were all yelling too. Eventually, the cops showed up and tried to make me go with my dad, ignoring my side of the story because he was my “dad”. It turns out my mom got ahold of my aunt and she left her job to come and see what was going on. She knew the cops as she used to be a dispatcher, since they knew her and believed her they told my dad to leave. That’s when I realized that family isn’t always worth your love and pain. He told me I was no longer his daughter and that he wished my mom aborted me. That I was a whore for sleeping at a boy’s house. He told me he doesn’t love me anymore and I wasn’t welcome back at their apartment in underwood and he never wanted to see me again. My papa and I decided that it would be better if I didn’t go to stay with him at his apartment, in the same complex. So in some ironic twist, I ended up staying at my friend’s house for the rest of the summer. I blocked my dad, stepmom, and stepbrother on Facebook and realized it not like my dad raised me anyway.

I spent the rest of that summer with my best friends and had a lot of fun. They took me shopping for the things I would need while there, we went and explored random areas around us. We would always watch movies, I was banned from picking the movies as I chose really weird movies for fun. That family treated me like a true daughter and they were more family to me than my dad ever was. All my dad did was get drunk and try to beat everyone up. He never touched me, but I knew not to be near him while drunk. He sent my papa to the hospital multiple times because he would get drunk and get mad at him. He barely spent time with me growing up. One time I ran and hid from him because I didn’t know him much. He scared me sometimes, all he did was drink and hurt others. He once said he was allergic to drinking because he breaks out in cuffs, laughing as a true alcoholic would. He knew he had issues but he didn’t care, as long as he got what he wanted.

I still barely talk to my dad, but I do see him every once in a while and he will text me sometimes. He tries to act like it never happened but every time I see him I remember when he betrayed all the trust and love I once had for him. Growing up I learned that he is not a good person or dad, that everything I went through was not normal. I once asked the friend I stayed with who would walk me down the aisle now that I have no father, and he said he would. Like a true friend we still talk years later, he lives in California now but we still see each other’s posts and texts. Remember guys, “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”.