Father's Day: A Slap In Public

Father' s Day usually means family, gifts, and forced smiles. As an architect, I build strong foundations, but my relationship with my father felt like glass. This year, I was going to his studio apartment, not just with a gift, but to retrieve my mother' s vintage watch-the last thing I had of hers. But before I even got inside, a call shattered the fragile peace. "Brenda," my father' s new, live-in girlfriend, was already on the offensive. She claimed the watch was hers, a "payment" for her "service." My father, when I finally reached him, only sighed-that familiar, weary sound of avoidance. He defended her, told me to calm down, and refused to get involved. "Just... not today, Olivia. Let' s not fight on Father' s Day." The humiliation only escalated a few days later, at my daughter Lily' s elementary school art fair. Brenda and her sullen son, Chad, launched a public attack, accusing me of trying to steal from my "poor, sick father." Their performance drew stares and whispers, painting me as the heartless, ungrateful daughter. Then, with my daughter trembling by my leg, Brenda threw herself to the ground, screaming that I had pushed her. Chad lunged, ready to strike, but my husband, Mark, intervened. Just as I was trying to leave, Brenda grabbed my ankle, shrieking, "You' re not going anywhere!" Suddenly, my father appeared. Relief surged, thinking he would stop this madness, defend me. Instead, he rushed to Brenda' s side, asking, "Are you okay, my love?" Then, his eyes cold with disappointment, he turned to me. "Olivia, how could you do this to Brenda?" -and he slapped me. In public. In front of my daughter. As I stood there, reeling, Brenda, clinging to his arm, cooed, "Tell her, darling, tell your ungrateful daughter the truth." My father looked at me, his face hard, unforgiving. "Brenda is not my girlfriend, Olivia," he declared. "She' s my wife. We got married last month." The world tilted. My own mother' s watch, a wedding gift to this woman? He actually looked me in the eye and said, "If you want to remain my daughter, you will respect my wife and you will forget about that watch." "Or you can keep fighting, and you can consider yourself disowned," he paused, letting the threat hang. "The choice is yours." A cold, clear calm settled over me. There was nothing left to fight for. I pulled out my phone, opened my banking app, and looked him dead in the eye. "How much is it worth?" I asked. "The watch. How much do you want for it? Name a price. I' ll buy it from your wife." His face went pale as Brenda whispered a price in his ear. "Fifty thousand dollars," he choked out. "Done," I said, showing him the confirmation screen. "For my own mother' s watch. Now it' s mine again." The gift, the illusion, the pretense of family-all gone. My father made his choice. Now, it was time for me to make mine.