My Daughter Cut Ties with Me After She Married a Rich Man – a Year Later, She Came Back Crying with a Baby

If I was too small, too rough, too…janitor to fit into her new life.

I never told her that. I just cried sometimes, quietly, in the dark, and then got back up and went to work again.

So, standing in my living room with Rosie on my chest and Gillian on my couch, my head was spinning.

After I finally calmed down, I handed Rosie back to Gillian and sat beside her.

She looked wrecked.

Hair shoved up in a messy bun. Dark circles under her eyes.

Cheeks streaked with dried tears.

“I’m so sorry,” she said suddenly. “I’m sorry I waited. I’m sorry I kept her from you.”

She started crying again.

I put my arm around her shoulders.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“You’re here now. That’s what matters.”

She shook her head hard.

“No,” she said. “You don’t understand.”

I tried to give her an easy out.

“I get it,” I said.

“I’m just a janitor. You’ve got a different kind of life now. I saw how Evan and his family looked at me.

You don’t have to risk all that just for me.”

Her head snapped toward me like I’d insulted her.

“Dad, no,” she said. “That’s not it. I was never ashamed of you.”

I blinked.

“Then why?” I asked.

“Why didn’t you call? Why didn’t you bring her?”

She looked down at the baby carrier on the floor.

Rosie shifted and made a tiny squeak.

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