And let's not forget MLC script with the children. Here are some lovely items D wrote down when they occured, because she needed time to figure out what H meant. She decided he was not "stable."
To D (then 13) when she was sobbing and begging him to get help, stop the adultery, and save our family:
"(OW) cares so much about you. Can't you see that?"
To D's refusal to be around H and OW: "Can't you be normal and healthy like OW's kids? (D came through brilliantly. OW's son called her a $l()t and ran away from home, her D13 began cutting herself, developed an eating disorder and is on antidepressants, and the 8-year-old went back to sucking her thumb nonstop and wouldn't talk. Darn! If D would just get herself together and be healthy like that!
)
"You need to grow up and have some class." (As opposed to 47 year old OW having sex with her friend's H in her family's minivan).
"You are too young to have opinions and high morals." (apparently he is still too young to have high morals)
"You will understand as soon as you fall in love with your first married man."
(WTH! What a goal for a dad to have for his daughter--idiot)
And the last conversation they had before he moved out with no goodbye or forwarding address:
H: You are just like your mother.
D: Thank you. That is the greatest compliment anyone can give me.
H: Smart @ss. (I wish I had been present to respond to H: Dumb @ss)
D: You always told me you loved me,
because I am like mom and you love her so much.
H: I don't know who was talking. (Uh...it was you, H!)
H continuing: (going on a tirade about his rewriting of our marital and family history)
D: What are you talking about? I live here. These are my memories too and none of it happened like you say it did.
H: You have had some sort of breakdown. You are mental and don't remember anything the way it was. (PROJECTING)
D: How can you leave me?
H: I am not leaving you. I am leaving your mother.
D: You are leaving and betraying me too.
H:Where do you get this crazy stuff? You aren't dealing with reality.
H continuing: Why are you whining? You had 13 good years. That is more than I ever had. (Way to want a good life for D, dad!)
D: How could you and (OW) do this to mom, (OW's H), her kids, me, and our whole social group? How could you not know this would destroy everyone?
H (smiling crazily): We did know and we did it anyway.
D: Do you even love me at all?
H: (Pausing to think for a long time) "Well... I
care about you." (Sound of the final nail being hammered into the coffin of their relationship, echos loudly...)