Father's Day by Dylan Jaggard

Out of the blue, you send me a friend request. I message your daughter. Only I don’t think she wants to be your daughter ever again.

The following day I went round to see your ex-wife. She doesn’t want me passing on any information about her. Then your daughter turned up. She was expected. She wanted to borrow some money from your ex-wife.

None of us could even agree how long it had been. I thought it had been 15 years. Your daughter said it was nearer 12 or 13. That wasn’t the main issue though. What should I do? And when I said I wasn’t going to accept your request, the relief I felt from your ex-wife and your daughter was palpable. But then I told them I was going to message you and give you my email. ‘Lines of communication’ was the phrase I used.

They were supportive; or at least they felt that they ought to try to be supportive. The look on your daughter’s face.

I told my girlfriend. Only she isn’t really my girlfriend. It’s complicated. But she knows me. And she could tell. She could tell that it was something I couldn’t ignore.

Yesterday I went to see my ex-wife. We were together when I got the phone call all those years ago. She was firm. ‘He’s your Dad’, she said, ‘No matter what he did’.