Originally publised: April 13, 2022 after Part 1 of the same title. We gathered her into the car and drove around until we found a simple restaurant so we could talk and bring her back to safety. It was so awful to see my beautiful, hard-working daughter, who’d been through so much look like she’d been emotionally beat down. It was hard not to bad mouth the guy, but it was more important to build her up again.
We talked more than she did, but she felt safe and expressed herself a little and cried a lot. We had to remind her of how much we love her and will help her, but she has to decide what she wants to do. She’s clearly unhappy in her situation and wants out, but she has to find the courage and the right way to make a move. We stayed in the restaurant until she was truly calm, very tired, and ready to face him. I was very proud of my husband for keeping the focus on how much we love and care about her, and will always have her back. The guy is not important, though we originally liked him and saw potential, only she is.
Her desire was to go back, take a nice, hot bath, do some work, and go to sleep. We dropped her off with lots of hugs and kisses, and some thank yous and I love yous, and went home. I checked on her a bunch, and she said when she came home, he had already gotten himself drunk and left the house. Not judging, but that was pretty disappointing.
The next day, he drove her to work, but I think it was in silence. Her employer loaned her a company car to use indefinitely so she could take care of her own transportation, which seemed to burden and irritate the boyfriend quite a bit.