Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My relatives deceived me in the legal proceedings, resulting in
the loss of my child's guardianship. Presently, they seek my
assistants following my former partner's betrayal of them two I
covertly documented their actions, confessions about everything. I'm thirty two,
male and a construction worker from a small town. I'm
(00:22):
a single dad, or at least I was until three
years ago. My son, Tea is seven now, smart kid,
kind of quiet. Love's dinosaurs and those stupid YouTube videos
with kids playing with toys. He's the best thing that
ever happened to me, but I haven't seen him in
nearly a year. I'll get to that, but first, let
(00:43):
me start from the beginning. It was me and k
my ex. We were together for about five years, married
for two. Things went south pretty fast after Tea was born.
She was restless, complaining about feeling trapped, like her life
was over because of the baby. I tried to help
out more. I'd come home from twelve hour shifts covered
(01:07):
in dirt and sweat and immediately grabbed Tea, trying to
give her a break, but she still wasn't happy. One day,
out of nowhere, she told me she wanted a divorce.
It hit me like a brick to the face. I
didn't understand it. She had no reason, no explanation that
made sense, just said she couldn't do it any more
(01:29):
and want it out. I begged her to reconsider, not
for me, but for Tea, but she was cold about it,
like she had already decided long before that conversation. When
it came to the custody battle, I assumed it'd be straightforward.
I was a good dad, always there, and Tea was
my world. But then things got ugly. Kay started making accusations,
(01:53):
saying I was emotionally unstable, that my temper was unpredictable.
She even hinted that I could be violent, which was
absolute garbage. But the worst part my own parents. My
family sided with her. I'll never forget sitting in that
courtroom watching my mother and father take the stand saying
(02:14):
that Kay was right that I wasn't fit to be
a father. My dad said something like, we love our son,
but he's not ready for the responsibility of raising a child.
And my mom she cried like some damn actress and
talked about how she was worried about Tea's safety with me.
I couldn't breathe. It felt like my world was crashing down.
(02:38):
My own parents, the people who were supposed to have
my back, were throwing me under the bus, and for
what to protect her, to protect their image. They'd always
been about appearances, about what other people thought. I realized
right then that I was nothing more than an inconvenience
in their perfect little world. Long story short, Kay got
(03:01):
full custody and I got weekends, but it didn't last long.
Every time it was my weekend, there'd be some excuse, Oh,
Tea's sick, or we've got plans maybe next weekend. Before
I knew it, she was filing for a restraining order,
claiming I'd threatened her, and with my parents backing her up,
(03:23):
there was nothing I could do. The judge believed them.
They said I had an anger problem, that I needed
therapy before I could see my son again. Therapy right
like sitting in a room talking to some stranger, was
going to fix what was happening. I lost custody completely,
(03:44):
No more weekends, no more birthdays, nothing. I couldn't even
call him. Kay made sure of that, and my parents
they went right back to acting like everything was normal,
inviting me over for family dinner, acting like they hadn't
just destroyed my life in court. I stopped talking to
(04:05):
them after that, cut them off completely. Fast forward to
last year. I was doing everything I could to get
my life back together. I'd started saving up for a
lawyer to try and fight for joint custody. When something
strange happened. My mom called me out of the blue,
saying she needed to talk. I hadn't spoken to her
(04:26):
in almost a year, so I was suspicious. But something
in her voice told me this wasn't just another attempt
at family peace. It felt urgent, like she was desperate,
so I agreed to meet them at their house. My
dad was there too, pacing around the living room like
(04:46):
he was nervous, which immediately set off alarms in my head.
My parents are never nervous. They're always in control, always
putting on that calm, composed front, But this time they
looked scared. That's when they told me Kay had screwed
them over. Apparently, after the custody battle, Kay had gotten
(05:09):
really close to my parents. They'd let her and Tea
move into a house they owned rent free, under the
guise of helping her get back on her feet and
now Kay had turned on them. She was suing them
for some bogus claim, saying they'd promised her the house
as a gift. They'd already sunk thousands into legal fees
(05:30):
trying to fight her, and it wasn't looking good. I
remember sitting there, listening to all of this, feeling this cold,
hollow sensation in my chest. They were asking for my help,
my help, the same people who had taken my son
for me, destroyed my reputation and left me to rot.
(05:51):
I stared at them, these two people I used to love,
and I didn't feel a damn thing for them any more.
You think I can help you, I asked, my voice flat, emotionless,
after what you did to me. My dad had the
audacity to act offended, like he couldn't believe I wouldn't
drop everything to come to their rescue. My mom started crying,
(06:13):
of course, she always cried when she didn't get her way.
She said something about how family sticks together, how we
need to let go of the past and move forward.
I almost laughed in her face, but then an idea
hit me, a dark, twisted idea. I had been recording
the entire conversation. I don't know why I'd started doing it,
(06:37):
but after the custody battle, I stopped trusting people, especially
my family. Something told me to record that meeting just
in case. So I leaned back in my chair and
I said, why don't you tell me exactly what happened
in court? Huh? Why did you side with Kay? Why
did you lie? My mom looked at my dad, and
(06:59):
he looked at the floor. They started fumbling over their words,
talking about how Kay had manipulated them, how they thought
they were doing the right thing at the time, but
now they see how wrong they were. They admitted it all,
every lie, every betrayal. They confessed that Kay had convinced
them I was dangerous, but they didn't really believe it.
(07:22):
They just didn't want to risk losing access to TEA.
I had everything on tape, their confessions, their apologies, their
pathetic excuses, and the entire time I sat there pretending
to listen while inside I was calculating plotting. When they
were done, I stood up, told them I needed to
think about whether I'd helped them or not, and walked out.
(07:46):
I could hear my mom's sobbing behind me, but I
didn't care. I drove home that night feeling something I
hadn't felt in years. Power. For the first time since
losing Tea, I was in control. I had leverage, and
I was going to use it. Over the next few weeks,
I met with a lawyer. I explained everything, how I
(08:09):
had been framed, how my parents had betrayed me, how
Kay had manipulated everyone. I played him the recording and
he just shook his head in disbelief. He said it
wasn't going to be easy, but with that recording, I
had a shot at reopening the custody case. And then
came the hard part, confronting Kay. I waited until the
(08:31):
day of the hearing. She had no idea I was coming.
I walked into the court house saw her sitting there,
looking smug and confident like she always did. She had
no clue that her entire world was about to crumble.
When the judge called the case, I stood up, handed
my lawyer the recording and let him do the rest.
(08:52):
Kay's face turned white as a sheet when she realized
what was happening. My parents were there too, looking like
they'd rather be anywhere else. But I didn't care about
them any more. This wasn't about them. This was about Tea.
The judge listened to the recording. He heard my parents
admitting to lying in court, heard Kay's manipulation laid out
(09:15):
in their own words, and then, for the first time
in years, I saw hope. I saw a path back
to my son. The court ruled in my favor joint custody.
I'd get to see Tea again, to be part of
his life. Kay lost her mind in the court room,
screaming about how unfair it was, how I didn't deserve
(09:36):
to be a father, but for once, nobody was listening
to her. When it was all over, my parents tried
to talk to me, tried to apologize again, but I
didn't need their apologies. I didn't need anything from them
any more. I told them they were dead to me,
and I meant it. Now I've got Tea back in
(09:57):
my life. It's not perfect. We've got a lot to
work through, but it's a start. As for k and
my parents, they're dealing with the consequences of their actions,
and me, well, I've learned my lesson trust is fragile
and family doesn't always mean loyalty. The first few weeks
(10:18):
after the hearing were awkward, to say the least. T
barely knew me any more. He was a different kid
than the one I used to tuck into bed at night.
He was quieter, more distant. I'd ask him about his
day and I'd get one word answers. He barely made
I contact. It was like he didn't trust me, and
(10:39):
that hurt more than I'd expected. And who could blame him.
He'd spent years being fed lies, seeing me as the villain,
probably hearing all sorts of things from k I had
to remind myself that he was just a kid, confused,
caught in the cross fire of a war he didn't
ask to be part of. But even knowing that, it
(11:00):
still stung every time he flinched when I tried to
give him a hug or asked if he wanted to
go play catch. The first time I got him for
a weekend after the ruling, we spent most of the
time just sitting in silence. I didn't want to push him,
didn't want to force anything. I thought maybe he just
needed time to adjust, But I could feel the distance,
(11:21):
this wall between us. It wasn't just him adjusting to me.
It was me adjusting to the fact that I'd missed
out on so much I wasn't there for the birthday parties,
the first day of school, the scraped knees, the late
night nightmares. I'd been erased from his life, and now
I had to rebuild that bond from scratch. I took
(11:43):
him to the park, to a pizza place I remembered
he used to love, but he barely touched his food.
He just stared out the window most of the time,
and I kept catching him looking at his phone, like
he was waiting for a message from his mom. That's
when I realized it wasn't just about us any more.
Kay still had her claws in him. Every time I
(12:04):
picked him up, I could feel her influence lingering in
the background, poisoning whatever fragile relationship we were trying to rebuild.
And then there was my parents. They kept trying to
get back in my life, kept calling, leaving messages about
how they wanted to move forward and heal as a family.
I ignored every single one. I was done with them completely.
(12:28):
It wasn't anger any more. It was this cold, numb indifference.
They'd made their choice and I made mine. They weren't
part of my world any more, and I wasn't about
to let them get close enough to hurt me again.
But they didn't stop. They tried sending gifts to Tea too,
birthday presents, Christmas cards, even a couple of e mails
(12:51):
through Kay's account, asking to see him. At first, I
didn't say anything to him about it. I didn't want
to drag him into the middle of my dry But
after a few months he started asking questions. He wanted
to know why he wasn't allowed to see Grandma and
Grandpa any more, why they weren't coming around like they
(13:11):
used to. I didn't know how to explain it to him.
How do you tell a seven year old that his
grandparents betrayed his dad in the worst possible way. How
do you explain that kind of betrayal, that kind of
heartbreak to a kid who just wants things to go
back to normal. I ended up telling him something vague
about how they weren't safe people to be around, that
(13:33):
they'd made some bad decisions. He didn't understand, of course,
but he stopped asking For a while. Things with k
weren't any easier. She hated that I'd won, hated that
I was back in Tea's life, and she wasn't subtle
about it. Every time we had to exchange him for weekends,
she'd make some snide comment like, I hope you've been
(13:54):
to therapy, God knows he'll need it after a week
end with you, or don't get used to this, I'll
make sure it's temporary. I tried to ignore her at first,
but it wore me down. One weekend, after she made
some crack about me not being able to keep a job,
because of course she had to bring that up, I
snapped right there in front of Tea. I told her
(14:16):
she was a manipulative liar, that everything bad that happened
to our son was her fault, that she was the
reason he was so confused and miserable. And then I
saw T's face, the look on his face when he
watched his parents screaming at each other, hurling insults back
and forth, like he didn't even exist. He looked scared.
Worse than that, he looked like he didn't understand why
(14:38):
the two people who were supposed to care for him
couldn't even stand to be in the same room together.
After that, I promised myself I'd never lose my temper
in front of him again. I'd let Kay win those
little battles because it wasn't worth traumatizing him any more
than he already was. But keeping that promise it wasn't easy.
One weekend, Kay dropped Tea off late, almost an hour
(15:01):
after she was supposed to. When I asked why, she
just shrugged and said he wanted to stay with me longer,
like it was nothing, Like she wasn't violating the custody agreement.
And I couldn't even get mad because when I looked
at Tea, he nodded like he agreed with her, like
he wanted to be with her more than me. I
(15:22):
felt like I was losing him all over again, like
every step forward we made was followed by two steps back.
I kept showing up for him, kept doing everything I
could to prove that I was a good dad, But
the truth, the truth was I wasn't sure if I
was ever going to win him back completely. And then
came the real kicker. It was a Saturday, Tea was
(15:46):
over for the week end and we were playing video games.
He was finally starting to relax around me, starting to
open up a bit when he casually mentioned something about
Mom's friend. At first, I didn't think much of it.
Kay had always had friends over people I didn't know.
But then Tea started talking more about this friend, how
(16:08):
he stayed over a lot, how sometimes he'd make them dinner,
how they'd all gone to the zoo together last week.
That's when it clicked. Kay wasn't just moving on. She'd
replaced me. This friend wasn't just some guy hanging around.
He was becoming a part of Tea's life in ways
I hadn't been able to. And Tea he liked the guy.
(16:31):
He talked about him like he was this fun, cool
new addition to their little family, and it broke me.
I didn't say anything to Tea at the time. I
didn't want to make him feel guilty, but inside I
was boiling. I'd lost so much already, and now it
felt like I was losing even more, like I was
(16:52):
being erased for my own son's life, replaced by some stranger.
I wanted to confront Kay, to tear into her about
how she was trying to take Tea away from me
in every possible way, but I knew it wouldn't help.
She'd just turn it around on me, make me look
like the crazy, jealous ex again, so I kept quiet.
(17:13):
I buried it deep down, like I had with everything else.
But that night, after Tea had gone to bed, I
sat alone in my living room staring at the walls,
and it hit me. This was my life now, fighting
for scraps of time with my son, dealing with K's games,
watching someone else slide into the role I used to have,
(17:35):
and no amount of legal victories or recordings or courtroom
battles was going to change that. I guess the moral
of the story is sometimes even when you win, you lose.
Sometimes the damage is done and there's no going back
to the way things were. But I keep showing up
for Tea. I keep fighting for whatever moments I can
(17:55):
get with him because I have to believe it's worth it.
I have to believe that in the end he'll see
through all the lies and manipulation and know who really
has his back. As for my parents, I haven't spoken
to them since the day of the hearing. They're still
out there, still trying to worm their way back in,
But I've made my choice. Some lines, once crossed, can't
(18:18):
be uncrossed. So that's where I'm at. It's not a
happy ending, but it's my reality, and honestly, I'm just
trying to make the best of what I've got left.
If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me.
Maybe hit that subscribe button if you want to hear
more about how my disaster of a life unfolds next.
(18:40):
Who knows, maybe I'll even throw in a happy story
one day. But don't hold your breath.