I rushed through the door, the sound of my wife’s panicked cries still ringing in my ears. My mind raced—what had happened? What was so urgent that it had driven her to call me in a state of absolute panic? I pushed through the hallway, my heart hammering in my chest.

When I entered the living room, the sight that greeted me made my blood run cold. My wife was sitting on the couch, clutching her stomach, her face pale, and tears streaming down her cheeks. She was visibly shaking. But it wasn’t just her that I saw. The house, which had once felt like a place of warmth and safety, now seemed colder. The air was thick with tension.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. I crouched beside her, trying to keep my voice steady.

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with terror. “He… he was here. Your daughter… she came back. She said she needed to talk to me. She was so angry. So full of rage. She…” Her words faltered as she started to sob, her breath quickening in fear.

I stood up, suddenly feeling a weight in my chest. My daughter, after all these years, had come back into our lives. I hadn’t seen her since I’d distanced myself from her, all those years ago when she had chosen to destroy my new family. She had cut herself off from me, and I thought she was long gone from our lives. But now, I realized how wrong I was.

I tried to calm my wife, rubbing her back gently. “Where is she now? What happened?”

“She… she left in a hurry,” my wife gasped, wiping her tears away. “But before she left, she said something. She said I was going to pay for taking you away from her. She said she would make us both suffer.”

My stomach churned. I had distanced myself from my daughter in an attempt to protect my new family, to make sure my wife and our unborn child weren’t dragged into the mess my daughter had created. But I never imagined she would return like this, so filled with anger and vengeance.

“Where’s the baby?” I asked urgently, my mind racing. Had my daughter done something to him? Had she… hurt him?

My wife’s face crumpled, and she shook her head frantically. “He’s upstairs, in his crib. He’s fine, but I couldn’t calm down… I couldn’t stop thinking about everything your daughter said.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “I’m scared. What if she comes back?”

I stood up, a new determination taking over. My daughter’s hatred wasn’t going to destroy the life we had built. It was time to face the past, to confront her once and for all. I wasn’t going to let her tear my family apart any longer. Whatever it took, I was going to make sure she understood that my new family was not something she could take away.