Section 3 from Gdoc while ij was down.
“I don’t know you,” she said in a thick voice. “So if you do come by, you can’t be alone with her. And I don’t want - her to be part of my daughter’s life at all, period. Under any conditions. My family can watch her if I’m not here. You can visit as much as you’d like, but only if a member of my family is there with you. And don’t pretend you’re here for me, Teddy,” she added wearily, completely wrung out as she was. “If you were really here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. You know how much this hurts me, you know how much this means to me, and if you were really here for me...but you’re not. You’re here to ease your conscience, and I can’t give that to you right now. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
Now it was Teddy’s turn to get hurt and angry. He deserved Victoire’s anger, he did, but some of the things that were coming from her stung far more than he’d like to admit, particularly the comments he’d made about family. He could grit through it of it though, because he knew that she was just angry, and he deserved all of the venom she could throw at him. But then she started spitting out restrictions at him, as if he were really just some stranger, just some person off the street asking to watch her child.
“No.” Teddy said firmly, standing, a bit anxious about it all. “You can hate me fine. Swear, and say all the hurtful things that you can come up with if that’s what makes you feel better. I’m not going to tell you to get over it, to not be angry, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be treated like a guest when it comes to our daughter.” If there was one thing in the world that Teddy would be adamant about, it would be that he wouldn’t allow any child of his to feel like they weren’t loved, or that he didn’t want to be a part of every aspect of their lives.
“I definitely don’t need to be babysat while watching her, I want to take her to meet my parents, I want to show her off to my friends. And, well, you don’t have to like it Victoire, but she’s my daughter too, my blood and my genes, and I have just as much right to her as you do. And I’m not going to tell you that Amelia won’t play a part in our baby's life, because that’s a lie. She’s an important part of my life, and I can’t see a way that the two won't overlap.”
“That woman is the reason my daughter won’t have a proper, whole family,” said Victoire through gritted teeth. “She’s the reason my daughter’s father won’t be there in the middle of the night to feed her. She’s the reason my daughter’s father lives in a separate place and won’t be there for her nearly as much as he would have been if he’d stayed. She’s the reason my daughter’s father forgot what marriage and honour and loyalty mean. She’s the reason you broke your daughter’s mother’s heart and left her alone to face the scariest moment of her life.
“So no. I want your parents to be part of her life. I want you to be part of her life. I want your family to be part of her life. But that woman is not your family, and she is not my daughter’s family, and she will not be part of her life. If you want to fight me on it, if you really can’t understand why I feel this way, then so be it. But you can’t do this to me - you can’t abandon me and cheat and then insist your mistress has a place in my daughter’s life. Because she doesn’t, under any circumstances. And if you really want her to be your daughter, then you will act like a damn father and never make her face the woman who destroyed her chances of having everything you never did.”
“Listen,” Teddy practically growled, “Let’s get this out of the way first, don’t call her my mistress because that’s not how this is. I wasn’t with her while you were around, and I don’t even care what you say about me, because I get it, your pissed and I deserve it, but I’m not going to have you saying things you have no place saying. I’m not asking you to do anything with her, nothing at all, but if I’m going to take my daughter to the park, or on a picnic then I’m not going to tell Amelia she has to stay home.”