She would rather he be completely absent from her life than occasionally present, and who could blame her after what she has been through! 

Would you rather have a parent who has been completely absent from your entire life, or a parent who openly prioritizes their stepchildren and only sees you when it’s convenient for them? A lot of kids raised by single parents wish they could meet their absent parent, even though they fully know that they are not a good person. That doesn’t stop some children of single parents from being morbidly curious to know literally anything about the parent who abandoned them.

A sad truth of deadbeat parents is that a lot of them just move on to their next family and pretend like the first one never happened. They start over with a new partner and new children, who never judge them or perceive them as someone who abandoned their kids from a previous relationship. If you’re one of the kids who was left behind for a new, happy, shiny family, you will feel miserable trying to integrate into their new family structure, feeling like an outsider with your own parent.

The high school graduate in this story spent her childhood summers playing second fiddle to her dad’s stepdaughter, and she refuses to do it any longer. Her refusal to invite him to her high school graduation made him angry, but he should’ve thought of that before he ignored her for years on end.