Meal: pizza that got turned sideways in the the delivery driverās car
My fiancĆ©e is going through it with her family (dad specifically), and I feel like itās my fault. I can sit here and know itās not, but it doesnāt change the guilt I feel when the issues start flaring again.
The really short version (yeah, these six paragraphs are the short version) is he yelled at me during a holiday visit a couple years ago, like spoke to me in ways my own father hasnāt, and my fiancĆ©e lost it. Once she stopped crying from the shock, she started fighting with him, and itās been on and off since then.
This past year, I had a breakdown on the way to go see her parents for the holidays because the last time I saw them, her dad had made no effort to change. He was just chattering on like he did in the five years before he yelled at me, ignoring every tiny adjustment that my fiancĆ©e begged him to make. There was no yelling. The worst thing that happened was some side eye in an elevator when I got a little annoyed with it being crowded. (Which, like, Iām allowed to take a deep breath and keep it to myself.)
I didnāt go back to their house, mostly of my fiancĆ©eās decision, and he took it personally! My fiancĆ©e tried to talk to her parents about the fact that that I was to be on my best behavior so her expectation was that they would also have been trying to be more welcoming and accommodating. The conversation went off the rails, and she left their house telling me I didnāt have to talk to her dad ever again if I didnāt want to.
So he clearly doesnāt like me, especially with all of the terrible things heās said about me to my fiancĆ©e since theyāve started fighting. He clearly thinks theyāre fighting about me when sheās airing her grievances of his behavior broadly. I just happen to be a very clear and recent example.
He then tried texting me to āfigure things outā between us, which I accepted (suspiciously). The conversation turned into him taking jabs and telling me to āchill outā when I told him I wouldnāt continue if he was going to make jabs throughout. My fiancĆ©e ended up calling him and yelling at him about this too, even though I told her not too. That phone call didnāt go well either.
Heās also been lashing out in their family group chat at both my fiancĆ©e and her sister, in ways that are shocking both her sister and mom. Itās about similar ferocity to how heās been engaging with my fiancĆ©e when theyāre actively fighting, but itās on a hairpin trigger.
I know his sudden turn face isnāt my fault. I know itās not. But Iām seeing so much damage happen to their family because of this anger. He didnāt do this ā not to this severity ā before he yelled at me. I personally hadnāt even seen him more than a little miffed before that! Iām clearly the catalyst for whatever is going on here, and I feel responsible for their relationship crumbling. I canāt shake it. It lives right behind my eyes and makes me want to cry when I think about it. My fiancĆ©e doesnāt deserve this! She deserves a dad who listens to her and hears the ways heās hurting her and adjusts. It makes me so sad that she thought she had that, and heās proving to her repeatedly that she doesnāt.
Now, she doesnāt want him at our wedding. And that feels like my fault.