Cutting Down Costs
My parents were married for 25 years before they divorced. A visiting nanny took great interest in my dad as he was a seemingly easy shortcut to citizenship and comfortable life. She actively pursued my dad, who obviously failed to put up much resistance.
My mom found evidence of money transfers and love letters, and that was that. She filed for divorce. The nanny eventually married my dad, and my sister and I got a stepmom who was younger than us. This woman was a monster. She would monitor all phone calls between my dad and me.
She banned him from visiting us at Christmas or during the holidays, and she bought my sister and me a pair of socks each for gifts. In comparison, she treated herself to overseas vacations and ridiculous amounts of plastic surgery.
It wasn’t the gift itself that was the problem, it was the sneer on her face while she handed them to us. Eventually, we just stopped talking to my dad. During this time, mom would receive harassing phone calls that she should give up her house, and in exchange, the nanny would care for my sister and me.
We were still in school, and my dad agreed to support us until we finished our post-secondary education.
I believe the demands had to do with both being upset she hadn’t taken our family home as she fantasized she would, and the fact that she thought supporting us directly would cut down their costs significantly.
My mom just laughed at the audacity of her calls–they were completely ludicrous. But it gets worse—we later found out that she committed a shocking offense—she had hurt him not once, but twice, after losing her temper.
He had to visit the ER and claimed it was an accident each time. They also managed to have officers ask that they stay out of an entire city after a very public fight at a restaurant.
She had also broken countless items around their home while they argued, and basically was totally crazy. The day her citizenship papers arrived, she told my dad she was filing for divorce.
I try not to keep tabs on her but I have recently heard that she married an even older gentleman in his late 80s who is quite wealthy and she is just waiting to collect her inheritance.