Daddy And Daughters 2

The confrontation went even worse than I had imagined.
Jack denied everything at first. I told him that Marla
herself had told me about it. I mentioned all the
things that she had told me. He admitted some of them
and then denied that they were as serious as they
sounded. He had exposed himself accidentally. He had
jacked off in front of Marla. Marla had asked him to
let her do it. He hadn't touched Marla. He had touched
her after she asked him to. The man was just losing
it. It became obvious that talking to Jack was a lost
cause. I told him that I was going to have to call
police. He cried and finally said that he
wouldn't do it anymore. He was lying of course. I
could see it in his eyes. I finally told him that I
wasn't going to call them. He could see that I was
lying. Halfway across the street I looked back at the
house. The whole house seemed dark and deserted. My
stomach tightened.

I picked up the phone as soon as I got home. It was
already 4:00. I expected the girls to be back any time
now. I was just starting to call when Becky and Marla
walked in the front door. I quickly hung up the phone.
I couldn't call with Marla in the room.

"Did you talk to my Dad?"

"Yes I did, Marla, but I don't think it did any good.
I think I'm going to have to call a social worker."

"Do you have to? I don't want Daddy to get into
trouble."

I dodged the issue.

"Why don't you stay for supper, Marla? I'll call them
right after supper."

A really loud bang prevented me from hearing her
answer. A chill went through my body before my brain
even registered what the sound was.

"Stay here, girls. Don't open the door until I get
back."

I ran across the street before they answered.

Jack's living room was a mess. He had used his
shotgun. I felt sick as I closed the door and went
back to my house.

"Girls, I want you to go up to Becky's room. Close the
door and stay there until I come up to get you." As
soon as I heard the door close, I called 911. I stayed
on the phone until the police showed up.

I hadn't seen the note Jack left. It was addressed to
Becky. Jack said he was sorry for all that he had done
but never got specific. The police wanted to take
Marla to a children's shelter for the evening but I
persuaded them to let her stay with us for the night
since June and I were her godparents.

June got home in the middle of all the mess. I told
her that Jack had committed suicide but left out the
sexual activity between Jack and Marla. That secret
could die with Jack.

Jack's will left everything to June and me. I know we
had agreed to be designated as guardians for each
other's children but Jack had seen to it that we had
enough money to care for Marla.

June and I went through the papers in Jack's house
after probate was complete. The financial papers we
dealt with immediately. The family papers we set aside
for Marla to go through when she was older. June put
most of the papers and photos in our deposit box.

Jack hadn't spent any of the insurance from Betty's
death and that coupled with the insurance from his
suicide meant that I could afford to change careers. I
had been testing computer systems but wanted to get
into software design so I quit my job and became a
full time househusband and part time consulting
programmer. I could do almost all of my work from home
and was able to care for the girls during the day.

Marla needed a lot of caring. She was very clingy due
to the death of her father just a year following the
death of her mother. Two or three times a day she
would stop playing and frantically search for June or
me. She would get more and more panicky as she ran
from room to room looking for one of us. Our
pediatrician recommended a good child psychologist and
I took Marla to see him.

After only four sessions, he asked to speak with June
and me alone. I suspected that he had discovered Marla
had been molested by Jack. I was wrong.

He just wanted to tell us that Marla was behaving
normally for a girl who had just lost her parents and
tell us what to expect in the future. The clingy
behavior would lessen as the months passed but
periodic lapses could be expected. The anger at her
father could also be redirected at me. I would
probably be blamed for anything and everything in the
next couple years. He didn't warn me about Marla
attempting to recreate all the aspects of her
relationship with her father.
Contd.