Dear step mom,

Lately you have been texting me daily telling me about my dad’s drinking. He has been abusing you physically and emotionally, but you refuse to leave because you don’t want to be alone. You have been refusing to leave for years even after he told you he didn’t love you anymore and wanted you to leave. You begged him to take you back and he beat you, yet you still stayed. My brother, sister, and step sister watched it all happen yet you tell me that they need to suck it up. This abuse has turned you into a selfish person. You gave birth to my brother and sister and you still choose to stay and expose them to this abuse. My dad will abuse them too, but you don’t believe me. I lived it. He abused my mom and once I was in school he began abusing me. He hit my mom, put her head through a window and slapped me and choked me if I didn’t want to wake up at 5am, or if I walked into the living room as he napped, or if I asked him a normal question a child would ask that he would deem as stupid. He also abused my sister by slapping her if she cried as an infant. He cheated on my mom and I felt rejected by own father. The other woman abused me too. She called me useless and stupid. He let that woman abuse me and my mom and you knew about this, yet you still choose to stay with him. I keep telling you that he will never get better. An intervention won’t work, banning alcohol in your home won’t work, and talking to him won’t work. My dad abuses people because he feels small and unimportant, so he takes it out on you, just like he took it out on us. You have a job, you have money set aside in case he hits you “one more time” but you never use it after he hits you. My mom had no money to leave, and no one believed her. She had no choice but to stay. But you...you can leave. You have recourses. You have support and you have people BEGGING you to leave. Being around him changed you. You were a strong woman who didn’t take any shit. You have become a different woman.

Now here is where I tell you I’m finished.

You always tell me to leave my fiancé because he called you and your sister out when you were being rude to us and making fun of us after we were there for you when my dad first beat you. I have done everything and more to help you. I have been there for your children, and I have come over when my dad was at work to help you clean the mess my dad made the night before, yet you still mocked us with your awful sister who hates me for being my dad’s first child. She defends him. She hates my sister who visits him all summer and treats her like shit because she isn’t your child. I don’t think I can help you anymore. I will be there for my siblings, but I’ve had enough of you and your sister’s bullying. I’m done. I will remain friendly to you because I’m better than that. I’m not a bully. Your selfishness and bullying has gone too far.