My 12-year-old stepdaughter is moving back in with her dad because her mom recently passed away after a short battle with illness.
Our house is small—just two bedrooms. My 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage has had her own room for the past six years, and I don’t want her to start sharing it now. The room is tiny, and we’d have to squeeze in bunk beds just to make it work.
So I said to my husband, “Send your daughter to your mom’s. She lives alone and has more space. My kid’s comfort is the priority.” He smiled and didn’t say a word.
The next day, it was a Sunday. I woke up to my daughter screaming from her room. Horrified, I rushed in and froze when I found her crying in a completely empty room. All her things were gone.
I confronted my husband, and he calmly told me he had packed her things while she was asleep and sent them to my mother’s house. He said my mom has plenty of space too, and suggested it would be best for my daughter to stay there temporarily, just until his daughter settled in.
He added that she’s welcome to come back anytime and share the room with his daughter. But if I wasn’t okay with that, her things were already at her grandmother’s.
I was furious. But then he said, “If you’re not comfortable, maybe you should move in there for a while, too.”
His final words to me were, “Don’t forget—my daughter is my priority too.” Then he left. I haven’t heard from him since.
Now I feel completely betrayed by my own husband—and like a stranger in my own home.
Should I really be punished for wanting to protect my child’s comfort and happiness?