When my adopted daughter invited us to dinner

Confrontation at the Hospital

I was in the middle of my hospital shift when Megan showed up in the emergency department lobby. The receptionist called me over the intercom saying someone was asking for me. When I got there, Megan was standing by the chairs demanding to speak with me.

Her voice was loud enough that other staff members turned to look. She started telling everyone within earshot that I was trying to keep her from her real mother. She said I was jealous and controlling.

My supervisor Sylvia came out of her office and asked what was going on. Megan told her I was ruining her relationship with her birth mother because I couldn’t accept that someone else gave birth to her. Sylvia put her hand on Megan’s arm and said she needed to leave.

Megan jerked away and said she had a right to see her mother. Sylvia’s voice got firmer, and she told Megan this was a hospital and she needed to go now. She walked Megan toward the exit while I stood there feeling my face burn with shame.

Everyone was staring at me. After Megan left, Sylvia came back and gently suggested I might need to take some personal time to deal with my family situation. I nodded and went back to work, but I could feel people watching me for the rest of my shift.

Robert came home that evening shaking with anger. He dropped his briefcase on the floor and told me Natalie had submitted an official consultation request through his firm’s website. She’d filled out the intake form detailing her emotionally abusive marriage.

She’d specifically requested Robert based on his reputation. His managing partner had called him into his office to ask why this woman knew so much about Robert personally. Robert had to explain the whole situation to his boss.

He had to tell him about the dinner and Megan’s plan and how Natalie was stalking him. He said he felt violated all over again having to share our private family crisis with his employer. That night I couldn’t sleep, so I scrolled through social media on my phone.

That’s when I discovered Megan had created a whole narrative about her childhood. She’d posted about feeling like an outsider in our home. She claimed I was cold and distant.

She said Robert was the only parent who showed her real love. She wrote about how she always felt like I resented having to raise her. My sister-in-law had commented asking if this was true.

Other relatives had left concerned messages. I realized extended family and friends were seeing this completely false version of our family history where I was the villain who never wanted her. I put my phone down and stared at the ceiling until morning came.

The next morning, Robert brought up counseling while we were getting ready for work. He said we needed help processing what Megan had done to us, not because our marriage was broken, but because we needed someone neutral to talk to about this mess. I agreed immediately because I’d been feeling so alone in my anger and confusion.

He called three therapists that day and found one named Hattie Schultz who had an opening that same week. Our first session felt awkward at first because I wasn’t sure how to explain that our daughter was trying to set her father up with her birth mother. Hattie listened without interrupting and then pointed out something that made me feel less crazy.

She said,

“My work schedule and Robert’s loneliness were completely normal marriage challenges that every couple faces at some point.”

She explained how Megan had taken ordinary stress and twisted it into evidence our relationship was failing when really we were just going through a hard period like any married couple does. Robert squeezed my hand when she said that, and I realized we’d both been feeling defensive about things that were actually pretty normal. Hattie gave us some communication exercises to do at home and scheduled our next appointment for the following week.

Three days later, Robert went to his usual morning gym like he’d done for the past eight years. He came home 20 minutes later looking furious and told me Natalie had been there in brand new expensive workout clothes. She’d approached him at the weight rack acting surprised to see him and asking if he wanted a spotting partner.

He’d walked out without saying a word and driven straight to the gym office to cancel his membership. I watched him pace around our kitchen describing how she’d invaded even this part of his routine, and I could see how worn down he was getting. Every place he went now felt potentially unsafe because she might show up.

I suggested he find a new gym farther from our house and he nodded, but I could tell he was tired of constantly adjusting his life to avoid her. I decided I needed to confront Megan directly instead of letting this continue. I drove to her apartment without calling first and knocked until she answered.

She looked annoyed to see me standing there. I told her I knew exactly what she was doing and it wouldn’t work because Robert and I loved each other. Her manipulation was only destroying her relationship with us and she needed to stop before she lost us completely.

She actually laughed in my face and said I was pathetic for clinging to a man who clearly wanted someone younger and more interesting. She told me Natalie made him feel alive in ways I never could and that I should accept reality and let him go. I stared at my daughter and understood she genuinely believed she was helping her father escape from me.

She thought she was doing him a favor by replacing his boring middle-aged wife with a fun younger woman who happened to be her birth mother. I left without saying anything else because there was no point arguing with someone who’d rewritten our entire family history in her head.

A $5,000 Investment in the Future

Two days later, the private investigator sent another report that made everything even worse. He’d found Venmo transactions between Natalie and Megan going back four months. There were regular payments of a few hundred and then one huge payment of $5,000 the week before that awful dinner.

The note on that payment said,

“Investment in our future.”

I printed out the report and showed it to Robert when he got home from work. We sat at the kitchen table looking at the evidence that this conspiracy had started long before we even knew Natalie existed.

Megan had been taking money from this woman while they planned together how to break up our marriage. The $5,000 payment must have been for something specific. Maybe to cover Megan’s rent so she could focus on the plan, or to pay for Natalie’s new clothes and gym membership.

Either way, our daughter had been financially tied to her birth mother’s scheme for months. Robert called Daryl Cantrell the next morning, and they met for lunch to discuss legal options. Daryl specialized in restraining orders among other things, and he thought we had a strong case.

They spent the afternoon gathering documentation of everything Natalie had done: the consultation request through Robert’s law firm website, the gym encounter that Robert’s former gym confirmed through their security footage, all the times she’d shown up places Robert frequented. They filed the paperwork that same day and got a court date within a week.

The judge reviewed the evidence and granted a temporary restraining order requiring Natalie to stay 500 feet away from Robert, his workplace, and our home. For the first time in weeks, I felt like we were actually fighting back instead of just enduring her harassment. Robert looked relieved when he came home with the signed order, and I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders.

Megan called Robert’s phone that evening screaming so loud I could hear her from across the room. She said he was a monster for getting a restraining order against her mother. This proved he’d never cared about her feelings and she was done with both of us.

She hung up before he could respond and then sent me a long text message. She said I’d poisoned her father against the one person who truly loved him. When their relationship inevitably fell apart, it would be my fault because I couldn’t handle being replaced by someone better.

She said Natalie was the only real mother she’d ever had and we were both dead to her now. I read the message twice and then showed it to Robert. We had to accept that our daughter had chosen Natalie’s side completely and there was nothing we could do to change her mind.