A Closer Walk: All Fired Up

This is Part 2. To read from the beginning, click here.

After finding out his girlfriend was pregnant, Jeff* moved back in with her. She acted normal when she wasn’t drinking, and things were good. He was working his dream job as a fight fighter, and she was looking forward to having a baby.

When she found out she was not able to nurse her baby girl, she started drinking again. She didn’t drink everyday. She was a binge drinker, and she drank as fast as she could, until she passed out. He tried talking with her to get her to stop. They argued often about it. He threatened to take the baby if she continued. She never stopped. One day when she was passed out drunk, he packed his and the baby’s things and moved out.

Anita’s mother called CYFD and told them he could not take the baby. John paid for a lawyer and took her to court. His lawyer said the state was usually biased against single Dad’s, especially with daughters. There was a huge hearing in the courthouse. Both of their families were there and told the judge Anita had a drinking problem. But Anita was manipulative, and since CYFD never saw her drinking, they released the baby to her.

His lawyer told Jeff to stay away from Anita. But Jeff was worried sick something would happen to his baby girl. He had anxiety, depression and heart palpitations worrying about her. Daily he drove to the house to check on her. When he heard her crying and saw Anita passed out, he called the police. They came and would let Jeff take the baby home, but he had to bring her back in the morning. This happened so often the police told him to stop calling them, because they were not responsible for settling domestic disputes.

When he worked 48 hours straight, he would worry even more about his daughter, because he could not go and check on her. Once while he was at work, the police called him. They said they had his daughter in the parking lot of a casino outside of town. The officers arrested Anita, who was passed out drunk with their baby in the back seat of the car. Initially, Anita told the officers there was no father involved. This made Jeff angry. How could she do that to him?

While Anita was in jail, CYFD called him to find out where she was. He argued on the phone and they threatened to take his baby from him. When he got off the phone he called Anita’s father. He was a high ranking politician and whenever Anita got arrested, he called and was able to have her released. He did not want the news about his daughter getting out because it could damage his career. This time, Jeff called and threatened to go to the news if he didn’t help Jeff. The father agreed and called a manager at CYFD and told them his daughter was unfit to parent her child. They called Jeff back, apologized to him, and said they were closing the case in his favor and he would have primary custody of their daughter.

After that, Anita was not allowed to be alone with her daughter. Jeff had full custody, but he still had so much anger and rage inside, he wanted to get revenge for the way Anita treated him and spoke about him to the authorities. She showed up at his house smelling of alcohol and he would get even more angry. He wanted to destroy her. He didn’t care if she died, yet he still loved her and cared about her. Jeff was mad at God for the situation he was in. He couldn’t sleep even with the baby in his house. He would drive to Anita’s house and rage and scare the people off who were partying at her house. He wanted to hurt them.

Revenge consumed Jeff. He started plotting. He thought if he burned her house down, she wouldn’t have a place to party and maybe she would stop drinking. He rehearsed all the details in his head. One night he decided to go through with it. He called Anita to make sure she was not at home. He waited until dark and parked his car down the street so the neighbors wouldn’t see it. He snuck to her house and was going to break in through the back door. Being a fire fighter he knew how to make it look like an accident. He was going to leave a bottle of alcohol on the stove and then light it on fire.

He was at the lowest point in his life. He didn’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden he heard someone say, "Stop! You need help!”

(Click here to read what happened next.)

*Names changed.