Angry Cuts
The snips could be heard loud and clear, even from down the sidewalk – so it must have been echoing in the little girl’s ears.
The neat braids fell on the ground and the plastic beads bounced and rolled everywhere. Amongst the angry yelling was the heartbreaking cries of the helpless daughter – stuck in the middle of a parental battle.
Seeing His Kids
Chase poked his head through the daycare door and surprised his three kids with a huge smile and a surprise visit. It hurt how much he wanted to see them but how little he could.
So, that way was going to be simple but special. They piled into his care, and he drove them to the hairdresser.
Not A Deadbeat
He hated the stereotype of deadbeat dads. So, aside from getting his sons a haircut, he asked the hairdresser to braid his little girl’s beautiful locks.
This time, the long twists ended in adorable white beads. The giggles were a clear sign – she loved it. He was about to find out, however, that the mom did not.
Options
As they drove home, he noticed something – the hairdo seemed a bit tight. They were trying to get their baby’s hair to grow out.
Would it affect things? Chase threw her another warm smile and thought, “We can just unbraid it later, if it’s not right.” Scissoring away the whole lot, however, never entered his mind.
Meet Maliyah
As soon as the girl stepped out of her car, the mother, Maliyah, came barrelling over. Rage poured from her eyes, and a vile tone seeped from her words.
Even if it was cute, the mom wasn’t going to stand for it. She screamed, “I didn’t give no permission!”
Too Loud
The basic reason for the lash-out? The mom hated that another woman did her girl’s hair, and the father didn’t ask permission.
Chase did his best to control his anger, but her nasty words were already falling on little ears. The kids looked to both parents, confused about what was happening. What happened next, he couldn't believe.
Beads And Braids
Maliyah stomped into the house and came out with a pair of scissors. She roughly grabbed a fist full of braids and started chopping them off.
Beads fell and bounced on the ground. The tears that fell from the tiny girl’s eyes now streamed in full. The pain and fear on her face were clear.
Please Stop
Chase tried to step in, but the woman was in a rage and had something sharp. He told her to stop, but it only made her reaction more volcanic.
Braid after braid got snipped until there wasn’t anything left but ragged leftovers sticking out of the girl’s head. Maliyah then threw the scissors at Chase.
The Only Way Forward
There the fractured family stood. The ex-wife screaming, his kids crying their eyes out, and him helpless to do anything but film the scene.
He had plans to get full custody, and hopefully, this would help. As the mom dragged the kids away, the only way he could step in was to go home and post the video. But to understand the feud between the two and the drastic ending that Chase dealt his ex-wife, it is imperative to understand their past.
Seeing Her For The First Time
Chase and Maliyah met while they were still in high school. Both were down-to-earth kids with love for everything teenagers their age liked.
Chase enjoyed his time with friends, riding bikes, skating, and watching movies, while Maliyah spent the time with her girlfriends sampling makeup kits and creating scrapbooks. But there was more to them than this.
Just A Few Blocks Away
Chase and Maliyah lived a few blocks from each other, and although they started as mere neighbors in high school, there was clearly a budding attraction between them.
The two didn’t act on their feelings at first, fearing that they lived too close to each other. But after a while, everything became clear. They were meant to be together. Or at least they thought.
Final Year
Chase and Maliyah started dating in their final year of high school. Life was perfect for them, with movie and lunch dates, walks in their neighborhood in the evenings, and sharing car rides to school.
“I thought she was the one,” Chase shared. He had never been so sure about anything in his life before. Little did he know what Maliyah was doing behind his back.
Keep The Flame Burning
Chase and Maliyah graduated high school, earning a spot in different universities. But although Chase would continue with his education, economic factors would bar his girlfriend from doing the same.
But although Chase would go to university, he wouldn’t call it quits on his relationship with Maliyah. He should have ended it while he still could.
A Little Different
The relationship between Chase and Maliyah was perfect until Maliyah started acting differently. At the time, she’d already blessed Chase with two beautiful kids.
But she began communicating less with him and blaming their distance as the cause. Chase gave the relationship his all, even arranging to have some of his classes at night so he could drive and spend the day with his family. But the end was nearer than he thought.
The Last Lap
By the time Chase and Maliyah had their third kid, their relationship was on its last lap. The two spent their time quarreling, with Maliyah insisting that Chase wasn’t being faithful to her because he was in college, where there were many women.
On the other hand, Chase tried his best to convince her that she was wrong. He went from explaining himself to introducing Maliyah to his closest school and work friends so they could attest to his words. But it was all in vain.
Bad To Worse
The fights went from bad to worse. But the loving dad that he was, Chase, protected his three kids from the onslaught.
How many times had he contemplated ending things with Maliyah only to think about his kids being fatherless? As someone who came from a fatherless home, he would never doom his kids to such a fate. If only he knew Maliyah had other plans.
Seeing The Truth
Although Chase had decided to fight for his family to remain together, he would soon cave when he found out what was truly happening behind the scenes.
He’d decided to make a surprise visit one rainy night when it happened. What he found in his house showed him what kind of person he’d decided to build a life with.
A Surprise, For Sure
The evening the incident occurred was different from any other. Chase was in his final year, and he had zero classes for the rest of the week because of a campus event.
He packed everything and drove for two hours to surprise Maliyah and the kids. Given that it was already hours past nightfall, with the rain pounding the road, he expected to find them asleep.
An Hour Past Midnight
Chase arrived at his place an hour past midnight. But as he drove up the street, he realized an odd detail. A car he’d never seen before was parked where he usually parked his vehicle.
Hopping into the rain, Chase hurried to unlock his door. All the lights in the house were off, and he didn’t want to wake up Maliyah or their kids. But as he neared his bedroom, he heard something that made him stop in his tracks.
A Red Haze
The sounds were unmistakable, the deed easy to picture. Chase dashed through the door, catching his wife in the act.
The man she was with scrambled away, covered in sweat. He pulled the bed covers and scrunched them over himself with wide eyes. A red haze covered Chase’s eyes as anger flooded his body.
Run For Your Life
Chase rushed into the room, and the man made a run for his life, breaking through the bedroom window into the dark rainy night.
Chase didn’t follow. He turned to Maliyah. If anyone was to blame here, it was her for letting it happen and himself for never being around—his fury warping into the worst heartache he’d ever experienced.
Is This My Reward?
Chase had given everything to his family. He’d found a way to balance his day job with school and visiting so that his wife and kids would never miss him.
He couldn’t believe that she’d do this to him after all the time they’d spent together. They had built a home, and Maliyah had thrown it away. There was only one thing Chase could do.
Trying To Salvage It
Chase fell into weeks of trying to get Maliyah to accompany him to a marriage counselor. The way he saw it, he and his wife had built too much to walk away.
He couldn’t leave their kids without a dad and was willing to work on their marriage to give them a chance at normalcy. Of course, Maliyah had other plans.
The Blame Game
Maliyah didn’t work on their marriage. Instead, she blamed everything on Chase and left him. Walking away, she took their kids and insisted they would stay with her.
Chase would visit whenever he could, spending time with his kids and showing them he’d never leave their side. He’d only wanted to love and support them, and now he was in a faceoff with Maliyah because of a hairdo.
A Collision Of Passions
His side was simple. He wanted to do something nice for his kids. However, Maliyah’s side started to unravel in a toxic, fuming war with the father.
Chase felt the worst stab when he saw a new video from Maliyah. What she said was unbelievable, and the core of her actions would be unforgivable.
What’s Her Problem?
“I’m not gonna lie. It was cute,” she said. Chase had to walk away from his computer before he punched it.
The traumatic event was purely to get back at Chase and hurt him by hurting their girl. But the mom wasn’t going to end there, she was about to drag others into her sight.
Her Fury
The unapologetic fury continued as she criticized and cursed the person who did it – that it was too tight and the girl’s skin was bulging around the braids.
The internet exploded back. The video Chase posted had already gone viral, but the public wasn’t going to sit back and let her get away with it. They let her have it.
A Better Way
“Why didn’t you just unbraid them?!” “You’ve traumatized your kid. Things like this can affect them forever,” “What does this do to the child’s spirit?! That is abuse!”
“I will pay for your lawyer, man.” And while most people would have been quiet, Maliyah decided to double down and send out more livid responses.
Taking It To The Next Level
Her return punches went from defending what she did to throwing curse-laden insults, to disabling the comments on her social media, and then back to opening them again for another wave of digital assault.
One final comment brought another aspect into the limelight.
The Only Route
The woman had been complaining she needed a job. So, Chase had saved her money and time. She could have used that but chose the toxic route.
The father stared at his screen and typed to his kids. He was going to do everything he could to save his kids and bring them into a safer home with him. Disclaimer: To protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.