\u201cI\u2019m not giving up Hope!\u201d Liz screamed into the phone at her ex-husband, before slamming it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Floods of tears drenched her face. She slowly lifted herself up off the floor, his words ringing in her ears. \u201cUnfit mother, child neglect, no prospects.\u201d How could he have said those things? He hadn\u2019t had been that interested in Hope when he lived with them, why would he suddenly want custody?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After she had calmed down, she tried to reason it out. He\u2019d never spent much time with them when he was at home. She doubted if he had even had the slightest idea of when Hope\u2019s birthday was. He\u2019d missed the fact that his daughter was besotted with him. It just didn\u2019t make any sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
It was only three weeks later when Social Services paid a visit. Checking up on the welfare of the child, the lady had said, as Hope had been absent from school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It couldn\u2019t have been at a worst time. The washing machine had broken down and there were piles of dirty clothes everywhere. She\u2019d be up all night nursing Hope who was still vomiting. Liz answered all the questions as best she could, but felt that there seemed to be a hidden agenda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow much money is your ex-husband giving you towards child support?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liz looked at her blank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs he giving you anything towards the cost of bringing Hope up?\u201d she tried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot a penny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow are you coping then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get by, the food banks have been great, a real lifeline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut what about when Hope needs new shoes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy friends help out whenever they can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI see\u201d the visitor said as she wrote up her notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When she left Liz thought she seemed more conciliatory than when she arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something was up, Liz\u2019s instincts told her. A visit from Social Services so soon after her husband\u2019s phone call. An overheard conversation in her local chemist confirmed her suspicions. She went straight around to her husband\u2019s flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all her idea, isn\u2019t it? The conniving bitch, she can\u2019t have children of her own so she wants to steal mine!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c Liz \u201c her ex-husband said as he tried to interrupt her flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want Hope anywhere near her.\u201d Liz finished before she ran off up the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was probably not the best plan, she reflected later as she sat at her dining table. I might have given her more ammunition against me. How could I have been so stupid? She started to write down anything, anything that she thought might persuade a judge in her favour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m not giving up Hope!\u201d Liz screamed into the phone at her ex-husband, before slamming it down. Floods of tears drenched her face. She slowly lifted herself up off the floor, his words ringing in her ears. \u201cUnfit mother, child neglect, no prospects.\u201d How could he have said those things? He hadn\u2019t had been that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[379,581],"tags":[8,7,14],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-november-2021-never-give-up-hope","tag-he","tag-her","tag-she"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sbrNJE-hopeless","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1023,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}