Who needs soap opera

when you have my domestic situation?

I used, a long while ago, to watch The Bold and the Beautiful[^]. Chalk it up to boredom and nothing else on TV at the time. One can only listen to opera so many hours a day! But nowadays I seem to be living in a soap opera. Unfortunately the end credits don't roll and the actors don't go home to uncomplicated lives.

I just know this is going to turn into a rant; forgive me. Sometimes one has to let off steam.

The cause of the steam is, as always, Morgan, the bitch from hell. If we could harness her power to create steam we'd solve, at a stroke, the entire worlds energy requirements with some left over for space travel!

She's taken up, again, with a former boyfiend. An intentional misspelling. He's the one I wrote about a while ago[^]. This'd be bad enough but when I came home from The Philippines two weeks ago it was to discover that the bastard's in residence. My wife excused it as being for 'only a couple of days'. This is the fourteenth night that I know of. He may or not be the father of the fast approaching infant. Morgan certainly doesn't know and if she doesn't what chance has the rest of the world to know?

Where I come from a 'couple of days' means 2 days, 3 at the outside. It doesn't mean 14 and counting.

My wife makes a brave show of it; she promises, day after day, that this will be the last day he darkens our door, that she's had 'the' talk with Morgan. But I understand where she's coming from; if he's on the premises there's a reasonable chance she'll be under the roof by 2 AM. Personally I don't care if I never see her again but I understand a mothers love.

I'm trying not to make life impossible for my wife; she sees her daughter as someone sadly led astray by the wicked world whilst I see someone who is best left to her own self destruction.

But damn it's difficult to bite my tongue when I see Morgan, night after night, reduce her mother to tears. When I see the freeloader stalk through the door yet again and pass upstairs. When I hear the arguments coming down the stairs and hear Morgan yet again resorting to her 'little girl' voice that melts Mums heart.

Will Mum listen to reason? Hell no. No matter that Morgan and the freeloader once emptied our bank account because Mum trusted Morgan with a debit card linked to our account. 10 days of rice and spuds until payday and a big hole in the mortgage.

Morgan doesn't have a debit card linked to our account any more; and my wife is in no doubt whatsoever that she shall never again have that level of trust.

No matter that the freeloader is a known small time drug dealer. A year and a half ago we missed the chance to be rid of him; he was responsible for Morgans second pregnancy but we decided not to press charges of statutory rape. Bad decision in retrospect!

Meanwhile Morgan is showing all the symptoms associated with Battered Wife Syndrome[^]. My wife even drew Morgans attention to a few web pages about the subject. Morgan, of course, dismissed the subject. I can't be too harsh on that particular matter; I have a blind spot where cigarettes are concerned!

I alluded to the arguments coming down the stairs a paragraph or two ago. You might have imagined the arguments were Morgan and Mum. Not a bit of it. It's Morgan and the freeloader!

A couple of nights ago he stalked out in a rage; Morgan packed his things into a cardboard box and left them outside. My wife breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't so optimistic. Sure enough, at 1 AM, Morgan raced outside for the reconciliation. Freeloader walked back in. Last night they argued again and Morgan screamed her usual mixture of broken english and profanity. Tonight they're reconciled again.

Now tell me, just how, as a step father, I solve this whilst remaining on speaking terms with my wife? I'd be delighted if Morgan moved out; so would Andrew. But as the step-father I can't force the issue unless I also want to move out. Morgan gives birth in about 10 weeks. I fear for the future of her child. I know we're going to be reporting her to CPS[^] within the year.

I just checked. Yes, I do still have a pair of balls. Doesn't help much.