This happened to me! For the sake of anonymity lets call her Lx.
I joined a dating site in February 2016. I had a relationship from April 2016 until August 2017. Lx and I met the first time on Saturday 18th November 2017, after chatting online and via WhatsApp for a couple of weeks. We chatted for a few weeks and began an intimate relationship on 1st December 2017.
I’m a business owner and single Dad (lone parent). My daughter was only just 13 when I met Lx. My previous relationship failed specifically because of time and availability. My daughter became a target, as I’m devoted to her, and she does not see her Mum, whom she has not met or spoken to for over two and a half years now. Her Mum has problems with alcohol, who sends drunken messages berrating my daughter at two in the morning.
Lx works away very often during the week and has her daughter usually between Friday and Tuesday. My daughter had no desire to meet Lx due to her experience with my previous relationship. This had nothing to do with Lx, it was my daughters decision.
Lx tragically lost her Dad when she was fifteen. He died in the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. Lx had spent the year raising money for the commemoration gardens by running marathons and ultras. I felt very strongly about that and attended the thirtieth commemoration in Aberdeen in July 2018, arranging and paying for family from abroad to look after my daughter. I found it very moving and was a little more emotional about it than I expected. It was such a loss for Lx, and for many, many others, and that made me want to be as supportive as I possibly could.
In January 2018 I forgot Lx’s birthday. I have no excuse other than being a bad person. Lx decided to ghost me and did not respond to messages. My subscription to the dating site was still active, having taken a years subscription which auto renewed in February. Lx was back on the site! My first thought was to drive round to see her to ask why? We made up and agreed we needed to see each other more. We continued to see each other for dinner or for lunch at least once per week where her diary made it possible. We also met at her house in the morning once per week, usually arriving on a Friday around ten and leaving around three in the afternoon. I never wanted to leave.
Lx’s ex-husband appeared to be a little abusive and often used their daughter as a weapon. He also had more than one relationship during the time I was with Lx. Lx’s daughter found out about one in a public and rather humiliating way. Lx’s daughter told her Mum she was happy it was just the two of them when she was with her mum. She also said she did not want to to go back to her Dad at the end of the weekends. I found that heartbreaking, but children come first. it’s something I’m all too aware of with my own daughter.