My ex-wife and I have twins. A boy and a girl. A day before our twins' 4th birthday, our son drew a picture of 4 of us. But our daughter stole it and claimed it as hers. Our son plead that it was his work but I scolded him for lying and locked him up in his room. That's when everything started to go to hell.

Next day, early in the morning my wife took our daughter to my mother's house and I prepared breakfast before I left the house to meet up with my family to go to park. We were planning on coming back before our son woke up. My wife didn't wake him up because we could hear him banging the door and crying for hours in his room. My wife believed that I was harsh, but I believed kids should be taught they can't have it their way. Who would've thought having the right idea about parenting will haunt you?

I should've woke him up but I didn't because I felt guilty. My kids wake up late in the morning on weekends and we were planning coming home before noon. But I didn't turn off the gas after cooking and our house caught massive fire. The neighbours called the fire service and our son was rescued. Fortunately he was on top floor and his room was locked otherwise we would've lost him. Unfortunately he inhaled the toxic gas and was in a critical condition before we took him to the hospital.

My daughter confessed to lying about painting. And my wife started beating her up not giving a damn that we were in hospital. She yelled at me accusing of loving our daughter but not our son. I loved our daughter a lil bit more as did my ex-wife our son. That's because our daughter was like her mom and our son was like me, both in looks and personality. My ex was my soulmate. But to claim that I never loved him!

Later on I was arrested for child neglect and attempted murder and my wife spoke against me in the court. The way she looked at me told me that I lost her. I was so grief stricken that I felt I deserved it. I was sentenced for 10 years and my ex got custody over both children. Fortunately we both are affluent so my ex didn't have to work to take care of herself & our kids. She invited my mother to live with her. Initially I thought she wanted her to help care for our kids. But turns out she brought my mother so she didn't have to take care of our daughter aside from giving her roof overhead and food on the table.

My ex started treating our son like he was made of glass. She never sent our son to school unlike our daughter, instead home schooled him. Our daughter to this day has nightmares about seeing her brother unconscious and blames herself but her mother never once comforted her. I knew it was too late to get back my wife but after I came out of prison, I wanted to applogise to my son and connect with him but she got a restraining order preventing me from seeing him saying I won't come in between her and 'her son'.

She also gave me the custody of our daughter saying she doesn't want anything that reminder her of me. She refers to our baby girl as 'my daughter' and our son as 'her son'. I wish I could comfort my daughter but years of neglect has forced her to grow up faster. She maintains a happy facade to not make me worry. At the same time I'm worried about my son. Being coddled is never a good thing.

My mother told me that my ex sleeps naked in bed with our son. I know she sleeps in the same bed as him despite being 14 but dunno if they still sleep naked. She never allowed him get outta his house without her supervision until he was 10. Fortunately she relented to giving him freedom, thus he takes classes and is a part of sports clubs. She started to work once again however he's still home schooled.

My ex also has problem with him making female friends saying, 'no slut will steal her baby boy away from her and he belongs to her alone'. My ex conditioned our son to hate me and be indifferent to his sister. Our daughter has done everything to impress her mother from getting good grades to being well behaved but sadly nothing worked. My ex never signed her report card, never celebrated her birthday while celebrating my sons. When my mother asked why she said it was a punishment for what me neglecting her son. Even though my ex never abused our daughter physically or verbally, she acted as if she didn't even exist.

I wish I can drink my sorrows or take the easy way out but our daughter is the only reason I haven't completely succumbed to despair. My mother told me to pretend like they don't exist and I'm a single father to my daughter. If anything I can't help but feel if I died that day, atleast my ex wouldn't have neglected my daughter. Should I move on instead of trying to mend my relationship with our son and mend my ex's relationship with our daughter?