AITAH for taking on a project for my dad’s business and ghosting him?

Two years ago I started a project for my dad’s new business. I’m a developer. I finished the project, he was happy with it and I was paid. We discussed and planned on a second project but I never started it or was paid for it. I ghosted him after he invited me for lunch one day. Before this lunch date I hadn’t seen him in almost 10 years. It brought back a lot of emotions I thought I was over with and moved past. My sister has kind of thrown out there that his business is at a standstill now and he hasn’t really done much since launching. I feel like some of it is my fault and I know he was banking on me to help with advertising and his social media. He will also need support for the project I completed to keep it updated but he could find someone else to pick it up. I just can’t bring myself to care or even talk to him. I want nothing to do with him from now on. AITAH for ghosting him because I hate him for my childhood and feel like he deserves nothing from me.

To give some context my dad was in and out my life as a child. Randomly popping up 3 times in my life for a few months and then disappearing. He’s never really known anything about me. He’s never known where I lived growing up, where or if I went to school, or anything. Never attended birthday, graduation or any life milestones.
I never felt like he had an interest in me. His dad organized a meetup with my mom for me to meet him and his family for the first time when I was 12 and he’s the only reason I know his side of the family or my siblings. As a young adult (18-19) I reached out to him because at the time I was trying to understand myself better and felt like I needed to know him. I was always told my dad had a hard childhood and he had his own mental issues so I wanted to give him grace. As I talked to him more as an adult he just gave excuses and apologized for not being in my life. When we talked, he stated he never wanted a child and blamed my mom for keeping me away (which wasn't true; he communicated with me directly via cell phone since I was 12 and didn't even have my mom's number). He only communicated with her through his family or court appearances.
I accepted his apology though and tried to put the past behind us. The same year we reconnected after Father’s Day he sent me a really nasty text for not telling him happy Father’s Day and that he won’t contact me again. I didnt reply and didn’t talk to him for a few years. This wasn’t the first time he did something like this. Its happened multiple times when I was a child. whenever he gets mad whether it’s something I did, his family or my mom he threatens to never talk to me again or states “that’s why we don’t have a relationship now”. Eventually I called him one day years later and he answered and we kept in contact up until last year.

Posted Sep 10, 2026, 7:24 PM UTC · locked

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