He walked out three weeks before Christmas. He left it to me to tell our 7 year old daughter. I slipped up (was in total devastation mode), and when she asked me why I did this, I burst into tears and told her I didn't want him to leave, I loved him and wanted him back.
I told him do what you will to me, but please don't hurt her. So he moves 200 miles away, tells me he has no interest in shared custody and the most he can see her is once a fortnight. I offer to buy her an ipod so they can facetime together. I told him it's very important that we don't set up an expectation he's not prepared to meet (the theme of our marriage), so if he doesn't want daily phone contact with her, say it now. He says it's a really good idea to get the ipod, offers to contribute towards it.
I buy the ipod. When I ask for a contribution towards it, I get told buying her an extravagant gift is my look out. I dread what comes next.
He dutifully keeps up his fortnightly contact and expects a 
for it. The phone contact starts to fall apart in week one. I'm out with her at one of her regular activities, and he texts to say that unless we come home for him to talk to her immediately, he won't be able to talk to her because he's going out. I beg him to wait just 15 minutes. He doesn't.
Last week, the only day they talked was on the day she has no activity. The other days, he sends her a text saying he can't talk to her because she's too busy.
Yesterday they talked and I heard him tell her that if she wants to talk to him, she shouldn't be so busy. She asked him why he couldn't talk to her later in the day. He told her he has the right to go out.
She told me that she thinks he should go out a bit later so they can talk, and that she hates calling him in case he doesn't want to talk to her.
Other gems:
"I faked loving your Mummy" - she now worries that he faked loving her.
"Love isn't forever" - she wonders when he will stop loving her.
"You should get over this by Christmas, it's Mummy's fault if you don't" - said a week after he walked out and just two weeks before Christmas.
She is extremely angry with him, and no matter how much I reassure her, she is convinced he left her. This anger does not have an outlet, so she's shouting at me and the cats, and last night at bedtime she was throwing things at me in a fit of rage.
At the same time, I'm dealing with a high conflict divorce, where the man who told me he loved me 6 hours before he left seems to have a wish that I'll just curl up and die. He's using finances to control me. There's a whole tonne of crap over the behaviour I tolerated from him in the marriage and my self esteem. And I'm trying to move on with my life and find a way to be as financially self sufficient as possible, as quickly as possible, because although I should get some spousal maintenance, it's taking so much energy to get it, that could be better spent on myself.
Most of the time I want to run out of the house screaming. I am so worried about my daughter.