Some of my first memories as a kid are from when I was three. My dad was holding me up (off the ground) by my left arm and beating me to the point I could no longer scream. We were locked in the bedroom with my mom outside the room pounding on the door and telling him to stop. He told her to "Shut up or you're next."
I have no idea what I did at that age to deserve that, but the beatings didn't stop until I was 18. My girlfriend was at the house and he punched me in the face - knocking me across the kitchen. The look of horror in the girlfriend's face is something I'll never forget seeing.
He constantly cheated on my mom and when he got busted for the final time - when mom decided to leave him - my brother saw him with a gun in his mouth.
So mom left him and he remarried. Cheated on wife 2.0 as well. Did the same crap with the pistol - threatening suicide. One day he gave me a classic vehicle and told me "To do what you want with it. Treat it like it's yours." Title was signed over and all. I thought he was finally doing something nice for once in his life. When I got ready to treat it like it was mine by trading it for a more valuable vehicle he told me "I never intended for you to keep it. I just signed it over to you because I thought wife 2.0 was going to leave me."
He was at the house and I didn't like the way he was leering at/commenting about my family. He was a bit too touchy with the kids so I asked him about it. He went silent and left the following morning. A couple weeks later we're discussing things and he tells me that I hurt HIS feelings by calling him out on the touchy bit. Told him I didn't give a shit - anyone in my house answers to me. I'm in charge here. When I started pointing out specifics of what he was doing (things he didn't thought I hadn't seen/picked up on) he started crying on the phone and saying "Well maybe everyone would be better off if I just killed myself."
After being beaten for years, watching him ruin not one but TWO marriages, creep both my kids out, and make my wife and I uncomfortable, I just said "Do it, then. Otherwise shut the fuck up about it because everyone is tired of hearing you go for sympathy when you fuck up. If you're going to threaten killing yourself AGAIN, have the balls to do it and get it over with."
tl;dr Abusive dad's only concern is dad. The one time I thought he was being genuinely nice he was just using me to "hide property" for what he thought was an upcoming divorce after getting caught cheating on his 2nd wife.