For the past three years, Dad hasn’t been taking me on ‘annual father-son trips.’ He’s been taking me to a completely different house in a town two hours away from the cottage. There is a woman there named Sarah, and a little boy who calls my dad ‘Papa.’ I found out last summer when I accidentally saw Dad’s second phone. When I confronted him, he didn’t apologize. He shook me by the shoulders and told me that if I ever told you, he would stop paying for your medical treatments and ensure you were left with absolutely nothing.
I was terrified, Mom. I kept the secret because I didn’t want you to be sick and alone. But last week, I overheard him talking to Sarah on his secret phone. He told her that he was tired of living a double life. He said this year’s trip to the lake would be the last one, and that he had a plan to ‘disappear’ me so he could legally file for a death certificate, claim the massive life insurance policy he took out in my name last month, and use the money to move them all to Spain.
