He took my hand again.
“You’re the dearest girl in my life.
At the time I realized that there was no dark secret behind his words.
There was only one man who had become my father when he had no obligation to do so, who had loved me silently for twenty-two years and who had spent his whole life fearing that he would abandon him after knowing the truth.
But that night I didn’t leave.
For the first time, I told him the words I had hoped to hear for twenty-two years:
I love you, Dad.
