Brian, my husband’s best friend, was more like family to us. He was the person we trusted the most – someone we could always rely on. That evening, he came over for dinner, and since my husband wasn’t home yet and I needed to grab something from the store, I left my daughter with him. When I returned, nothing was the same. Emily, my daughter, stopped talking all of a sudden.
Someone rang the doorbell and Emily rushed towards the door. She opened it, and there was Ryan, balancing two huge boxes of pizza in one hand and holding a bad in the other.
Emily clung to his leg, waiting for him to give her a hug. Ryan handed her the beg, saying, “Where’s my girl. This is for you, you are going to like it.”
When she opened it, she found a stuffed toy inside. “Thanks, uncle Bryan,” she said, giving him yet another hug.
“Oh, Ryan, what would we do without you?” I asked, smiling and feeling grateful for his presence in our lives.
Since my husband, Tom, had still not returned from work, I asked Ryan to keep and eye on Emily while I went to the store to grab some juice.
“We’ll be fine,” he said, and there was no reason I could ever think otherwise.
However, when I returned, I saw Bryan grabbing his coat. “I need to leave,” he said, “something came out. Tell Tom I’ll call him.”
This was a bit strange, but I didn’t think much about it.
It was only obvious that something happened while I was gone when my daughter stopped talking. She would refuse to answer my questions, didn’t ask anything, she just stood there quetly.
The days turned into weeks, and Emily was still silent. We took her to a psychiatrist, but they were unable to discover the reason of her odd behavior.
When she was about to return to school, she finally spoke to me. “Mom, are you going to leave me here forever?” she asked.
Her question surprised me. “Of course not, honey, why would I do such a thing.”
“Mom, uncle Brian told me my real parents abandoned me, and now I’m afraid you and dad would do the same.”
My world collapsed. Emily was adopted, but we believed she was way too young to know that. Why would Brian tell her such a thing?
My suspicions that he was the reason my daughter stopped talking turned out to be true.
Ever since that night, he didn’t reach to us, and we didn’t call him either, and now I knew why.
I left Emily at school and headed to Tom’s office, telling him everything. He was shocked. Brian was like a brother to him.
After a while, Brian sent me a message saying he wanted to talk. Despite Tom’s advice not to go, I wanted to hear his explanation.
We met at a cafe and Brian didn’t resemble his old self. Something was very wrong.
“What is it Brian?” I asked, with anger in my voice.
It was then that Brian told me he learned he was adopted a day before the pizza night. He was devastated and angry at his parents for keeping that a secret from him for that many years. Somehow, he felt the urge to tell Emily she was adopted too. He believed if she knew that from early age, he would spare her from suffering later on.
“Brian, it was not your truth to tell. Tom and I had a plan. We would tell her that when the time would be right.”
Brian kept apologizing, but I didn’t accept his apologies.
Luckily, Emily was able to heal from the trauma. It did take time, but her trust in me and Tom returned.
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Bored Daddy
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