What’s your random act of kindness that completely backfired?

The Betrayal

I asked what it was then however just to hear his explanation. I told him it looked like he had another family.

I asked him how long this had been going on and accused him of being a liar. He tried to calm me down.

He said that it was complicated and that I didn’t understand. But I don’t care about any of that. I just want the truth.

So I kept pushing and demanding answers until he finally admitted it. He told me that yes he had another family.

He’s been seing this woman for a few years now and they had two kids together. They had a little girl and a 20-year-old son that was severely disabled.

He had cerebral paly. He says he never wanted it to go this far but now he was in too deep and he didn’t know how to get out.

I was devastated. My dad had been living a double life for so long.

To be fair to him he managed to hide it for a very long time so in a weird way I have to give it to him. However there’s no way I can forgive him.

And what’s even worse is that he started begging me not to tell my mom. He says it would destroy her and that it would tear our family apart.

He even tried to bribe me with money saying he’d buy me anything I wanted if I just kept quiet.

At first I immediately thought that there was nothing that could stop me from telling Mom. But then that night after everything had settled down I found myself lying in bed.

I was staring up at the ceiling. Every time I closed my eyes I saw my dad with that other family laughing and smiling like they were his whole world.

And every time the same question kept coming back to me. What would happen if I didn’t tell Mom?

If I didn’t say anything my mom would never know. She could go on living her life unaware of the double life her husband was leading.

She’d still smile when he walked through the door. She’d still laugh at his jokes. She’d still believe in the love they’d built over the last 20 years.

I knew how much she loved him. I’d seen it every day of my life.

I saw the way her face would would light up when he came home. I saw the way she’d lean into his touch.

I saw the way she’d talk about him to her friends when it was a girl night in. And I knew how much she trusted him.

She never doubted him never questioned where he was or what he was doing. If I told her the truth all of that would be destroyed.

I’d be the one to shatter the perfect picture she had of their marriage. And honestly that was a very heavy burden to bear.

I battled with the thought that it would be right for me to be the one to take that away from her.

The thought of seeing the pain in her eyes the idea of tears streaming down her face made my heart ache.

I knew it would devastate her. I didn’t know if I would be selfish in telling her or not.

But then another thought crept in one that I couldn’t ignore. If I didn’t tell her what kind of person would that make me?

Could I really look her in the eyes day after day knowing what I knew? Could I pretend everything was fine when I knew it was far from it?

If I didn’t tell her I figured my dad would just keep living this double life lying to both of us and betraying both of us.

And if mom found out on her own the Betrayal would be even worse than knowing that I knew and didn’t say anything.

I couldn’t live with myself if I kept this from her. She deserved the truth no matter how painful it was.

After I knew my dad was asleep I took his phone. I knew his passcode and I started going through his messages.

Sure enough I found texts between him and this woman. They were texts where they talked about how much they miss each other.

They also talked about how much they love their kids. There in between the pictures of our family were dozens of photos of him with the other woman.

There were also photos of her kids. I clicked on the first one. They went to Disney World together.

I looked at the day this was taken and it was during the week of a big project work trip that Dad had told us about earlier.

I now know exactly where he was for that week. They were all smiling standing in front of Cinderella’s castle.

The kids were wearing Mickey Mouse ears and the woman had her arm wrapped around my dad.

In another photo the little girl was on his shoulders laughing as they watched a parade go by.

There was a picture of them on the teacup ride and another of them holding giant stuffed animals clearly having the time of their lives.

I stared at the screen. I felt my eyes burning before the tears fell down.

Disney World was the one place I had begged him to take us year after year.

Every time he’d given the same excuses like we didn’t have enough money or maybe we could next year when things calm down at work.

And I had believed him. I had accepted it thinking that maybe one day we’d finally get to go just like all my friends had.

But that day never came. And here I was 18 without ever going to Disney World.

And he was taking his daughter who looked no more than two there. He had chosen them over us.

The tears fell down my face as I kept scrolling. I couldn’t stop myself from imagining what that trip must have been like.

I wondered if he ever thought of us while he was there. Or if he ever felt guilty when his other daughter called him daddy as they walked through the park.

Did he ever regret not taking me instead? But those thoughts only made me angrier.

Clearly he hadn’t regretted it enough to change his behavior. He’d kept it up living this double life.

He was taking them on the trip I’d always wanted while telling me and my mom that we just had to wait.

He said that maybe someday we’d get to go. But someday never came and now I knew why.