How Do I Love Thee?

Revalations

We stopped a few times, at little motels or to get something to eat. I never asked where we were going, I never cared enough. We drove straight to Ohio, to the place I had always called home.

I refused to go inside, I sat on a bench just inside the woods outside of our home. My father came out there and sat beside me. He didn't speak.

I let small tears roll down my face. "Dad, is what they said true?"

He brushed my hair back and kissed my forehead. "Sweetheart. I wish I could've been the one to tell you. But I couldn't. I didn't know everything that you needed to know to understand."

"So everything I've ever known really has been a lie?" I stared into the ground.

"No sweetheart. I love you, more than anything. I raised you just as if you were my own flesh and blood. And never once did I regret it."

"What about mom? Why did she run off?"

"She never existed. I was told to tell you all that."

"But the pictures you showed me?"

"That was my late wife. She died before they brought you to me. We never had any children, even though we wanted them and that's why they thought I would be the perfect person to care for you."

I closed my eyes and let the tears dry. He was still my dad, no matter what. He had raised me and loved me. "So my real parents, they're really dead?"

"Yes honey. I'm so sorry. But they died to protect you. I'd do the same if that's what it came down to."

I looked at him. "No. I could never ask you to do that." I hugged him tightly and he hugged me. "I love you dad, I always have. I've lost almost everyone and I don't want to lose you." More tears began to fall. I don't think I'd ever cried as much in life as I had in the past couple days.

"I love you too." Something felt wrong when he said that. Like he was saying it for the last time. I tried to brush it off as we went inside, but I just couldn't.