Jennifer becomes suspicious of everything when her daughter behaves strangely. Emma finally admits to her the truth, saying that she discovered a box containing her father’s secrets.
Emma, my daughter, has always been the epitome of a rainbow child—she draws and wears the brightest colors.
However, she has been acting differently lately. She has been withdrawn, hasn’t been eating healthily, and wants to spend all of her time outside.
I didn’t give it much thought at first because Emma goes through stages. However, Mrs. Silverton, her teacher, invited me in for a parent-teacher conference. Even though she was just in kindergarten, the school took great pleasure in keeping parents informed.
“I didn’t want to alarm you, Jennifer, but there’s something concerning going on with Emma.”
She produced a yellow file and displayed a number of Emma’s drawings to me; they were all gloomy and darkish, even scary.
I was silent as I drove home from the school. Emma was different, I knew that, but I didn’t think it was all that horrible.
I decided to talk to Emma about it later, while I was preparing noodles for our meal.
It was “Sweetheart,” I said.
“Are you serious? Why? “, she enquired.
“She spoke about the new drawings you’ve been doing and how different they are from the usual ones.”
Her reaction was silence as she turned her fork through her dish of noodles.
At last, she revealed the information.
“I discovered Daddy’s secret,” she murmured.
“What secret, honey?” I enquired.
With a leap from the table, she shouted, “Come, Momma, I’ll show you.”
My spouse, William, and I only live together part-time due to his work. He occasionally needs to work remotely, and he is always tired from travel. Thus, he made the decision to rent an apartment while he was gone at work.
I worried what my daughter had found when Emma showed me to William’s home office.
I saw her approach William’s desk, pull out the top drawer, and remove an old box.
“I saw this when I came looking for crayons,” she stated.
Emma handed me the box and ran upstairs.
When I got a glance inside, everything in my universe fell apart.
There were pictures inside, pictures of William embracing another woman and a group of three gorgeous kids, ages two to seven.
My feelings veered between shock, betrayal, and intense sadness.
There was a small notepad with numbers written in it underneath the pictures. It appeared to be an exact duplicate of my notepad in my purse, complete with all of my emergency phone numbers.
I was aware that I had to speak with William, but I was unsure of how to handle the whole thing. All I knew was that Emma needed a little consistency. She was already feeling the effects.
After putting everything back in the box, I put it on the desk.
Emma was standing in the hallway when I came out of the room, her eyes wide with surprise and fear.
I said, “Let’s get you in bed.” “I promise you, everything is going to be just fine.”
After dropping Emma off at school, I returned home. I looked at the little book again and gave the woman in the pictures, Mia, a call. I was the teacher for their son.
Despite my feelings of betrayal, everything went smoothly because of William’s tiny journal.
“Relax,” Mia said to me. “Speak to husband, William.”
William’s voice on the other end of the line confirmed my worst suspicions. I instantly hung up.
I had to take action as the hours passed slowly and the time to fetch Emma up drew nearer. Before I could even gaze at Emma’s adorable little face, I needed some clarification.
I contacted Mia again and told her everything when I picked up the phone again.
She admitted that she was unaware of Emma and me, looking as surprised as I was.
I then gave my lawyer a call because I had to dissolve my union with William. Emma was worthy of more. Both Mia and her kids deserved better. I also deserved better.
After a few weeks, Mia visited. We chatted for hours and discovered the truth: William had only taken advantage of us both by keeping our families in different towns so that we wouldn’t learn about one another.
In order to make sure Mia and I would receive justice, my lawyer took control. Since the four children were siblings regardless of what was going on, we also wanted them to get to know one another as siblings.
In the end, we banded together to fight a man who had taken control of our lives, and we discovered a tale more intricate than any soap opera.
Although we never understood how William had managed to marry both of us, our lawyer made sure we received alimony from him and maintained the lie for a long time.
In order to make sure my daughter was recovering from this horrific event, I also got Emma into therapy. To be really honest, though, I believe that Emma’s relationship with her half-siblings was the best form of rehabilitation.
