I Picked up My 5-Year-Old from Kindergarten When She Suddenly Said, ‘Daddy, Why Didn’t the New Daddy Pick Me up like He Usually Does?’

Oh my God… You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The man holding my daughter’s hand was Ben, Sophia’s secretary.

He’s younger than my wife, maybe five or seven years. Fresh out of grad school, always smiling in those company photos she’d show me sometimes. I’d seen his face in the background of event videos and heard his name mentioned in passing.

That’s it. That’s all I knew about him.

Until now.

I grabbed my phone and started snapping pictures. My hands were shaking.

Part of me wanted to jump out of the car right then and drag him away from my daughter. But I needed proof. I needed to know exactly what was going on before I did something I couldn’t take back.

They got into his silver sedan.

I followed them from a distance, staying two cars back. My heart was hammering. Every rational thought in my head was telling me there had to be an explanation, something innocent, but my gut knew better.

They drove straight to Sophia’s office building downtown.

He parked in the underground garage, and they both got out. Ben held Lizzy’s hand as they walked toward the elevator.

I waited for five minutes. Then 10.

I couldn’t just sit there anymore.

I went in through the main lobby. The building was mostly empty. End of the workday.

Just a few stragglers and the cleaning crew. And there, sitting in the lobby on one of those uncomfortable modern chairs with her little teddy bear, was Lizzy.

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