I Thought My Dad Was Cheating on My Mom After My Graduation – but What He Was Really Hiding Left Me Speechless

But a few days later, he brought her up again, and this time it felt stranger. We were at the kitchen table, and he was pretending to read the newspaper, but I could tell he was working up to something.

“She’s divorced, right?” he asked, folding the paper down just enough to look at me.

I looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, she has been for like two years now.

How do you even know that?”

He smiled again, that same nervous half-grin he gets when he’s hiding something. “You mentioned it once, I think. Just curious.”

But I hadn’t mentioned it.

At least, I didn’t think I had.

And even if I did, why would he remember? Why would he care about my high school friend’s mom’s marital status?

It didn’t stop there, and the changes kept piling up like evidence I didn’t want to see.

He started working late more often, texting Mom that he’d be home around 10 p.m. Some nights, he wouldn’t get back until after 11 p.m.

He started wearing cologne again, too. The same woody, spicy scent he used to wear when he first dated my mom, the one she said made her fall for him all those years ago.

I’d catch whiffs of it when he walked past me in the hallway, and it made my chest tighten with suspicion.

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