I Walked My Neighbor’s Daughter to School Every Morning — One Day, My Life Turned Upside Down Because of It

I started walking her to school every morning at seven a.m.

She’d be waiting on the porch, backpack already on, eyes scanning the street for me.

The first time she saw me coming and her face lit up, I knew I was done for.

Her grandmother never questioned it. She’d just wave from the window, grateful someone was helping.

Marissa would grab my hand, and we’d walk. She talked the whole way, about school, her friends, and the stray cat she kept trying to feed.

Six months later, at a school breakfast, she stood up on her chair and pointed at me across the room.

I opened my mouth to correct her, but her grandmother caught my arm. She’d come that day, using a walker.

“Mike,” she said softly, “if calling you daddy helps her heal, please don’t take that away from her.”

So I became Daddy Mike.

Not legally. Just in her heart.

In mine too, though I didn’t say it out loud.

Every morning, as we walked to school, she’d look up at me and ask, “You won’t leave me like my real dad, will you?”

“Never.”

I meant it, but I didn’t know those words would one day be tested.

She saved me as much as I saved her. Maybe more.

Those walks gave me a sense of what my life might’ve been like if things had turned out differently.

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