A Woman’s Father Caused the Fire That Scarred Her Mother’s Face, Then Abandoned His Wife Because He ‘Couldn’t Look at Her Anymore’ – Ten Years Later, He Returned Expecting His Ex-Wife to Take Him in but Went Pale When He Saw Who Was Standing Beside Her

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Ten years after my father left, I was visiting my mother when someone knocked on the front door.

She was upstairs getting ready for dinner.

I opened the door and found a man standing on the porch with a battered suitcase.

His hair had thinned. His face was lined. His jacket looked as though he had slept in it.

But I recognized him immediately.

“Dad?”

He gave me a tired smile.

“Hello, Heidi.”

I couldn’t move.

For ten years, I had imagined this moment. Sometimes, I pictured him arriving with flowers and an apology. Sometimes, I imagined screaming at him. In other versions, I slammed the door in his face.

But standing in front of him, I felt strangely empty.

“What are you doing here?”

He glanced past me into the house.

“Is your mother home?”

“Why?”

He sighed as though I were making an ordinary conversation unnecessarily difficult.

“I’ve had a rough few months.”