A man abandoned his young daughter with his mother to go off with his new wife, and when he comes back ten years later, he is shocked to find they both vanished without a trace. Doris Dakkar had been a single mother to her only son after her husband had walked out on her when Nicholas was seven years old. It hadn’t been easy, but Doris worked two jobs and made sure her son lacked for nothing.
Back then, she’d been thirty years old.
She never imagined she’d become a single parent once again at the age of sixty. Nor did she imagine her son would abandon his daughter.
She never thought he had that much of his father in him. Nicholas had married a lovely girl, Sandra, but unfortunately, she passed away when their daughter, Paige, was nine.
Doris had told herself that Nicky had been lonely, that’s why he’d taken up with Donna just weeks after Sandra’s death — and married her within six months.
Doris had been concerned to see little Paige, who had once been a happy, boisterous child, become quieter and quieter, but she attributed it to the loss of her mother. She still believed her son was a good man, but not for long. The summer Paige turned ten, Nicholas came around and asked Doris if he could take care of Paige for three weeks while he and Donna went on a vacation to Alaska on their own.
“All couples need time alone, Mom,” Nicholas had said.
“And Paige has become difficult of late… She resents Donna.”
Doris was surprised but agreed.
“OK Nicky,” she said. “I think a break might be good for all three of you.
But if you permit me…I think Donna knew what she was getting into.
She knew you had a daughter. A grown woman should be able to deal with the pain of a ten-year-old still trying to come to terms with her mother’s death and her father’s swift remarriage.”
Nicholas flushed scarlet and puffed up his lips in a gesture Doris knew well. “I should have known you’d take Paige’s side!” he cried.
“Donna loves me, she makes me happy, and that’s all that matters to me.”
“I would have thought SOMEONE had to be on Paige’s side and I’m surprised it’s not her father,” Doris replied, stung.
“And making your daughter happy should make YOU happy too!”
Nicholas walked out in a huff, but when he came back a week later with Paige and her suitcase, he seemed his happy normal self. He kissed Paige goodbye affectionately and gave Doris a hug.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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