It wasn’t a beautiful Sunday morning for Kayla’s family. They were a very dysfunctional family; the mother and father kept picking fights with Kayla, meanwhile her two younger siblings were living without any parental punishment. Kayla couldn’t understand why her parents didn’t love and treat her the same as her other siblings; she felt isolated and disconnected from her family. Despite this, the family still tried to appear as the “perfect family” by putting on their Sunday best for church. 

As the family made their way to church, Kayla stayed behind and kept thinking how she could get out of going to church. She knew her parents do this because it’s a tradition to see the whole family attend mass, but she didn’t feel like putting on a fake smile today. 

“Mom, I don’t feel so good. Can I go home?”

“Don’t start Kayla. You can make it through church.”

“But Mom, I can’t. My head hurts too much.”

            Kayla’s mom ignores her and proceeds to entering the church.

Kayla just stood by the steps and decided to leave despite what her mother said.

As Kayla walks back to her house, a navy color van pulls up behind her. Before Kayla could realize, she was inside the van with a bag over her head. Kayla yelled for her mother or anyone who could hear her. 

Meanwhile, Kayla kept screaming the man continuously apologized that it had to be this way. The man kept reassuring Kayla that he did not want to hurt her and to forgive him in the future for what he had just done.

From crying so much, Kayla fell asleep and finally woke up. She couldn’t tell what time it was anymore and asked the man why he did this. 

The man asked her if it was okay, he could pull over and speak to her face to face.

Kayla was hesitant but agreed. The man pulls over and proceeds to remove the bag. 

            â€œPlease don’t be afraid. I really did not mean for any of this to happen, but I couldn’t stand to see you be treated like this, especially by someone I thought I could trust.”

            â€œWhat do you mean? What are you talking about?”

            The man takes a deep breath. “Kayla, I know this will be difficult news but I still hope you can understand. I’m your dad.”

Kayla looks puzzled and in shock, but says “How/Where have you been my entire life? How do I even know you’re telling the truth?”

The man pulls out an old stained book filled with pictures. With a few a tears here and there, the pictures were still visible enough to see the man and Kayla’s mom holding her.