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i walked into my parents room to find my
mom
sitting on the edge of her bed visibly
shaking with rage in her eyes
i had never seen her so angry when she
turned to me and said
your dad got married to another woman on
his business trip
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i've always been a happy little kid with
a loving family and the best father
he was forgiving optimistic always
helped others
had an awesome sense of humor and even
his looks were great
he was pretty handsome and young looking
for his age
dad's a businessman and his job requires
a lot of traveling
since we're a family we move with him
everywhere but there was one time where
he had to go on a business trip for 15
days
alone since the tickets were costly
during that time and i had important
exams to do for school
15 days had passed and dad didn't come
home
mom called him and asked him about it
and all he told us was that
a major problem happened at work so he
had to postpone his return for another
15 days
it wasn't weird for me to hear about it
since this wasn't the first time for him
to travel alone for that long
the weird thing was that dad never
replied to her calls or messages
during the next 15 days and we weren't
able to get in touch with him
at all not even once did he call us
either mom and i were worried but at the
same time we thought
it's all right he's probably working so
hard right now
it was mom's birthday when dad finally
called to tell us that he was coming
back home
obviously i was so happy and excited
because i missed him so much
he was away for a month already when he
finally arrived we all gave him a
bone-crushing hug
also he brought cake with him mom even
said
oh dear he remembered me she was so
happy dad seemed to look even better
than he had left too
his frizzy beard was neatly shaved he
lost some weight and seemed to be in
good shape
he cut his hair and dyed his grey
streaks black
he was more handsome i never thought
about it but the change was noticeable
especially when it has been a long time
since we saw him
although it seemed normal it really
wasn't
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five days later i was sleeping in my
room one night when
i suddenly woke up to hear my mom's
wailing
she was crying hysterically as if
someone had died
she was saying how could you do this to
me
who is she who is she tell
who is she who is she tell me
my bedroom's door was open to jar and i
could have gotten up to see what was
going on
but i was too scared to do that actually
i was more scared of the truth
and the fight itself i did guess what
was happening already
but i tried convincing myself that it
was a dream and i went back to sleep
the next morning dad was nowhere to be
found
and mom was wide awake i walked into the
kitchen to find her standing at the
counter
staring into her cup of coffee her eyes
were so puffy that i could barely
recognize her
it looked like she had been crying all
night and hadn't slept a wink
when i asked her where dad was she
looked at me gulped and
walked away i could tell she was about
to break into tears again
i didn't get it was it true after all
was dad cheating on mom how
no way there's definitely a
misunderstanding here
or so i thought
it had been three days and dad didn't
come back home
mom just seemed to look sicker and
sicker refusing to tell me anything
about what happened
no matter how much i asked hey where's
dad
what did he do i would ask she would cry
alone in her room
later that night dad came back home
i was awake but i was too scared to see
him so i pretended to be asleep
i closed the door swished off the lights
and wrapped myself in my blanket
but then dad came to my room and
switched the lights back on
hey you're awake aren't you he said
i just looked at him in silence we were
both quiet for a second
then he said did mama tell you anything
then mom came and said she heard us
when we were talking then dad said
come here i followed my parents to their
room we all sat together
mum looking like a zombie with rage in
her eyes
i asked what happened then that was when
mom finally spoke
your dad got married to another woman on
his business trip
he didn't delay his arrival because of
any problem at work
but he was preparing for the wedding he
fell for another woman and she's
pregnant too
your dad has made a new family
dad just smiled shyly when mom said that
well she was barely able to hold her
tears
as for me i was too shocked to even say
anything
and i ended up faking a laugh is this a
joke
i asked but i didn't wait for an answer
so i left the room and cried myself to
sleep
the next day i went to school and
pretended that nothing happened
but it had and i couldn't focus on
anything apart from that conversation
i had a million questions flying around
in my mind
and i could not focus on anything why
did he do that
did he not love us anymore did i
disappoint him was it my fault
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mom said she was going to file for a
divorce and she couldn't live like that
anymore
she said she couldn't bear sharing her
husband with some other woman
and she begged us not to feel sad when
that happens
at that moment i just remembered the way
we used to be before
any of this happened i never realized
how awesome we were until that moment
my friends would always be the ones who
would cry over their parents
fights but me my parents never even
fought that much
thinking back all they wanted at that
moment was to go back to these days
but that never happened
we had to call a family meeting not long
after since i was the only one who knew
about it
and my siblings didn't put a lot of
pressure on me and my sanity started to
crumble even more
they had to know at some point though
right so during the meeting
it was all confessed and we were allowed
to ask dad whatever questions we wanted
i asked him why he did such a thing all
he said was
sometimes a man needs more than one
woman in his life
this shattered me
every question i asked was answered
defensively and they all seemed to be
like he was trying to prove he didn't do
anything wrong
darling it is normal here to marry more
than one woman how this is egypt and we
are allowed more than one wife
that meeting was terrible and nothing
good came out of it
why weren't we good enough for him we
were all so happy before all of this
it didn't seem to affect my siblings the
same way it did me
maybe they were just too young to
understand
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because dad had two houses now he would
stay over at our house every other day
while he stays with his other wife too
mom wouldn't eat nor sleep dad noticed
it but guess what he told me take care
of your mom
okay seriously wasn't he the one who was
supposed to do that as her husband
now he was burdening me with his
responsibilities
things only got worse for me since
school had gotten so stressful
as well as taking care of the entire
household including mom
while dad wasn't there begging her to
have at least
one bite of something but she wouldn't
eat
i tried my best to make everything
perfect i really did but things weren't
working out well at all
my grades dropped and i would get
scolded by my teachers
i would cry myself to sleep every night
hearing mom and dad's arguments
over and over and i never succeeded in
making mom feel
any better after some time my dad
noticed that i wasn't coping with things
very well
he walked into my room and it was like
that first night all over again
only this time he sat down on the edge
of my bed and put his arm around me
i had so many emotions inside of me but
i couldn't hate him so
i hugged him and began to cry
at that moment i had hoped that
something would change
maybe he still cares about me after all
maybe i'm not as worthless as i think i
am i told him everything i was feeling
and he listened for so long
but then he disappointed me for the
second time
he talked again about how what he did
wasn't wrong nor was it his fault
but it was just his feelings and that
i'm still his daughter despite
everything
that he still cares but these were all
sugar-coated words
he never stood by my side when i was at
my worst
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throughout all of this i felt like i
wasn't able to do anything to help those
who were around me
right now i'm depressed about what
happened and i'm still hoping all of
this is a bad dream
all i'm asking is to go back in time to
when we were a happy family but
really i know this can never happen
because of this experience
i now have a lot of insecurities i feel
like i'm worthless
i can't help but think of what i could
have done better as a daughter to
prevent this from happening
i feel like this is all my fault i had a
great life and never imagined it would
end up like this
sometimes you just don't know the value
of something in your life until you lose
it
[Music]
first of all thank you for submitting
your story to minute videos
this is not your fault i know many
people might have said this to you and
you still could not believe them because
it just feels like that
feeling responsible is normally what a
child feels when their parents fight or
separate
as well as feeling like it's your duty
to fix the situation
but it's not even a brilliant marriage
counselor fails to save marriages
sometimes
because some marriages just don't work
it is a very grown-up task
a much too heavy one to put on a child
your parents are full-grown adults and
as you can see they don't have the
ability to make it work and they don't
expect you to
that is not what you're meant to do and
it does not define your worth
it's completely understandable that the
situation affects you emotionally
it is a big change in your life and the
first thing you can do is to accept it
accept the change in the emotions that
come with it
your disappointment and sadness are
normal and it will pass in time
the change might be forever but the
feeling is not
if you find it hard to believe try
looking at the little things
before you go to bed tonight think of
three things that you're thankful for
it could be as little as an ice cream
you had at lunch
it might be hard at first and you might
need to look for it during the day too
but as time goes by and you keep your
mind open for positive things
you might be able to appreciate the
present much better than you have before
i hope this could help at least a little
bit and if you ever feel like it is too
much
let someone know even talk to your
siblings as you're going through the
same thing
they might feel similar emotions as you
do you can lean on each other for
comfort
be there for each other instead of going
through it alone
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you