“Dad, meet the love of my life.” Serena’s introduction should have filled me with joy. Instead, it filled me with dread as I shook hands with a man older than me – the sixty-year-old Edison.
“Age is just a number,” Edison smiled, his grip too firm, his eyes too calculating. Everything about him set off alarm bells, but Serena was smitten. When I voiced concerns, she threw my absentee parenting in my face – and I couldn’t deny the truth.
A chance overheard conversation revealed Edison’s real game: my daughter was just a bet to clear his gambling debts. But the more evidence I gathered – from private investigators, his ruined business partners, even his own sister – the more Serena resisted the truth.
My breaking point came at their engagement party. Seeing my little girl toasted by this predator’s friends, I knew I had to act. With help from Annie, Edison’s disillusioned sister, we staged the ultimate intervention.
As the wedding ceremony began, actress after actress stood to share their “experiences” with Edison – all carefully crafted lies to mirror his real misdeeds. The look on Serena’s face as the illusion shattered was both heartbreaking and healing.
When she finally ran sobbing from the church, I was there to catch her. As we rebuilt our relationship, I came to understand my own role in this mess – my absence had left her starving for male attention. That plane ticket to Boston wasn’t just about education; it was about giving her back the dreams she’d lost along the way.
