Within the suffocating silence of our 'perfect' home, I remained oblivious to the fracture devouring my eldest daughter's heart.
As the pandemic turned our sanctuary into a gilded cage, I watched my sixteen-year-old retreat into a haunting silence. The adoration she once held for her father—her 'hero' in the white coat—had been extinguished. Even my thirteen-year-old seemed to mirror her sister's sudden gloom, leaving only my five-year-old to play innocently amidst the gathering storm.
The truth was more sadistic than I could have imagined. While I was paralyzed by the fading heartbeat in Korea, Thana had already begun dismantling our daughter's world. He knew she had witnessed his filth on that phone. Instead of seeking redemption, he summoned her to his office—a room lined with fraudulent accolades.
"Can I have her in my life, too? I promise I'll still be a good father. I'll take care of you, your siblings, and your mother just the same... Let's keep this between us. We don't want to break your mother's heart, do we? If she finds out, our family will perish."
He didn't just ask for her silence; he blackmailed her soul. He weaponized her love for me, shackling her to an unwilling conspiracy just so he could enjoy his debauchery without consequence.
While the air inside grew thick with secrets, my relatives circled like vultures. They sat in our living room, sipping tea bought with Thana's money, preaching a distorted morality—completely unaware of the trauma their own niece was enduring.
"Why hold such a grudge? Thana is a provider. Look at your mother—do you want her to suffer in her old age?" my aunt would sneer, while my mother nodded, her eyes fixed on the insurance payout from my father's death.
Not one of them looked at the children. No one noticed how my eldest trembled with visceral disgust whenever her father touched her shoulder, or how she was shattering inside, burdened by the secret he had ordered her to keep "for Mama's sake."
Thana didn't just cut me; he used his arrogance to slice through his own daughter's spirit, all to preserve the mask of the 'Good Doctor' before the world. Meanwhile, the only man who truly loved us in Korea was slipping away into the eternal dark.