Susan was a second-grade teacher, which once she learned a secret from a student, seven-year-old Rachel, who shared with her teacher that her mother was seeing another man beside her father.
She was a silent student, which one day Susan saw Rachel alone in the classroom, as the children were running down the hallway.
“Your mom’s running late again?” Susan asked, as she was worried about Rachel.
“I’m pretty sure she’s just caught up with something. She’ll be here soon,” then she said, as she was forcing a smile towards Rachel.
Then the hour became late, as it was close to sunset, and Rachel’s mother was still not there to pick her daughter.
Each time, her mother would be late to pick her daughter from the school, as Rachel would wait for her mother’s arrival.
As time passed, this situation continued, and led Susan to contact social services, as she was hoping that Rachel would receive help, but it was a dead end. “She’s looked after, not missing school, and she’s not out here looking like trouble,” they told her. “We can’t start poking around just because her mom’s always late and you’re a bit miffed about it.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Mulligan. I know she won’t come soon,” Rachel would say to Susan.
“Of course, she’s coming. She loves you… she’s just super busy,” she would smile to Rachel.
“She doesn’t love me. She’s scared of me.” Rachel then said.
“Why do you think your mom’s scared of you?”
“Mommy stays in her room the whole night. She only comes out to take me to school.”
“She makes you dinner, though, right?”
“Yeah, she puts my dinner on the table. I just take it and eat by myself,” Rachel responded.
“Is she hiding from something? Or someone?” Susan thought out loud.
“No, it’s just ’cause of me. She thinks she needs to stay in her room to be safe from me.”
“Why would she think she’s not safe around you?”
“Because she thinks I might… because I’m a witch,” Rachel said then.
As Susan was worried, “Rachel, you’re not a witch. And you didn’t hurt anyone with magic powers. That’s not real,” she responded.
“But I did make Stephanie fall. I know it,” Rachel said confidently. But for Susan, it was just a rumor, which the other children made a villain out of Rachel.
“No, Rachel. Stephanie just fell. It was an accident. You’ve got to believe me,” Susan tried to convince Rachel.
After a silent moment, “My mom is scared of me because I know her secret,” Rachel admitted.
“What do you mean, Rachel? What secret?”
“She thinks I’m gonna tell about the man who comes over when Daddy’s not there.”
Rachel had seen her mother with another man while her father was away for a business trip. It was an accident but it happened, so there was a secret to be held, and Rachel just confessed it.
When her mother arrived, Susan talked with the mother, and asked that if she was avoiding Rachel. As the woman apologized with hurry, it was evident that she was hiding something from her actions.
A month later, Rachel’s father came to pick his daughter from school on time, and then Susan learned that Rachel had talked with her father about what she had seen, and that led to a confrontation and the revealement of the situation where it ended with a divorce.
ANOTHER STORY WHERE A CHILD EXPOSED HER PARENTS SECRET
Ivy’s parents were divorced when she was a little girl. After her father had an affair, the situtation had devastated her father. Her mother became a woman who lost her joy of life.
“Does it matter, Ivy?” She would say when they talk about the situation. “What difference would it make?”
“I don’t think I’m going to get married, Mom,” Ivy said to her mother one day.
“Why on earth not?”
“Look at you and Dad. I’ll never be certain if my husband is cheating on me or not.”
“For heaven’s sake, Ivy. Not every man will be like your father,” her mother laughed. “There will be better things for you, love. And anyway, now you know what not to do.”
“Which is?” She asked as she was confused.
“Don’t let your guard down, not even for a moment. But you need to believe in a good marriage, too.”
Ivy was still unsure about being in a relationship. Then she met with Jordan, who was able to bring down the walls she built to protect herself from her childhood trauma.
Four years after they got met in a grocery store, they got married.
“I told you, Ivy,” her mother said one day, “Not everyone is like your father.”
Even though Jordan was a great guy, Ivy always kept her thoughts about marriage and what her father did. And years later, their daughter changed everything.
“Ivy, you have to do school drop-off today, okay?” Jordan said while Ivy was making the breakfast.
“Sure,” she said, but it was weird as Jordan was the parent who would drop their daughter at school each day, and Ivy would pick her up, since their daughter Mia started school.
“Mom needs me to take to the doctor this morning before work,” Jordan said. “She’s getting tests done, worried she might faint.”
As her husband left, Mia had revealed the truth.
“Ready for school today?” Ivy asked to her daughter while brushing her hair.
“Yes, Mom!” she said. “We’re making turkeys out of colored paper today! What’s for breakfast?”
“Dad made pancakes today,” she smiled.
As they were heading out, “Can I see you hand, Mommy?” Mia asked.
As Ivy gave her hand, Mia gasped. “Mom! Take off your ring,” she said. “You’re only supposed to wear it at home.”
“Sweetie, who told you that? It’s my wedding ring, I always wear it.” Ivy said as she was confused.
“Dad always takes his ring off in the mornings, and he puts it behind the wardrobe. Every morning.”
“Show me where?” Ivy asked, and found her husband’s wedding ring in a box behind the wardrobe.
“There,” she said. “You can put yours in here before we go, too. Dad always puts it here before we go to Linda.”
“Linda? Who is Linda?”
“Linda is beautiful, I want to look like Linda when I grow up,” Mia revealed. “Mommy, she has such long and beautiful hair.”
There and then, their marriage ended in that box, as the most scary thing for Ivy had come to her.
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