I felt like I had been hit in the chest. All of my air went whooshing out of me and I struggled to get it back in. There's no way that he had just said that. There's no way that this man could actually be my father.
"I know it must come as a shock to you, but I swear on your mother's grave that I am telling you the truth," he said and I could tell that he really believed it. He really believed that he was my father.
"My father's dead. He died when I was little," I told him automatically, having had to say it my entire life. The familiarity of the phrase helped me calm down. I reminded myself that I was talking to a crazy person. My father was dead. Plain and simple.
"That's what they told you. But I am very much alive. And I'm here to help you reach yo
