The Darkest Secrets Come Out
We all have secrets. You're probably hiding something from someone right now, and so is everyone you know. These people reveal the craziest secrets they ever discovered—or the secrets they wish they'd never found out.
1. Globe-Trotting Tramp
I grew up in a very conservative Christian home with two loving parents who were insistent on my going to church three times a week.
My mother led devotions every morning and made sure we were aware of what the Bible taught about relations, marriage, obedience, etc.
When I was 18, I found my mother’s phone—but when I opened it, I made a disturbing discovery. I found some pretty trashy text messages between her and a man who was not my father. I confronted her, and she denied it.
When it was finally brought to my father’s attention, we found out that not only was she cheating on my dad but was sleeping with people professionally. She even had clients in Paris and Sweden, along with a few boyfriends in the USA.
Talk about having a childhood illusion shattered.
2. Who’s Your Daddy?
My good friend, who is 28 and has two siblings in their mid-20s, also has a 15-year-old little brother. The little brother is only a half-brother but doesn't know.
Their mom moved out when the kids were in middle school, lived with another man for a year, and the man left her when she got pregnant.
The dad took her back in and raised the now 15-year-old as his own. Of course, the older siblings knew because they were in middle school at the time, so it was pretty obvious because of the timing.
The parents have actually asked that they not tell the little brother, though, because they don't want him to feel less loved by his "dad".
3. Take Note—Something’s Off
When I was about six, I came home from school with my mom, picked up the mail, and put it on the table. Among the letters I saw a note addressed to me that said, "I've noticed you looking down lately. Let me take you shopping and cheer you up.
Love, Paul".
Before I had time to process it, my mom snatched it away from my hand—and said something very suspicious: "That's not for you!"...even though it had my name on it. I didn’t know if I had a creepy stalker when I was six, if my mom was seeing someone and using my name, or if it was anything else.
It seemed really odd at the time, and nothing was said about it for the 17 years since then. Several other occasions later, I found other evidence of weird stuff going on in my mom's life.
She would hide her phone from me when I walked in the room, rubbers in the bag she used when she was on work trips—my dad had a vasectomy in 1990—so I guess cheating wasn't beyond her, but why that note had my name on it? I still have no idea.
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4. The Truth Was In Transition
My parents split up when I was about two, so I don't remember anything. When I grew into my elementary years, my dad came back, had a new wife—my stepmom—and was very religious.
As a result, and much to my mother's chagrin, I became very religious as well.
She never spoke ill of him, nor he of her, and I never asked why they split up. It was at a point in time when there were enough single-parent households that it really didn't matter. When I was in my teens, my dad and I had a falling out—and the reason why is downright despicable.
My two best friends, who I loved more than just about anything, both came out to me as gay, and I was floored because I was taught they were going to burn with the devil.
I confronted my father about my doubts, but he affirmed with no question that they were, indeed, going to if they didn't change their ways.
I ended up leaving the church because of this conflict, deciding that this ideology didn't mesh with the loving God he'd told me about. He and I eventually had a huge falling out that ended in us not speaking for over a decade.
During that time, my mother dropped a couple of hints that she knew secrets about my dad that I didn't. I found out that my mom was his second wife, but she never fessed up to what the secret was.
I assumed that, somewhere, I had another half-sibling but didn't care enough to press anyone for answers.
Years later, just after Christmas, I got a call from a friend who rented from my mom. My mom had a cardiac event and was in the hospital. As I was frantically packing for an eight-hour drive, I heard things from him that surprised me...but didn’t shock me.
It turned out that earlier that evening, my mother was visited by my stepmother, who came to wish her a Merry Christmas and announce that she and Dad had officially divorced.
The secret that had shattered my mom's marriage and, apparently, his first marriage as well had destroyed his most recent marriage, too.
My dad was transgender. At nearly 60 years old, she decided enough was enough, and she couldn't keep living a lie any longer. She decided to pursue hormone therapy and an operation for surgical transition.
She had already changed her name—her last wife helped him pick it out—and she was just updating my mom on what was going on.
My stepmother left, Mom went back into her house, and immediately was onset with chest pains and called an ambulance. She was diagnosed with broken heart syndrome, a form of cardiomyopathy.
My mother fully recovered, and she confessed everything to me while in her hospital bed.
My dad is now happily post-op, living with a good friend of hers in Florida and dating a man a little older than her who knows about her surgery and dotes on her anyhow.
