She Saw Me as Her Dad for Ten Years, Until One Message Changed Everything

“Hey… can you pick me up?”

No explanation. No context. Just that.

I grabbed my keys and went straight there. When I pulled up outside Jamal’s building, she was already waiting, backpack half open, arms wrapped around herself, eyes glued to the street like she had been tracking every car that passed.

She opened the door before I’d even fully stopped.

As soon as she buckled her seatbelt, she looked at me and asked, in a small, nervous voice, “Is it okay if I call you Dad again? For real this time?”

I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or pull over to hug her — so I sort of did all three at once. She had no idea how much those words meant after a decade of being in her life.

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