My son flabbergasted me by saying he didn’t want his coach to be his dad — the truth I uncovered was even more shocking. A year ago, my wife snagged a better job, so we up and moved to another city. Our 7-year-old boy loves soccer, so she got him into a new school with a soccer club for the kids.
But after a while, he started coming home all upset. Whenever I tried to talk to him, he’d just walk away. Then, just the other day, I went into his room and found him crying.
Me: “Derril, what’s wrong?”
Him: “I DON’T WANT MR. SANDERS TO BE MY FATHER!”
That hit me like a punch to the gut. Mr.
Sanders is his soccer coach. Me: “Why would he become your father?”
Derril sniffled. “Because he’s always with Mommy… after practice.
He tells me I’ll have to get used to it. That he’ll be my new dad soon.”
My blood ran cold. I confronted my wife that night, and after a long silence, she admitted the truth: she’d been seeing Coach Sanders for months.
I felt the world crashing down — but what broke me most was that my little boy had known before I did. He carried the fear alone until he couldn’t anymore. I filed for divorce the next week.
And when Derril asked me, “Will you still be my dad?” I hugged him tight and said, “Forever. No one can take that from us.”
