When my Mom married my Dad, she thought he had a job. He didn’t. She had to get a job. After I was born my Dad still didn’t get a job. He didn’t want to take care of me, either. When my Mom came home for her job, I was always hungry and wet.
Then one day my Dad went out and didn’t come back. The police had arrested him for armed robbery. My Mom divorced my Dad and married another man while I was still a baby. My stepdad adopted me so I have his last name.
My Mom and stepdad decided that if I knew about my criminal father, I would become a criminal like him. As I grew up I knew I wasn’t my stepdad’s son. We look nothing alike. When I asked my Mom if I was adopted she always said, “I did not adopt you.” All of my relatives lied and pretended my stepdad was my real Dad. The lying continued until I was 20 years old and my family finally admitted the truth I always knew.
When my half-sisters were born, my Mom and stepdad treated them better than they treated me. I asked them why. “Because they’re girls.”
My Mom never hugged me.