Lahat ng Kabanata ng Dad, No One Will Laugh at You Anymore: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 8

“Your parents did not even want you, but you had the nerve to call someone else dead weight?”The color drained from Brady’s face.His parents had divorced when he was little. Neither one had kept him, and both had started new families without him. He had been raised by his grandparents, and no one in the family ever dared bring it up around him.He shoved me. “You really just said that to me? I am going straight to Uncle Phil. I will make sure you humiliate yourself in front of everyone. They will all laugh at you.”“Go ahead.”My voice came out flat, but my fingertips shook harder than ever. It felt like there was always going to be one last thing that broke me, and someone was always going to be the one to put it there.The relatives finally left, and I followed Dad home.The house felt too quiet. Dad spoke first.“Does the back of your head still hurt?”I lowered my eyes and shook my head. Every small movement sent pain shooting through the nerves at the base of my skull.

I was left in the freezing hallway.Wind howled through the gaps and cut straight down my collar. My teeth chattered so hard my jaw ached.The pain in my arm, the throbbing at the back of my skull, and the hollow ache in my chest did not compare to the physical revulsion those two words triggered. The response had been carved so deep into me that it had become part of my body.I pounded on the door and sobbed through apologies. “Dad, I am sorry. I will not do it again. Please let me back in.“I will never embarrass you again. No one will ever laugh at you because of me.”Dad did not make a sound.I crumpled into a ball against the cold wall and listened to his voice drifting out from inside.“I am sorry, Ray. I have not done a good job with this kid. He is greedy and he lies. I have embarrassed everyone.”Uncle Ray objected right away. “The gift card was in my coat pocket the whole time. I never put it in my bag. Brady must have been mistaken. This had nothing to do with Kellen

Those whispers drifted into Dad’s ears, but he did not snap back the way he always had before. He sat with his head down, both hands pressed over his face, his shoulders shaking.The thing he feared most in his life was being laughed at and being talked about behind his back. He had become exactly that. He was the man everyone whispered about, the father whose obsession with appearances had cost him his son.It was probably the cruelest punishment he could have received, being destroyed by the very thing he cared about most.Brady sat in a corner and gripped the hem of his shirt with both hands. Tears streamed down his face in silence. Uncle Ray sat beside him, sighed, and did not scold him. He patted the boy’s back gently.I knew Uncle Ray understood. If Brady had not made that accusation, I might never have been pushed this far. But it was too late now. Blame would not change anything.Dad stayed at Uncle Ray’s house for a long time, until the sky began to lighten. He rose slowl

"Kellen, you were such a good kid. You did so well in school, always top of your class. Dad was so proud of you back then."He ran his fingers gently over the photograph on the diploma. “It was all my fault. I ground all that pride out of you. I stole every bit of your happiness.”He sat there for a long time, until the sun dipped low and the last of its light came through the window and fell across his shoulders and across my photograph.He stood slowly, walked to the desk, and picked up my urn. He held it against his chest, carried it to the window, and looked out at the lights glowing in every house across the neighborhood.“Kellen, Dad’s going to take you to see the stars. You used to love watching the stars when you were little.”That night, Dad sat by the window with my urn in his arms and watched the stars until morning. He hummed the lullaby he used to sing when I was small, the one he murmured until I fell asleep. I had not heard it in years.The familiar melody and the