The figure paused beside his car before disappearing from view.
I replayed the footage.
This time, I focused on the shoes.
White sneakers with a dark stripe along the side.
I had seen them before.
Not recently, but often enough to remember.
My father looked at me.
“Lola?”
I closed the app.
“I need to check something.”
I drove home and pulled an old storage box from my closet.
Inside were photographs, birthday cards, and papers that had belonged to Mom.
At the very bottom was a picture from her final summer.
Standing beside her was my Aunt Sabrina.
On Sabrina’s feet were the same white sneakers.
She had been Mom’s younger sister.
After Mom died, she helped Dad through everything.
She cooked meals, handled paperwork, and stayed with him while I finished college.
Then she gradually disappeared from our lives, saying it hurt too much to visit the house.
I had always believed her.
I called Rachel.
“Do you remember meeting my aunt Sabrina?”
“Once, at your graduation party.”
“Did you tell her about Graham?”
Rachel went quiet.
“Yes. She found me crying in the bathroom. I told her everything.”
The final piece settled into place.
I drove to Sabrina’s apartment before I had time to second-guess myself.
She answered the door wearing workout clothes.
Her white sneakers rested beside the entrance.
The moment I showed her the security footage, the color drained from her face.
“You followed Rachel,” I said.
Sabrina took a small step backward.
“Lola, you do not understand.”
“Then explain it.”
The softness disappeared from her expression.
“Your father was supposed to love your mother forever.”
“He did.”
“No. He replaced her.”
“He spent 12 years alone.”
“And that made dating acceptable?”
Her voice rose with every word.
“Your mother gave him everything. Then he smiled at strangers as if she had never existed.”
Anger pushed through my grief.
“You threatened six women.”
“I warned them.”
“You terrified them.”
“I protected your mother’s place in his life.”
“You protected nothing.”
Tears filled Sabrina’s eyes.
She admitted she had found every woman through my father’s dating profile.
