Shocked, I confronted my father. That’s when he told me the truth: I wasn’t adopted. My mother had an affair during their marriage, and I was the result. Dad agreed to raise me, but never fully healed—and invented the adoption story to cope.

The revelation shook everything I thought I knew about myself. But for the first time, I understood the source of my lifelong confusion. I told my father I needed space. I wasn’t walking away—I was finally walking toward my own truth.