Mark Anthony Jr, is an American living in Los Angeles County, state of California. Lately, he has become a very devastated young man in his early thirties. All his life, he never quite experienced the love and affection of his alcoholic father who abandoned him.
As he drives through Main Street in Los Angeles heading home, his mind drifts back to the old days. Today is Tuesday the 25th of December, and as usual, his comeback dad will pay them a visit as he did once every year.
“Hello son,” greets his father. “How are you and your mother doing?”
“We are doing just fine, Mark Anthony, as you can see, we are not dead,”
That is how their relationship has always been. It keeps on deteriorating each and every day to a point that he addresses his father by his first name.
“Look son, I know that you’re mad at me for divorcing your mom…”
His son does not let him finish what he is saying. He opens the door and shows him the way out. This hurts his father so much that he leaves the house.
The main reason for their divorce is a mystery to Mark Anthony Jr, he doesn’t know why his father left his mother until three days later. It is on the 28th of December 2018, when a letter is delivered to their house. Mark Anthony Jr is on his way out to work but accidentally stumbles upon the letter on the floor. He takes it in a hurry and puts it in his pocket, bids his mother goodbye and leaves.
At his office, during his lunch break, he suddenly remembers the letter. He takes it out and starts reading it. Tear after tear drops on the letter. It is a letter addressed to him by his father, asking his son for forgiveness and to give him and his mother a second chance.
Inside the letter is a four paragraph story of his father’s divorce to his mother when Jr was just nine years old. All of a sudden, his expression turns from sadness to that of pure anger. He storms out of his office in full rage, shouting at his secretary not to bother him.
At home, his mother is surprised to see him early from work and asks him what’s the matter.
“I can’t believe that you’re the reason why dad left,” said Mark Anthony Jr. “Answer me mom!”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, son,” answered his mother.
“Don’t act as if you know nothing about this. Is it true that he’s not my father?” Asked a furious Mark Anthony Jr. “Answer me mother! Who is my real father?”
The tearful mother confessed everything to her son.
“Your father is not Mark Anthony. Your real father is dead, his name was John Malik, the man who raped me when I was still married to your stepfather, Mark Anthony, twenty-one years ago. I made you believe in a lie that your father was unfaithful to me thus contributing to us divorcing. But that was a lie as your father was a very faithful man. He never drank alcohol until the day of our divorce.
Mark Anthony Jr is silently processing what his mother is confessing to him.
“Yes, son, I’m the reason why your father turned into an alcoholic. When you turned ten, I filed for a restriction order that forbade your stepfather from getting closer to you except every December on Christmas Day. Right after the divorce, I swore that I would make your stepdad pay for leaving me after he found out that you are not his biological son. I did that by cutting all contact between you and your father. I tore and burnt every single letter he sent you. I was full of anger and hatred, I wanted him to go through the same pain I went through when he left us.”
“Why mom? Why did you keep this secret from me?” Shouts Mark Anthony Jr. His mother is sobbing uncontrollably.
“Here I am, I rejected the man who loved me and treated me like his own son,” with this very last words, Mark Anthony Jr leaves to never come back.
*****
A search was conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) through the whole of Los Angeles, California and its subsidiaries. The police were looking for Mark Anthony Jr who went missing for five days. Three days later, a body was found afloat the Los Angeles River which flows through L.A. from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley. It was identified as Mark Anthony Jr who was reported to have committed suicide by drowning.
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