It was early 2010 , My sister, cousin, and I were playing outside when suddenly we heard screaming coming from inside my grandparents house. Being the nosey kids we were, we decided to walk in the house and see what was happening. Our grandpa was yelling and causing a scene when he got mad at my grandma for spilling something. After that day, we noticed that our grandpa would start getting mad over little things towards all of our family. Constantly our grandpa would either leave the house during the night and would lie saying “ he wouldn’t leave” or “he had to work an extra shift”. At this time my grandpa and I would get along one day, and the next would be the total opposite. Still every time he looked at me he would look sad, but he only did that to me and no one else.

Months passed into early Summer, my aunt had just made the decision that she would join the Navy to be able to support her family. About a year later the fighting was still happening between my grandma and grandpa. At this time my aunt got moved to Virginia Beach which means my cousin would have to move too. Well because my aunt was going to be gone most of the time, my grandma decided to move to Virginia to take care of my cousin. My grandpa decided to stop calling my grandmother and my cousin, as well as the rest of my family.

One day my mother decided to drive to his house to make sure he was ok, when she pulled into the driveway another car was there that she had never noticed before. My mom had a key so she knocked but when no one answered she decided to just unlock the door herself. When walking down the hallway, my mom saw her father ( Grandpa) with another girl on the couch. My mom immediately started screaming and panicking. The girl ran out of the house and drove away. Soon my whole family knew that my grandpa had cheated on my grandma. Later my mom found out that my grandpa had been cheating since my mom was born, the first out of the three children.

After hearing the news, my grandma was in disbelief and could not bare to think about her husband for twenty years cheating on her. My grandma still was not living in that house but she was depressed. For years my grandma still thought that he was going to change and apologize, which he never did, Instead he stayed with the girl and proceeded to ignore our family, and make a new one. In the beginning of 2016 my grandma finally decided to file for a divorce. Finally they got a divorce. Me being the youngest I never fully understood what was happening until my sister and cousin told me everything. I immediately felt horrible, but one day I decided to call him for the first time.

I tried the same number from before when I previously tried to text him. I called twice, one time leaving a voice message. He never picked up his phone when an unknown number appeared, or when he knew it was his family. It was 9:05 pm, and he called back. I picked up the phone at the last ring. I didn't immediately say “ hello”, I waited for him to speak first. He finally spoke after silence, that felt like forever. He answered with a simple “hello”. When i first heard his voice, I couldn’t help but just start to cry and soon after I heard the same noise coming from the phone. I finally felt as if that I wasn’t abandoned from him, and that he still loved me. I quickly wiped away my tears and told him the truth. The truth on how I felt.

I explained to him that what he did was disgusting and I was ashamed that he chose another family over us. After ranting about how much I hate what he did, I finally said that “ I still love you, no matter what you do. I just don’t have happy feelings when I think about you now.” All he kept repeating was excuses on why he did what he did. But truly there was no excuse that could ever fix the pain that he caused my family. I wanted to feel like I got the last word, so I finally said “ I forgive you, even if you don't forgive yourself” and I hung up the phone. After that day, it felt that a relief was off of everyone's shoulders. Even though it took only one person to forgive someone, it felt like everyone needed it to.