My father abandoned my mother and their ten children for a younger woman from church. A decade later, he called asking to reunite as a family, but I made sure he learned a lesson first.

On an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, my mom’s name flashed across my phone at a time she should have been teaching class. She didn’t leave a long voicemail, just a single sentence that instantly made my stomach twist. My father had called. The same man who vanished from our lives ten years ago. And now, suddenly, he wanted to come back. I was unloading groceries from my car when Mom called. I almost ignored it because…