My Father Didn't Know I Had Cancer Until I Died

Five years after my mother’s death, my father brought home a woman and her daughter. I stood in front of the door, refusing to let them enter. That was the first time my father hit me.

“From now on, this woman is your mother and the girl next to her is your sister! If you can’t accept that, then get out of my house!”

Fury coursed through me as I stormed out, leaving my home behind. In his anger, he seized the one thing my mother had left me—the house. He took it, leaving me homeless and stranded on the streets. I didn’t contact him again until I found myself hunched over in my rented room, coughing up blood and trembling as I dialed his number in desperation.

But instead of concern, I heard laughter—cheerful chatter coming from a dinner table. His voice sliced through the laughter with icy indifference: “If you’re going to die, then just die already. I’m not a doctor!”

Dad seemed to forget that ever since I left that day, he had frozen all my funds. I couldn’t even afford painkillers.

——

The sting from Stephan Murdoch’s slap burned deep into my skin. In all my years, it was the first time he had ever raised his hand against me and it was all because of the woman standing in front of me, Lorene Hopkins and her daughter, Cassandra.

Lorene rushed forward, grabbing my father’s wrist, her eyes filled with a feigned concern as she glanced at me. “Honey, how could you hit her? She’s your own child,” she cooed softly, as if her words were meant to soothe. “Valerie, I’m not here to take your mother’s place. Cassandra and I just want to take care of Stephan. We only want to help you take care of him. That’s all.”

As she finished, Lorene gently nudged Cassandra forward. The girl smiled sweetly at me, her eyes sparkling as she held out a photo. When I noticed her gaze drift to my chest, she displayed the picture, allowing me to see it fully.

It was a family photo—my dad, Lorene and her. They were posed together like a perfect family, with Cassandra right in the middle. A perfect family of three.

Before my mother died, she always wanted us to take a family photo. But at that time, my dad’s company was going public and he was constantly busy.

“We’ll do it soon,” he’d always say. “Things are just too hectic right now.”

“Why don’t we just take a selfie for now?” Mom had joked back then. Now, all that remained in our living room was a simple snapshot of us at the dining table—a pale, inadequate memory of what used to be.

Flooded with memories of the past, an uncontrollable wave of rage surged inside me. I wanted nothing more than to rip their picture to shreds. Before I knew it, my hand was already reaching for Cassandra’s photo.

Before I could retract it, Cassandra smiled at me, her expression innocent. In the next instant, the frame slipped from her grasp and shattered into pieces on the floor.

“Valerie, you… no, it’s my fault. My hand slipped,” Cassandra stammered, her voice soft and apologetic, though her eyes betrayed no remorse.

Lorene rushed over, pulling Cassandra to her feet, her tear-filled eyes turning to me with the same feigned concern. “Valerie, I know you don’t want to accept me and I don’t want to force you to. You don’t have to hurt Cassandra. She is innocent.”

At the sight of Lorene’s tears, Dad’s expression softened. His face filled with tenderness for her as I watched him and suddenly, I felt a pang of injustice for my mother.

Mom had stood by his side through every hurdle of building his business. She had watched his empire grow larger and larger, even as it consumed more and more of his time.

Even when she was sick, she hid it from him, not wanting to distract him. It wasn’t until the day she coughed blood onto my face that I realized how much worse her condition had become. By the time we took her to a doctor, it was too late. Even with all of Dad’s money, we couldn’t save her from terminal lung cancer.

In her final moments, Dad took me into his lap and cradled me in his arms while holding Mom’s hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of our daughter,” he had promised. “I’ll never let anything happen to her.” The sting from Stephan’s slap still lingered on my face, but what hurt more was the truth behind it all.

Stephan didn’t know this wasn’t the first time I had encountered Lorene and Cassandra. The first time I saw them was at one of Murdoch’s company celebration parties. I had overheard their conversation in the restroom.

“Soon we’ll be living the good life, Cassandra,” Lorene had said, her voice low but confident. “That man’s wife is dead, leaving only a daughter. And once I marry him, I’ll take charge of everything.”

I had seen countless women like Lorene, but there was something different about her features that caught my attention. It was how much her eyebrows and eyes resembled Mom’s. Not entirely, but enough to make me look twice. And now, here she was, standing in my house.