Chapter 34: A Father's Return
After Mary returned to her aunt's house, something unexpected happened—something that changed the course of all their lives.
Her father, moved by what he saw during Mary's short visit—the worn clothes, the silence in her eyes, the weight she carried as a child—finally made a decision he had delayed for far too long.
He gathered all of Mary's siblings—Monica, Rose, Esther, Rautha, Vincent, Grace, and Gladys—and brought them together in the family compound. Some were still with relatives, some already finding their own paths, but one thing was clear: their father was calling them home.
Then, quietly but firmly, he retired from the army.
After years of service, countless deployments, and months—sometimes years—away from his children, he handed in his uniform and came home. For good.
People in the community were surprised. Some whispered. A soldier, giving up his post so late in life? But he didn't care. For the first time, he looked at his children not through the eyes of a tired man with duty on his shoulders—but as a father.
"I have left them for too long," he said simply. "Now, I must raise them."
He began rebuilding the family house—one room at a time. He called on neighbors for support, asked friends to help him find work he could do from home. He sold a few belongings. And slowly, he took back the role he had once handed over to culture and circumstance.
Mary heard the news from one of her cousins. At first, she didn't believe it. Her father? The same man who had once left her with strangers? The one who had walked away quietly after seeing her suffer?
But now—he was trying.
And though it didn't undo the past, it mattered.
Because love doesn't always arrive on time. Sometimes it shows up late, bruised, uncertain—but willing.
And that was the man Mary's father was becoming.
He had returned—not just to their home—but to his children.