06/02/2026
I am no longer just hearing my father’s name in nightmares. I was him. Everybody called me Daniel the entire fucking time. I met my grandfather, and I wish I didn’t. He’s the same as my father. And the same as I was. Somehow, I was scared of him when I wasn’t myself. Maybe that’s why I never got to meet him in real life. I guess he fucked up my father, too. Maybe it runs in the family, and I should have never had kids.
…but I’ve changed. I swear. I don’t know how to prove it. I didn’t know. I spent the entire night in that nightmare trying to convince people I hate and people I’ve never met before that I’m not Daniel. I am better than him. I tried to convince everyone else, but I had to convince myself too. They all picked up on the uncertainty.
…
Maybe I am no better than them. Maybe like my father and my grandfather, and my mother, and whoever else, all I can do is breed misery in my family. I’ve hurt every single one of my kids so badly at one point or another. Even Soli didn’t want to sleep with me. Cay and Jacob thought I’d abandoned them. Maybe I have. Maybe I am now, being with my “new family.” I managed to push away Lily after the divorce, and she was all I even had.
…maybe I can’t prove anything. I’m not better than any of them.










