When TikToker Jessie (@jessiev81) was in the sixth grade, she was called down to the office. She was surprised to see her dad standing at the secretary’s desk, filling out paperwork. He had come to take her out to lunch.
They got into his car and drove a couple of blocks to a pizza restaurant. Once they ordered their pizza, he said that he needed to tell her something very important, but he wanted to wait until after they ate their pizza.
“I was thinking, what could be so important that you took me out of school?” Jessie recalled. “Never done that before. I rarely ever see you, and now, we’re sitting at Pizza Hut like this is just a father-daughter day out, and I mean, this never happens.”
As they finished up their pizza, he finally explained to her that this was his last day in the state. Apparently, he owed a lot of money for drugs to some really bad men, and they would kill him if he didn’t pay them.
As a result, he had to leave the state so that they wouldn’t find him.
While he was gone, he wouldn’t be able to contact her at all because these men could find out where he was hiding. He didn’t know how long it would be until he could see or talk to her again.
Jessie was in shock because she didn’t completely understand what her dad was saying. She was also heartbroken because she didn’t know when she would see her dad again.
She knew that her dad had been involved with drugs before, because when she was in the fourth grade, he got caught selling drugs to the people in the prison where he worked. He ended up on the front page of the newspaper, and she had to go to school the next day.
Anyway, now he had to go into hiding. He left when she was 12, and she didn’t see him again until she was 17 years old. That was just another day in the life of a child who was raised by addicts.
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In the comments section, many TikTok users shared similar stories involving people caught up in drugs.
“Kudos to him for at least being honest and telling you why he’s disappearing instead of letting you wonder,” pointed out one user.
“I’m glad he at least talked to you about it before he bounced. A boy I used to date had an older brother who just disappeared one day in 2017. It’s widely believed he was abducted and killed by his drug dealers,” commented another.
“Men pulled up in a black limousine at my friend’s father’s funeral. A man he had never seen before walked up to him and draped an arm over his shoulder. In a low, kindly voice, he said, ‘We’re going to forgive your father’s debts.’ He literally had no idea what the guy was talking about. Terror and bewildered relief. What a moment,” wrote a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
