The sixth woman disappeared the morning after telling my father she wanted to see him again. I am Lola. Dad had spent twelve years alone after losing my mother before joining a dating app. He met kind women, and every date seemed to go well. By sunrise, each one stopped answering. He blamed himself and grew quiet again. I asked my best friend Rachel to go on one date with him and tell me what she noticed.
Rachel said Dad had been funny, respectful, and completely normal. She even agreed to dinner the following Friday. The next morning she sent a strange text: “Don’t contact me. Please.” When we met, she showed me anonymous messages with a photo of her leaving the restaurant with Dad, her home address, workplace, and a private family secret about her brother Graham. Someone had been watching her. Dad’s security footage showed a hooded figure near his driveway that same evening.
The figure wore distinctive white sneakers I recognized from an old family photograph. They belonged to Sabrina, my late mother’s younger sister. Rachel confirmed she had once privately told Sabrina about Graham. I confronted Sabrina. She admitted following the women, researching them, and frightening them away because she believed she was protecting my mother’s memory. Rachel reported the messages. Dad provided the recordings. Sabrina accepted responsibility and entered counseling.
Dad blamed himself and said he should never have dated again. I told him loving Mom did not mean spending the rest of his life alone. Months later he met a woman named Jocelyn. He told her about Mom and what had happened. She did not disappear. After their third date, he called me while music played in the background, and I heard him laughing. For the first time since losing Mom, it no longer felt like he was waiting for the past. He was finally allowing himself to build something new.
