A dad begins to worry when he learns his teen daughter has skipped school, and he fears the worst when he checks her backpack and finds wads of cash. The wise father then finds a way to unravel the truth, save her from serious problems, and teach her a lesson.
“Alright, pal, I’ll try to come, but I’d be mostly hanging out with my daughter this weekend,” Philip told his friend on a call while fixing a leaking sink for a client. Just as he hung up, he got another call almost immediately from his 14-year-old daughter’s teacher.
“Mrs. Anderson?” Philip was alarmed as he answered the call. “Why is she calling me? I hope Sabrina is okay.”
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“Good day, Mrs. Anderson! How may I help you?”
To Philip’s shock, he was told that his daughter had not been attending school for the past three days. Philip was startled because his daughter told him she was going to school that morning. But she had lied to him…
“Is everything alright at home, Mr. Brown? I just wanted to make sure Sabrina was alright and not down with the flu or something. The weather is terrible these days,” the teacher went on.
“Ah, yes, Mrs. Anderson. Nothing to worry about! Thanks,” Philip hung up as he could not find any excuses. He had no clue Sabrina had been skipping school the last three days and immediately called her to find out.
“Hey, sweetie, where are you?” he asked Sabrina.
“Dad?? I’m at the cafeteria. I just had my lunch. I’m getting late for class,” she told him.
“Oh, okay… Could you please buy milk on the way?” he asked her. Philip knew Sabrina would probably lie to him again if he asked her where she was and told her he knew she was not in school.
When he got home after work, he saw two cartons of milk on the table and realized Sabrina had already returned home. “Sweetie, I’m home,” he shouted, but there was no answer. Philip looked around for his daughter, but she was not at home.
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When Philip realized Sabrina had gone somewhere, he decided to check her school bag. He hadn’t done such a thing earlier, but now, he was forced to do it.
Philip feared his daughter could fall into some bad company and start using drugs. He knew it was silly to doubt his child and jump to conclusions, but he was not ready to trust the circumstances. He was hounded by the fear any single father would have in raising a teen daughter alone. Philip just wanted to be sure Sabrina was not doing something wrong and marched into her room.
He looked around several times before unzipping Sabrina’s backpack. Philip didn’t want her to think ill of him for frisking her bag when she was not around. He rummaged through her backpack, worried he would get his hands on drugs. But when Philip took out wads of cash, he was startled no less.
“Oh my God… Where did she get so much money from??” he gasped. Philip put the money back into Sabrina’s backpack and kept it as it was. He hurried out of her room, frightened about what his teen daughter could be doing.
“How will I get her to tell the truth?” he worried. “If only Samantha were alive, she would’ve certainly known what to do,” he worried as he sat on the bed, thinking about his late wife.
Philip, Samantha, and Sabrina were a happy family five years ago. But their joy came to a standstill, and everything changed when Samantha was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Sabrina could not cope with the fact that she would lose her mother soon. Philip borrowed money, sold his farmhouse, and did everything to save his wife’s life, but in vain. Samantha died, and it was a hard blow for Sabrina.
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Besides therapy, her dad’s support helped her heal gradually. Sabrina and Philip were like best friends, and they never had secrets. But as Sabrina entered adolescence, she could no longer share all her problems with her dad, and even Philip understood that. Still, he always strived to balance parenting and giving his daughter some liberty.
Moreover, he trusted Sabrina and never doubted her actions. Philip would’ve continued to trust his daughter if he hadn’t found wads of money under ‘mysterious circumstances’ in her bag. But he now knew he could not do that anymore until finding out where that money came from.
Later that evening, Philip was plating dinner when Sabrina returned home. She was acting absolutely normal and was fidgeting with her phone. “Hey, sweetie, dinner is ready! Why don’t you join?” he broke her silence.
Philip could quickly tell she was upset about something and was trying to hide it. But he pretended he didn’t notice anything. “So, how was your day at school?” he asked her.
“Huh, dad, it was alright,” Sabrina sighed. “The math test today was so difficult. I hope I pass coz I don’t want Mrs. Anderson to shout out my marks in front of the whole class.”
“Hmmm, alright! Your food is turning cold. Please eat soon and get some rest,” Philip said. He knew Sabrina had lied again but decided not to ask her about the money in her bag and why she skipped school.
“It’s of no use asking her anything. She’s gonna lie again to cover up something. It would be better if I follow her tomorrow to find out where she’s going instead of school,” he thought.
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The next morning, Philip kept an eye on Sabrina as she hurriedly devoured her bowl of cereal and grabbed her backpack. “I have to make notes for an assignment in the library. Bye, dad!” she said and rushed out.
As soon as Philip noticed Sabrina had crossed the gate, he quickly followed her and was surprised when he saw her entering his friend, Mr. Hudson’s house, in the next street.
“What is she doing there??” Philip wondered. “The keys?? Oh my God, how did she get George’s house keys?” he was startled. Philip then remembered Mr. Hudson had given his house keys to him a few days ago before leaving to meet his daughter in the nearby city. “I’d put it on the key holder in the dining room,” he recalled and realized Sabrina had stolen it.
Philip was puzzled. First, the lump sum of money in his daughter’s backpack, and now this. It was too much for him to fathom, and he didn’t understand what was happening. After a brief wait, he barged into Mr. Hudson’s house and was shocked to find it in a mess.
“What are you doing here??” he fumed. “And why is this place such a mess??”
Sabrina was shocked at seeing her dad.
“Daddy?? What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”
“Yes, and I should’ve done it much earlier. Thank goodness Mrs. Anderson told me you’d been skipping school. Or else I wouldn’t have known what you’ve been doing. What the hell is going on, Sabrina?”
At this point, Sabrina knew she could no longer hide the truth.
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“Daddy, I’m in high school now, and I have so many new classmates,” began Sabrina. “They are all rich, and I wanted to be more popular in class. I wanted everyone to praise me and make friends with me. I didn’t want to be a nerd and loser like in middle school. I wanted to be among them, not sidelined.”
Sabrina broke down when she said this and recalled her middle school life that was nothing short of a nightmare last year.
Back then, Sabrina was bullied by a girl named Erika, one of the prettiest girls in the class, and her gang. They never let her into their club because they felt she was not rich like them. They constantly ridiculed Sabrina, and she never had many friends.
Even the few girls she hung out with only talked about how rich and beautiful Erika and the girls in her gang were. This irritated Sabrina, but she never made a scene. When she entered her first year of high school, she fell head over heels for Roger, a new boy in class.
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Sabrina liked Roger. He was handsome and smart, but the only thing that worried her was that Roger was friends with Erika and the other girls. The girls avoided her whenever Sabrina tried to talk to him and took him away.
“Stay away from Roger,” they told her and bullied her for having a crush on him. Rumors started spreading in class, and Sabrina was deeply hurt. But at the same time, she could not stop liking Roger though she tried her best to stay away from him.
When she could no longer stop thinking about him, Sabrina knew her only chance to get closer to him was to befriend the girls. When she couldn’t figure out how to please them, she saw Mr. Hudson giving his house keys to her father a few days ago. An idea quickly struck Sabrina, and she decided to host a party for the girls and even invited Roger over.
Sabrina and her dad lived in a small house, so she knew it would not help if she invited her friends over for a party at her home. She knew how beautiful and spacious Mr. Hudson’s house was, with all its splendid furniture and pantry loaded with foodstuff and drinks.
“They will not tease me anymore, and I can be one of them… And Roger will start talking to me. He won’t ignore me anymore,” she thought and took Mr. Hudson’s house keys without her dad’s knowledge.
On Sunday, Sabrina lied to her dad about attending a friend’s birthday bash and had set up Mr. Hudson’s home for the weekend party. She had hidden all his family photos in the attic to ensure the house did not leave a clue that it did not belong to her.
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The party was in full swing that evening. Sabrina spent all her pocket allowance she’d saved on pizza. She took snacks and drinks from Mr. Hudson’s pantry and made sure the girls had nothing to complain about. But then, things got wild when Roger and Erika had a food fight and ran after each other.
Sabrina was hurt when Roger didn’t even notice she was seeing him playing with Erika. While chasing her, he tripped on the carpet and pushed the TV set, and it shattered on the floor.
“I tried to stop the girls, but they didn’t listen,” Sabrina returned to the present moment and cried to her father. “They kept running around the house and broke Mr. Hudson’s bed while jumping on it. They had a food fight, and someone broke the TV set and ceramic dishes.”
“And then they left once the party was over. They refused to help me clean the mess, and I knew I was in trouble.”
“But that does not explain about the wads of cash in your school bag. From where did you get so much money??” Philip interrupted.
“Daddy?? You checked my school bag?” Sabrina was startled.
“And that’s why I followed you. Now, tell me the truth. Who gave you so much money?”
If only Philip knew Sabrina would reveal something he had not come prepared for.
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“Dad,” Sabrina gulped her fears and began. “I stole that money.”
“WHAT?? YOU STOLE MONEY? FROM WHERE??”
“From Mr. Hudson’s cabinet.”
As it turned out, Sabrina had skipped school to fix things in Mr. Hudson’s house. While cleaning his room, she checked his cabinet and found wads of money stacked in the drawer. She took a few bundles to replace the broken TV and bed, thinking he would never find out.
Philip was alarmed as he hadn’t expected Sabrina would do something like this. He was afraid of the humiliation he’d have to face if Mr. Hudson found out what Sabrina had done. Philip did not have time to think and acted fast to save his daughter.
“It’s all my fault. I RAISED A THIEF! I’m so ashamed of myself,” he fumed.
Sabrina hung her head in shame. “I’m sorry, daddy,” she cried.
“Go put the money back in the drawer. I hope you didn’t spend a dime. Please tell me the truth if you did,” Philip raged.
“No, daddy. I was just about to replace the TV and bed today. I didn’t take a penny from what I stole.”
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“Alright! We have to clean this mess before Mr. Hudson comes. And then, we will have to drive somewhere.”
Philip and Sabrina cleaned Mr. Hudson’s house, putting things back in their place. The photos were hung back on their old spot, the floor was scrubbed clean, and everything was prim and proper, the way Mr. Hudson had left it.
Philip spent his savings to replace the broken TV and bed with new ones. He was so agitated but knew this was the only way to save his daughter from being called a thief and an intruder.
“Great! Now come with me,” he told Sabrina. “We have to go somewhere immediately.”
“Dad, where are we going?”
“You’ll see for yourself, and only then you’ll know what a stupid mistake you made.”
He then drove Sabrina to the hospital in the city nearby. It was the same hospital her late mother was treated for cancer.
“Dad, what are we doing here?” she grew anxious.
“You’ll know, my dear,” said Philip as he took out his phone and called someone.
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“Yes, we are here. Can we visit you?” Philip spoke.
“….alright, then. We will be there in five minutes.”
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“Dad, what’s going on? Why are we here?” Sabrina asked Philip. He suddenly stopped outside a ward with the sign: Pediatric Oncology Center.
“Look through the glass,” Philip said as Sabrina stepped forward and peeped through the round glass on the door. She saw Mr. Hudson holding a bald girl’s hand.
“Remember Amy, Mr. Hudson’s daughter? This is where she’s been living ever since she was diagnosed with cancer,” Philip told Sabrina.
“Mr. Hudson has been saving his pension for her treatment. He told me he keeps money in his cabinet because he is afraid of last-minute delays in the bank in case he needs money urgently for something. Sabrina, you not only stole his money, but you tried to steal his daughter’s life. Amy is all Mr. Hudson has after he lost his wife last year.”
Tears flooded Sabrina’s eyes when she saw Amy hugging Mr. Hudson. He was telling her something, wiping away her tears.
“And you know what? I don’t think Amy is worried about not being the most popular girl in the class. She doesn’t care if her dad doesn’t blindly spend money to get her expensive things or if he doesn’t have a grand house. She only wishes to be alive and win her battle with cancer. She only wants her dad… not his money or anything. I only hope Mr. Hudson forgives me if he comes to know I covered up for you,” added Philip, tears rising in his eyes.
Sabrina didn’t answer or utter a word and silently cried. “God, what did I do? How will I face my dad?” she thought.
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Several months passed, and Mr. Hudson was always grateful to Philip and Sabrina for taking care of his house while he was away. He trusted them as always, and they never let the things Sabrina did in his house slip.
Sabrina started working on her father’s friend’s farm the following summer. Although she could not repay her dad fully, she decided to return her two months’ earnings to him to compensate for the money he spent covering up for her in fixing Mr. Hudson’s house. But to her surprise, Philip refused to take a penny.
“It’s not about money, again, my dear. I hope you learned how greed and theft could ruin your happiness and someone else’s life. I’m glad you’ve changed. This money is yours, and you may spend it as you wish.”
Sabrina could not hold back her tears and donated all the money to sick children that evening. She did not want to be the popular girl in class. She craved no attention nor rich friends. She realized that popularity and fame only hold true if one does good and does not feed their greed by harming someone.
As for Mr. Hudson, he continued to trust Philip and Sabrina with his house again, and it’s a mystery if he would ever come to know the things Sabrina did in his home.
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What can we learn from this story?
- Do not steal from someone. You might end up ruining your life and theirs. In her race to become popular in class, Sabrina stole Mr. Hudson’s money. She threw a party in his house, guessing little about the problems she would face. Most of all, the money she robbed was Mr. Hudson’s hard-earned savings to save his daughter fighting cancer.
- Never tell a lie because you will end up telling more to cover up that one lie. When Sabrina lied to her father, she did not know that she would have to tell more lies to cover it up.
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