When I was seven months pregnant I discovered my husband was having an affair. The realization was physically painful and left me struggling to breathe. I sat on my bed reading messages I wished I had never seen while my unborn baby kicked inside me. My immediate instinct was to file for divorce and protect myself from further pain. I was sobbing uncontrollably when my father came into my bedroom. Instead of rushing or raising his voice he simply sat beside me and waited for me to calm down.

My father advised me to stay with my husband for the sake of the baby. He then confessed that he had also been unfaithful to my mother during her pregnancy claiming it was just a meaningless urge. Hearing this from the man I trusted most left me feeling doubly betrayed and completely disoriented. However my blood pressure was already dangerously high and my body felt incredibly fragile. Fearing the stress of a legal battle I decided to stay. I ignored my husband and focused entirely on my prenatal care.

Time passed slowly until I finally gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The moment I held my son all my anger and humiliation faded away. Later that day my father visited us at the hospital with a fiercely protective look in his eyes. He took my hand and urged me to divorce my husband immediately promising that he and my mother would help me raise the baby. When I reminded him of his previous confession he admitted that he had never actually been unfaithful to my mother.

My father explained that he only invented that terrible lie to prevent me from pursuing a stressful divorce while my health was failing. He knew I needed to focus solely on safely delivering my child. Now that my son was safely brought into the world we could finally handle my husband the right way. While his deception initially shook my trust it successfully bought me the peaceful time I desperately needed. I realize now that his strange and imperfect lie was the most profoundly protective act of love.