Uppgrayyed: After my mother left my father, he developed an inappropriate attachment to me. I was 19 and my brother moved in with his girlfriend. Dad was suicidal and had no family or friends close by, so I was it.
For the first year, he would wake me up at 2 am to sit with him every night until he cried himself to sleep. After 4 years of cleaning up after him, making sure he ate and generally remained alive, I discovered that he had been using the attic access in his closet to sit above my bathroom and watch me through a peephole.
I wanted to dismiss it as paranoia, but there were too many physical signs that made it a reality. I moved out shortly after that because I couldn’t bear to look at him. I’m 29 now, and no one in my family has any idea that this ever happened. I know that he was going through a rough patch, but I still feel violated and dirty every time I think about it. I also have huge amounts of guilt because I hate him for putting me through it.