A Stranger Reached Out To Me On Reddit. His Confession About His Own Daughter Left Me Terrified.
Yesterday, I was talking to a man on Reddit who reached out to me after reading one of my confession posts about my emotionally distant father and how much it hurts to feel unloved by him. At first, he was very kind. He comforted me, gave me advice on how to talk to my father, and suggested ways I could express how deeply his emotional distance affects me.
As our conversation continued, he suddenly said that if I were his daughter, he would give me more than just hugs and affection. That immediately made me uncomfortable, so I asked whether he was married. He said yes. I then asked if he had children, and he told me he had four, including two daughters.
I asked him if he was attracted to his own daughter. He admitted that he often notices how pretty she is and described the way she dresses and looks at home. I told him that she is his biological daughter and that he should never look at her in that way. I explained that if she ever found out, she would likely feel disgusted, unsafe, and betrayed because a father is supposed to be his daughter's safe place.
He insisted that he would never act on those thoughts. He even admitted that he imagines his daughter while being intimate with his wife. I was shocked and told him again that this was deeply wrong and that he needed to stop thinking about his daughter in that way. He eventually said he would try, and the conversation ended.
Afterward, I couldn't stop thinking about what he had confessed. I anonymously shared the story on Reddit without revealing his identity because I genuinely wanted people to be aware that individuals like this exist. Unfortunately, someone in the comments managed to identify his account and tagged him, even though I had not intended for that to happen.
He later messaged me, saying I had violated his privacy and demanding that I delete the post. I apologized for the unintended consequences but refused to remove it because I believed the situation was serious enough to be discussed. During that conversation, he mocked me about my emotionally distant father and said, "Now I know why he doesn't care about you." That hurt, but it also made me realize that instead of reflecting on what he had admitted, he chose to attack one of my deepest emotional wounds.
Now I'm left feeling conflicted. Part of me feels guilty because he was identified, even though that was never my intention. At the same time, I don't believe I was wrong for speaking up about something I found deeply disturbing. I still don't hate him, and I genuinely wish him the best. I only hope that, for the sake of his family—especially his daughters—he gets the help he needs and never allows those thoughts to become actions.