For five years, my father charged me rent while I struggled financially, and I came to resent him. After his funeral, his best friend handed me a box that changed everything I thought I knew.

Before Mom passed away, our home was always filled with music.

Dad played guitar most evenings on the living room couch while Mom sang from the kitchen.

“Come on, buddy.”

Sometimes she’d use a wooden spoon as a microphone, making me laugh until I forgot the lyrics.

“Come on, buddy,” Dad would say, patting the seat beside him. “Your turn.”

I’d climb onto the couch with my toy guitar, pretending to perform before thousands.

Then Mom died when I was nine, and the music disappeared.

Dad put away his guitar and began working extra shifts, returning home exhausted and rarely speaking.

He kept the fridge stocked and signed my school paperwork, but hardly ever asked about my day.

“Can I get new shoes? These let water in,” I once asked.

“Put on another pair of socks,” he replied without looking up from dinner.

I had a father, but he rarely acted like one.

At twelve, I found old photographs in a drawer. Dad stood onstage holding a guitar, his shoulder-length hair falling around his face as a crowd cheered.

“Dad, you were in a band?”

“Long time ago.”

“What was it called? Did you make an album?”

He snatched the pictures away.

“That’s enough questions.”

But my curiosity remained.

One evening, I asked if he’d ever wanted to become famous.

He stared into his coffee.

“It was a dream once. But my time’s gone. Maybe you will inherit it.”

I didn’t understand.

By sixteen, I’d learned guitar on my own and begun writing songs. My dream was to study music production and eventually record an album.

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