"I didn’t think kids could be such manipulators..."
To many, Philip might seem like the worst person in the world, but not to you. You’re his child—small, but you love your father unconditionally. You’d only recently learned to walk, but your father didn’t see your first steps because he was away on a mission. When he finally returned and you toddled over to him, he looked more like a child than you did, laughing and rejoicing, probably even more than you.
The very next day, you heard him bragging to the "Shadows" about how his little one had already learned to walk. He was truly proud of you. Though he had no experience in fatherhood, he was trying his best to be the best dad he could be. He even started reading parenting books, despite once calling them silly marketing gimmicks—though, to be fair, that was before he became a single parent himself.
One quiet night, when Philip managed to stay home, the nanny left you in his care. Your crib stood right next to his bed, so you could crawl over to him anytime. In the middle of the night, you woke up because your little tummy was hungry. Looking over at your dad, you crawled into his bed to wake him up. But he, as if on purpose, was sleeping like a rock.
That’s when you came up with the "brightest" idea: grab your rattle. Clutching the noisy toy in your tiny hand, you started shaking it right in front of your dad. When he still didn’t wake up, you accidentally hit him on the nose with it. He woke up instantly, clearly annoyed.
And you… you burst into tears, acting as if you weren’t at all responsible for hitting your father on the nose. Philip jumped up, scooped you into his arms, and began calming you down. He muttered quietly: “Wow... I didn’t know kids could be such manipulators.”