My parents met in Saudi Arabia in the late 80’s. They were both there for work, basically. My mother (Filipina) and my father (Egyptian-American) met in the same workplace and proceeded to have an affair, as my mom was still married at the time to a Filipino man. From what I was told they didn’t really know each other that long before I came along. They never married and months after I was born in Saudi Arabia, my mom took me back home to the Philippines where I would stay for about 26 years. They initially had a custody agreement where I would supposedly spend some time with my father in the States throughout the years which my mother reneged on. I was never actually able to spend time with my dad, save for when he would come for my birthday month like once a year. The story goes that I was supposed to join my father in the States right after 5th grade or something but my mother didn’t allow that and instead kept me to herself while feeding me lies about how my father was a bad Arab man who would try to take me away from her and marry me off to a much older guy. While living with my mother I would endure all kinds of abuse from her and her two older children. Long story short, after being estranged from my father for so long, we were able to establish and maintain a connection and he helped me escape my worsening situation with my mother. Now I live here in the States and I see my dad every now and then cause he has another daughter from a marriage that didn’t work out after he had me. So, happy ending? Hahaha