MY MOTHER-IN-LAW ACCIDENTALLY RECORDED SOMETHING SHE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO SEE (10 of 13)

One line stuck with me.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to matter to someone again.”

The police took him in for a mental health evaluation.

Turned out, he’d never recovered from losing his wife. They’d had no children. No family left. He’d lived in silence for years, until one day he started walking through backyards just to hear laughter.

Eventually, that turned into pretending.

Our house reminded him of his old life.

He’d watched us for months before building up the courage to cross the line.

I thought I’d feel vindicated when I heard it.

Instead, I felt… sad.

Not because what he did was okay. It wasn’t. But because this was what loneliness could do to a person. Twist their grief into something strange and broken.

Everett was placed in a long-term psychiatric care facility.