I Got Deceived: Son Inherits Dad’s Abandoned Trailer – Realizes He’d Lied For Years

Is it possible to be both a liar and a hero? Adam once thought that solving mysteries and uncovering double lives was the stuff of movies, but he found himself thrust into a world of danger, deceit, and dedication thanks to his father.

This story of suspense features a grown son trying to find out what happened to his complicated, secretive father who disappeared 15 years ago. Though this story begins with a trailer abandoned in the woods, it ends in justice with a lot of heartbreak and mystery in between.

Adam vaguely remembered what happened when his father went missing; he was, after all, just a kid. What he did remember was odd, almost as though he dreamed it. None of the memories were sharply defined. He knew men and women came to his mother’s house after his father disappeared, wanting to speak with her. She turned them all away. Adam caught them peering through the windows sometimes, and one even waved to him. Over time, the visits stopped.

This story begins with Adam receiving a letter from the courts informing him that he had inherited something from his long-lost dad. He was stunned, as his father hadn’t spoken to him since his disappearance 15 years ago. Adam’s mother had declared his father deceased in the hopes of inheriting something valuable. Instead, Adam was the sole heir to his father’s fortune, and that fortune seemed to consist of just one thing: a rundown trailer. The letter included the coordinates of the trailer, and Adam immediately packed his bags and drove three hours to the abandoned property.

He spent the journey thinking about the secretive, closed-off father he knew from childhood. The forests surrounding the trailer were isolated and dense, and it was also chillingly silent, with not even birdsong to keep Adam company. Adam ventured into the woods, hoping to find some answers.

After pushing his way through trees and brush, Adam arrived at the property, only to be disheartened by its state. It was old, disused, and broken, and he wondered not only where his father was but why he’d kept the trailer secret from him for years.

Adam opened the door to the trailer, and his confusion deepened. Inside were piles of dusty, musty-smelling belongings and scraps. He sifted through the trailer’s clutter, hoping to find some reason he was there. He saw a flash of metal; there was something in this trailer that didn’t seem to belong.

This was the first clue of many, and it would spark Adam’s journey to redemption. When Adam looked at it harder, he realized that the key seemed as though it had been placed purposefully, like his father had meant for him to find it, betting that his son would see it.

Adam pushed through piles of wood, metal, and scraps on the ground, his eyes locked on the shiny object he’d seen on the trailer’s floor. Almost buried beneath the rubble was a small key. Considering that the trailer was totally unlocked, Adam knew this key had no business there. Mother Nature might have taken over the trailer as the years passed on, but this uncanny key had survived her onslaught. Adam never imagined he’d find something of value in the trailer, but he began to get his hopes up when he saw the key. Could it lead to a safe, to something valuable?

Staring at the key in his hand, Adam thought about his father. People hadn’t really liked him, with many calling him odd and standoffish. Though Adam remembered his father as a kind man, he was an aloof one. A key was nothing without a lock, and Adam began to frantically search the trailer again, scouring it from top to bottom to find a hidden safe or compartment. He found nothing. Defeated, he sat down on the ground.

It was from this floor-level position that he noticed a loose floorboard. “There’s no way,” Adam said aloud to himself, jumping at the sound of his own voice. He was still soaked in sweat. He stared at the floorboard in shock. How had he missed it?

Amazed at his lucky streak—first the key and now this—Adam scrambled over to the floorboard and pried it open. Inside was a small notebook, which Adam pulled out with trembling hands. Flipping through the pages, he realized that this was no ordinary notebook; made from pricey brown leather, it was the journal of his vanished father, and it also had quite a few secrets to share.

Flipping through the pages, Adam landed on the last entry in the journal. His eyes widened; his father had written him a message. “Dear son, if you read this, I am gone. I had no choice but to leave. In this journal, you’ll find coordinates. Follow them, and you will find what rightfully belongs to you.” This handwriting looked different than on the other pages. Adam frowned. What had his father gotten himself into? The note was short and abrupt, which wasn’t that surprising considering how Adam’s father had been so distant throughout his childhood. After the message about what rightfully belongs, Adam’s dad included one more line. The line was written in panicked scribble at the bottom corner of the page: “Be careful,” the note read, “they know.”

Adam typed the coordinates his father had given him into his phone. They led him to a storage unit near his hometown. He turned around and drove to the unit, journal and key in hand. Eventually, he arrived at the coordinated area, but there was a problem. Standing in front of a row of red storage garages, Adam realized his father had forgotten one crucial detail: his father hadn’t written down the number of the storage unit.

Adam asked the building manager which unit his father had purchased, but the manager said there was no unit under the name given. Frustrated, Adam thought about forgetting the whole ordeal. After a minute of stewing, curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to try something else. His father wouldn’t have put the unit under his own name if he was in danger, which only meant one thing. If whatever was inside belonged to Adam, it only made sense that his father would have put the storage unit under Adam’s name.

Adam asked the manager to look up his name, and unit 33 was a match. Immediately, he noticed that unit 33 looked old and disused. No one had been there in ages; the padlock had totally rusted shut. Adam stuck the key in the lock; it opened immediately. Feeling nervous, Adam asked the manager to stay with him as he looked in the unit.

The two of them walked into unit 33. The small, dark space was covered in stacks of dusty old boxes, all of which were taped shut and unlabeled. Adam began to open the boxes; in them, he found old toys and memorabilia from his childhood. He smiled at the thought that his father had kept these possessions for so long. However, boxes of memories weren’t the only thing the unit held.

Adam looked toward the back of the unit, and there he saw a small door that led to an even smaller room. The manager was stunned, as standard units normally had no such feature. Adam’s father must have built this add-on himself. The door was locked, but it had been a long day. Adam didn’t try to find any more keys or journals; he simply kicked in the door the manager on his heels.

The two adventurers stepped into the hidden room, brushing away dust and cobwebs. Inside, they found a small makeshift office with maps, documents, photographs, and more. Sifting through the clutter, Adam realized that many were written in code. His father must have been up to something dangerous.

Underneath the desk, Adam found a hidden chest. Luckily, the trunk was unlocked, and inside, Adam found a stack of photographs and documents tied together. Adam’s breath caught in his chest when he realized this stack contained references to important officials in his hometown. And not just any references, but evidence of corruption, embezzlement, and lies perpetrated by these so-called leaders. Also, Adam saw evidence that these officials had covered up his father’s disappearance.

Further examination of the office showed his father had been an activist investigating the town’s corrupt officials. After seeing all of this, Adam knew what he had to do.

What Adam didn’t see was the storage unit manager peering over his shoulder. The manager’s eyes widened when he saw what the bundle of papers entailed. He was careful not to get too close to Adam, trying to feign disinterest in what the papers actually said. He put his hand in his pocket, closing his fingers over his cell phone, should he turn back, locking Adam in the unit.

The back of Adam’s head loomed in front of him as he thought about what to do. After all these years, this had finally been unearthed. The evidence included everyone: councilmen and women, the sheriff, deputies, and more. What had this town been up to?

After reading further, Adam couldn’t believe what he saw. His hometown had been covering up bribes to elected officials, bribes for government contracts, rule-bending, and more. Adam’s father had even gained access to financial records.

Adam heard a shuffle of feet behind him. Turning, he saw the storage unit manager, Bill. His name tag read Bill, and he was staring at Adam with wide eyes, as though he were in a daze. Adam knew immediately that Bill had seen what the stacks of photographs and papers entailed.

Did Bill really look that shocked? Adam couldn’t tell; the man had probably lived in the town his entire life. He likely knew the people about which Adam’s father’s papers talked. Adam just hoped that he wouldn’t say anything until he, Adam, had the chance to do what needed to be done.

“Bill, we have to tell someone,” Adam heard himself say, a note of pleading in his voice.

“I agree,” Bill said, and Adam saw that a bead of sweat was running down the center of his forehead. “I think we do, too,” Adam looked at him, unable to get a read on what he was thinking. “I just need him to leave,” Bill thought. He told Adam he agreed; the two needed to tell someone. For a few seconds, the men stood in the cramped storage unit, staring at one another in silence.

“You should get going,” Bill said, clearing his throat. “You probably have a lot that you have to do.” He grabbed up most of his father’s documents and evidence, striding quickly out of the room. Bill took his phone out of his pocket and made a call.

Adam walked out of the storage unit, gasping in fresh air. The incident with the manager had rattled him, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that something important and unspoken had transpired between the two of them. He got in his car and pulled out of the storage center, a feeling of dread growing. He made it a mile down the road before he saw blue and red lights flashing behind him.

Immediately, Adam pulled over. He hadn’t thought he’d been speeding, but his mind was so distracted that he might have been. Were his tags up to date? Were his headlights both on? The police car pulled up behind him, and a man got out. He was wearing a sheriff’s outfit and hat, and his face was inscrutable.

Panicked, Adam looked at the stack of papers and photos he had on his lap. What was he going to do with them? Adam looked into the back seat, and he saw his answer: hiking shoes could save the day. Adam had brought his hiking shoes with him to traipse through the woods to find the trailer; they were covered in mud, dirt, and who knew what else.

Adam reached into the back seat and shoved the papers into the bag with his hiking shoes. Hopefully, the mud and dirt would dissuade the sheriff from searching. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he watched the sheriff approach his car.

“Good evening,” the sheriff said. “Can I get your license and registration?” The sheriff asked. Adam wordlessly handed him those documents, not trusting himself to speak.

The sheriff, his name tag reading Williams, took them and put them in his pocket. “Where are you coming from?” he asked Adam. Adam answered truthfully, as he had a feeling that the sheriff already knew the answer. When the sheriff asked him to step out of the vehicle, Adam did so with a feeling as though he was walking to his doom.

Sheriff Williams began peering into Adam’s vehicle. He asked him a few more questions about what he had been doing before getting pulled over. Struck by a sudden inspiration, Adam began to talk, keeping his voice as convincing as possible. “Find anything interesting?” the sheriff asked.

“Something I thought was interesting, but now I’m sure it’s nothing. My dad was pretty paranoid,” Adam said. “He had a lot of weird ideas.” Adam could see the sheriff sizing him up, determining whether he was telling the truth or lying. Adam tried one more comment to see if it would get him off the hook. “All my father left me was a bunch of garbage,” he said. “I just want to get back home.” That latter part was true. The sheriff looked at him for another second and then shrugged.

He reached his hand back into his breast pocket and handed Adam his license and registration. “Take the interstate,” he said. “That’ll be the fastest way to get you on your way.” Adam nodded, assuring him he would. He entered town from a different point so as to avoid any police cars; for all he knew, they were told to look for his vehicle.

Out of curiosity, Adam pulled over in what he hoped was an obscure location. He had to know who he was dealing with, as he was sure he hadn’t seen the last of the sheriff. He looked into his father’s stack of evidence, pulling out what his dad had found out about the sheriff. He shook his head in disgust, seeing that like many other officials, the law enforcement leader had been taking bribes. A lot of people had made it out of jail thanks to some well-placed money.

Could my father be alive? Adam thought as he raced back to his mother’s house, the stack of evidence on his passenger seat. When his mother opened the door, her face froze. It was as though she knew what Adam had come to talk to her about. His mother was hesitant at first, but after being confronted, she admitted the truth.

She revealed that his father had right before disappearing admitted to leading a double life. Adam’s father had been working as a secret undercover agent. All the lies about working late that Adam heard throughout his childhood were false;

his father had really been gone on secret missions, a fact his mother uncovered after she confronted him before his disappearance.

“So now you know the truth,” she said. But that’s not all. His mother disappeared for a minute and then returned, handing her son a shoebox. Inside the shoebox were letters. Adam’s mother sifted through the box for the most important one, a letter from Adam’s father that told her to declare him deceased and stop searching for him. According to Adam’s mother, the box had come a week ago.

Adam sank down onto the couch. So his father was alive, but judging from what Adam had learned, his dad was truly gone, as it was too dangerous for him to return. Adam was torn between feeling angry and understanding. Then his mind jumped to what he’d learned about the sheriff, all those wealthy criminals out of jail. Perhaps his father thought he was protecting his family.

His father was the target. By removing the target, his dad might have believed he was saving his mother and son. The more Adam thought about it, the more it made sense. Adam hugged his mom, but he wasn’t ready to let this issue go. There was one thing left to do; of course, he couldn’t let his father’s work be in vain, nor could he leave it to rot in a storage unit or trailer.

Adam left his mother’s house and turned over all the evidence to law enforcement. It took years, with Adam working tirelessly with courts, prosecutors, police, and the news media, but he got the result he wanted. The public officials his father had exposed eventually faced full consequences for what they had done. As it turns out, Adam was right; that wasn’t the last time he saw the sheriff. He also saw him at his trial, which made the news in all 50 states.

His father’s work had been more far-reaching than he had thought; people all across the country were talking about what he’d done. Hopefully, his father’s sacrifice would inspire other people to take a look at their towns and who was running them. Most of the officials received jail sentences, but a few disappeared into thin air, just like Adam’s father, whom they had forced into hiding.

There was still a long road ahead, but Adam hoped that his father, wherever he was, would get the news of his son’s bravery and feel safe enough to come home. But mostly, Adam felt a sense of peace that he had finally finished his father’s life’s work.

That’s the funny thing about endings; just because you want something to be over doesn’t mean it truly is. For Adam, things were just beginning, and as it turned out, there was a lot more to his father than he didn’t know. One day, after the judges had banged their gavels and closed the last of the corruption cases, Adam received an email inviting him for an interview back in his hometown.

The events that transpired had been all over the news, and Adam wasn’t surprised when he saw a request from a local publication from his hometown asking him to do an interview. Adam responded back to his would-be interviewer, a woman named Julia Elway, and he agreed to show up. He offered a date and time. Within a few minutes, surprisingly quickly, Julia emailed back and agreed to his offer.

He cruised into town as easily as if he lived there his whole life. He had for 18 years, at least. He was due to meet Julia at a local house; her house, he assumed. It was an informal place to conduct an interview, but this was small-town news, after all.

Pulling out his phone, he looked up Julia Elway on Google. Her LinkedIn profile popped up, and Adam delved in. Julia’s LinkedIn profile showed nothing out of the ordinary. She was a normal-looking woman, and it appeared she had worked for the county news for a while. He knocked on the front door.

Within a minute, Julia answered the door. She wrung her hands and said, “Come in,” in a bright tone of voice. Her eyes were wide, and she looked nervous. “Everything all right?” Adam asked. His experiences with the town had taught him not to take anything at face value.

He felt his paranoia heighten. Reluctantly, Adam walked in, shutting the door behind him. “I knew your mother, you know, and your dad,” Julia said, leading him down a hallway into the kitchen. “Do you want any coffee or tea?”

“Coffee, please,” Adam said. “Thank you for interviewing me.” The air in the house was hot, and his collar seemed to tighten on his throat, choking him. A tiny voice inside his head told him that he needed to get out now. The kitchen looked like it hadn’t been used since the 1950s. The house was a real house, but it also somehow wasn’t.

“You know what?” Adam said. “I actually forgot something in my car.” Before he could finish the sentence, he felt something hit him upside the head, and then everything went black.

What felt like days later, Adam sat up. He was lying down on a cold stone floor. Of course, his cell phone and wallet were gone. It appeared he was in a basement of sorts, as the only light amidst the cobwebs, old furniture, and junk came from a tiny window at the top of the cellar wall.

“You’re the reason I’m in here,” Adam said, remembering how manic she’d looked when he walked in: the disuse of the house, the hot temperature. “No, you idiot,” Julia said. She wiped sweat from her face and stood up; she had been sitting near the stairs before Adam stormed up them, displacing her. “It’s the other way around.”

“Whose house is this?” Julia laughed, looking at him in near disbelief. “It’s yours.”

“It is not,” Adam said. “My mother’s down on Crestwood.”

“It’s not my house,” Julia said. “It is not my house,” Adam said. “My mother’s down on Crestwood.”

“It’s not my house,” Julia said. “You only found half the photos, Adam. I found the other half.” She sighed, suddenly looking decades older. Reaching into the small of her back, Julia pulled out a small stack that she’d apparently hidden in her waistband. “Here you go, Magnum PI,” she said.

Adam’s heart sank when he saw the rest of the photos. It appeared that his father hadn’t been exposing corruption in the town as part of a brave mission. He’d been exposing it to shift the blame off of himself. One of the photos consisted of screenshots of bank deposits from Sheriff Williams to Adam’s father, the same sheriff who’d pulled Adam over and was later jailed for corruption. The two had been closer than they thought.

Adam gasped for air, winded by the encounter. Where could he even go? Were the county police on the same side as his dad? Adam’s eyes began to water as he thought about the hero image he’d built up for his father. All that facade came crashing down as Julia said, “Come on, we have to go.”

The pair ran out of the stash house, slamming the front door behind them. Adam knew at that point he had no choice but to get out of town. He and Julia rushed to his car, and Adam sped off in the direction of the state border.

As the two drove away from the town, Adam couldn’t help but think about his father’s words in the journal: “Be careful, they know.” It seemed that even now, after all these years, his father’s secrets and the danger they entailed still haunted him, and now, they had become a perilous legacy for Adam to navigate.