Every Night, My Daughter Says “There’s Someone on the Roof,” and the Heartbreaking Truth Behind It

My 10-year-old daughter and I moved into a rental house at the beginning of October. The house is a one-story building with only a small attic used to store household items, not a space where anyone could live. The reason I rented this house was because it was close to my daughter’s school, making it convenient for dropping her off and picking her up. Once I have more money, I plan to rent a bigger house.

At first, my daughter was excited about the new house. Although it was small, it was neat, and most importantly, it had a small room just for her, while I slept in the living room. But after living there for about a month, my daughter started showing signs of discomfort and told me she didn’t want to stay in this house anymore. When I asked her why, she finally confessed the reason:

“There’s someone in the attic, Mom, I’m really scared.”
“What do you mean, there’s no one, dear? It’s just the two of us here, don’t be scared.”
“There’s someone there, Mom. They keep bending down and looking at me, and I’m really scared.”

I didn’t quite believe my daughter at first, because when I inspected the attic before renting the house, I saw that it was completely cleaned out by the landlord. After we moved in, I added a few of our belongings there, but that’s all.

In the month since we moved in, I hadn’t gone up there again because there was no proper staircase, only a ladder to get to the attic. But I was confident that no one was up there, especially since I always locked the door when we left, and the house was completely closed off—there was no way for anyone else to sneak in.

So when I heard my daughter’s story, I found it rather ridiculous and didn’t think much of it.

In the days that followed, my daughter continued to tell me about the “person in the attic.”

“Mom, I really saw someone up there! When I go out at night to get water, they always watch me. I’m so scared. Please, let’s move to a different house.”

To reassure her, I decided to climb the ladder and check the attic myself. And as I had expected, there was absolutely nothing there—no one at all. To make my daughter feel even more secure, I installed surveillance cameras to monitor the attic. The result was the same: no suspicious person appeared, as my daughter had described.

After thinking about this, I concluded that the issue was with my daughter, so I decided to dig deeper and find out what was really going on to help her feel better.

“Sweetie, I’ve checked the attic, and there’s no one there as you said. I even showed you the surveillance camera footage. Everything looks fine. So, you don’t have to worry. We’ll find another house when I have enough money.”
“Can we leave right now, Mom? I don’t want to live here anymore.”
“We can’t leave right away because I don’t have enough money to rent another place, and we’ve already paid for this house for six months, so we can’t just leave.”
“Why don’t we go back to live with Dad? We won’t have to pay rent, and we’ll be with him.”
“What do you mean by that? Is this why you lied to me?”
“I… I…”

The child lowered her head, silently acknowledging it.

“Yes, Mom, I lied about the person in the attic because I don’t want you and Dad to be apart. I want our family to be happy like before. This house has a room for me, but it doesn’t feel as warm as our old home, and most of all, it doesn’t have Dad.”
“I’m so sorry, but we can’t go back to how things were. Your dad is in love with someone else, and we won’t be living together anymore.”
“Why can’t you? We can all live together like before. I’ll ask Dad to break up with her and love you like before. Please, Mom, don’t divorce him. I want to live with both you and Dad in our own house. I don’t want to live in any other house.”

The child cried as she hugged me, and I couldn’t hold back my tears either. I finally understood why she had created this story: she was trying to get us back together. My heart ached for her, but I knew that reconciliation seemed impossible.

More than anyone, I understand how difficult it is for children when parents separate. They often suffer emotionally and mentally. Not living in a complete family makes them feel insecure, which can lead to instability and a lack of love from both sides. Children may also feel guilty, thinking they are the reason for their parents’ separation. The absence of one parent can affect the development of a child’s personality and emotional growth, leaving deep scars that are hard to heal.

Right now, I’m very confused and don’t know what to do.