Simon and Claire finally have the family they dreamed of… until Claire asks to return her newly adopted daughter. When Claire’s love turns into resentment, Simon faces an impossible choice. But for him there is no doubt. Sophie is now his daughter. And he will fight for her, no matter what it takes.
The first time I saw Sophie, she ran straight into my arms.
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It was small, all brown eyes and wild curls, and smelled like baby shampoo and fresh grass. He clung to me as if he already knew, as if he had already decided that I was his.
A smiling girl | Source: Midjourney
A smiling girl | Source: Midjourney
Claire and I had fought for this moment. Years of failed pregnancies. Years of anguish. When we opted for adoption, the wait had been unbearable, months of paperwork, home visits, interviews.
“Are you sure about this?” asked the social worker, Karen.
He was watching us carefully from the other side of the table, with a thick file in front of him. Sophie was sitting on my lap, playing with my wedding ring and singing softly to herself.
A woman sitting at her desk | Source: Midjourney
A woman sitting at her desk | Source: Midjourney
“Of course,” Claire’s voice was firm and confident. “It’s ours.”
Karen nodded, but she didn’t seem very convinced. I tried not to take it too seriously, because Karen was probably used to families promising those children the whole world and then failing them.
“I think you’re serious,” he said. “But adoption is not just love. It’s about commitment. It’s forever. You are bringing home a girl who has had a difficult start in her life. Sophie will test you. It will go beyond the limits and may even break things. It won’t be on purpose, of course, but she’s just a girl. They have to be prepared for all that.”
A smiling woman sitting in an office | Source: Midjourney
A smiling woman sitting in an office | Source: Midjourney
Claire crossed the table and shook my hand.
Then he smiled at Sophie, who smiled back.
A smiling girl | Source: Midjourney
A smiling girl | Source: Midjourney
“He’s a perfect little angel.”
“Okay,” Karen hesitated. “Congratulations, Claire and Simon! They are officially parents.”
Something changed in my heart. It was the beginning of an eternity.
A smiling man | Source: Midjourney
A smiling man | Source: Midjourney
I knew something was wrong as soon as I crossed the front door.
There was silence, too much silence, as if the house itself held its breath. Then, out of nowhere, Sophie pounced on me, wrapping her small arms around my legs.
His little voice trembled.
“I don’t want to leave, Dad,” he said.
A man standing in a lobby | Source: Midjourney
A man standing in a lobby | Source: Midjourney
I frowned and knelt down so that we were at eye level.
“Where are you going, honey?” I asked him.
His lower lip trembled. His brown eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want to leave again. I want to stay with you and mom.”
A disgusted girl | Source: Midjourney
A disgusted girl | Source: Midjourney
I got a chill. Where had I heard it? And why? Sophie was too young to go to school and spent the days with Claire at home. While Claire worked, Sophie played. While Claire had meetings to run to, any of our mothers took care of Sophie.
Who had said what to my daughter?
“That won’t happen,” I promised. “You’re already home, sweet girl.”
A girl playing with her toys | Source: Midjourney
A girl playing with her toys | Source: Midjourney
Then Claire entered the hallway.
He didn’t look at me, his gaze was fixed somewhere beyond my shoulder, with his arms crossed so hard that it seemed painful. His face was pale, even expressionless. But his eyes? They weren’t empty. They were distant.
As if something had broken inside her.
“Simon, we need to talk,” he said.
“Why does Sophie say she has to leave?” I replied.
A woman standing in a corridor | Source: Midjourney
A woman standing in a corridor | Source: Midjourney
“Send her to her room. Now, Simon.”
Sophie’s tiny fingers grabbed my shirt as if she could anchor herself to me. I passed a hand down his back.
“Honey, go play for a while, okay? Go to your room. I’ll come pick you up soon and we can have dinner.”
He hesitated. I felt his heart race against mine.
A disgusted girl | Source: Midjourney
A disgusted girl | Source: Midjourney
Then, reluctantly, he nodded and walked away down the corridor, giving us nervous glances before disappearing into his room.
As soon as the door closed, Claire spoke.
“What?” I exclaimed. “What did you just say?”
A man standing in a corridor | Source: Midjourney
A man standing in a corridor | Source: Midjourney
Claire’s arms tightened on her chest.
“I don’t want this anymore, Simon,” he whispered. “The… it’s ruining everything! My books, my files… my clothes… He’s even ruined my wedding dress!”
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
Claire exhaled abruptly, running a hand over her face as if she could barely keep her composure.
A woman standing in a corridor with her arms crossed | Source: Midjourney
A woman standing in a corridor with her arms crossed | Source: Midjourney
“I’ve taken it off before. I felt nostalgic, I guess… Sophie entered while holding it in her hand and lit up, Simon. He called it dressed as a princess and asked me if I could touch it.”
My chest hurt at the image of a little girl, full of amazement, looking at something beautiful…
“That’s not the problem,” Claire said. “The problem is that my hands were full of paint. I don’t even know how I didn’t see it. But as soon as he touched the fabric…”
A wedding dress on a bed | Source: Midjourney
A wedding dress on a bed | Source: Midjourney
His voice broke into a high-pitched and unfunny laugh.
“Bright blue handprints. All over the damn dress.”
“Claire, he didn’t do it to hurt you,” I sighed.
“You don’t know that, Simon!” Claire’s voice broke. “You don’t see it! She’s a manipulator. She wants me to leave to have you all for her.”
A girl with paint on her hands | Source: Midjourney
A girl with paint on her hands | Source: Midjourney
“Can you hear yourself right now?”
“You always wanted this more than I did.”
The words hit me like a slap.
Did I want this? Just me?
An altered woman in a hallway | Source: Midjourney
An altered woman in a hallway | Source: Midjourney
As if she hadn’t been the one pushing for adoption, swearing that it was also what she wanted? As if she hadn’t cried with joy the day we met Sophie, promising her a forever home?
I stepped forward, looking on his face for the woman he knew. The woman who had once held Sophie.
“Now you’re safe. We love you very much,” he had told him.
But now? I only saw someone else. Someone who didn’t love our daughter.
A thoughtful man | Source: Midjourney
A thoughtful man | Source: Midjourney
“You’re not serious,” I said softly. “You’re just overwhelmed, and this is just a fit. As Karen said. Sophie is just testing the limits, of course… but it’s not…”.
“Enough, Simon,” Claire’s voice pierced mine like a knife. “Either she leaves, or I leave.”
I didn’t expect an ultimatum. My wife or my daughter?
A man with his hand on his head | Source: Midjourney
A man with his hand on his head | Source: Midjourney
I looked at Claire and she wasn’t joking. His expression was too calm, too sure, as if he had already made peace with this. He had gotten into this conversation knowing that he would leave me little or no option.
I had assumed that I would win.
The woman he had loved, the Claire who had fought for this adoption, who had cried when we brought Sophie home, had left. And instead there was someone who saw a frightened girl as a threat.
Close-up of a woman | Source: Midjourney
Close-up of a woman | Source: Midjourney
“I’m not going to destroy this girl’s life,” I said, in a uniform voice. Definitive. “She’s my daughter now.”
“Are you really going to choose a stranger before me?” Claire was left with her mouth open.
“Strange? Are you crazy? I choose what is right.”
She let out a sharp and incredulous laugh.
A disgusted woman | Source: Midjourney
A disgusted woman | Source: Midjourney
“Do you think you’re some kind of hero? That I’m the villain for not wanting a daughter who… that…”, she let out a strangled sound, running her hands through her hair.
I didn’t answer. Because I had nothing to say anymore.
Claire passed by my side, took the keys and slammed the door. The squeak of his car as he left the entrance resounded in the night.
And so, without further ado, he disappeared.
A woman walking away | Source: Midjourney
A woman walking away | Source: Midjourney
Three weeks later
The room smelled of stale coffee and cheap air freshener.
A round clock marked the hours on the wall, and every second spread between us like a cannon. Sophie was with my mother, excited to make cookies and decorate them too.
“Don’t worry, Simon,” my mother said. “I will keep my granddaughter dear and entertained. Go fix your marriage, son.”
A plate of colorful cookies | Source: Midjourney
A plate of colorful cookies | Source: Midjourney
Claire was sitting in front of me. He had his hands rigidly crossed on his lap and his eyes kept blinking between the mediator and me.
I barely recognized Claire as my wife.
She wasn’t pale and frantic like the night she left. She was serene, with her lips painted soft pink, and she wore the same pearl earrings that I had given her on our anniversary.
A woman sitting at the table | Source: Midjourney
A woman sitting at the table | Source: Midjourney
But there was something strange, something forced, as if she had practiced looking at herself regretfully in a mirror before coming here.
“I made a mistake,” he said, finally breaking the silence. “I wasn’t in my right mind.”
I exhaled slowly and looked at the mediator, a woman named Ellen, who was watching us carefully, with a pen on a notepad.
Claire turned to me, in a softer voice.
A man sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
A man sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
“Simon, I… I let fear dominate me. I wasn’t prepared. But I’ve had time to think and I want to go home. I want us to fix ourselves.”
Because, what had to be fixed?
He had planted himself in our house, had looked at our daughter and had called her manipulative. In Claire’s eyes, a four-year-old girl was manipulative?
A disgusted woman sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
A disgusted woman sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
He had given me an ultimatum, as if Sophie was something that had to be thrown away.
And now, because a year had passed, because she felt alone, because the reality of her choices had settled, did she want to rewind?
“You didn’t just leave me, Claire,” I said. “You left her.”
A man with one hand on his head | Source: Midjourney
A man with one hand on his head | Source: Midjourney
“I was overwhelmed…” He shuddered.
“We were both,” I interrupted. “But I didn’t leave.”
Claire parted her lips, but I hadn’t finished.
“Do you know what he did after you left?” My voice trembled, but I continued. “She cried until she fell asleep for weeks. He woke up in the middle of the night, calling you. I thought I had done something wrong.”
A disgusted girl | Source: Midjourney
A disgusted girl | Source: Midjourney
“Simon…” Claire’s eyes were glassy.
“You destroyed it,” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And I won’t let you do it again.”
Ellen cleared her throat.
A mediator sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
A mediator sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
“Simon, just to be clear, are you saying that reconciliation is not an option?”
I turned to the mediator.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“I still love you, Simon,” Claire said.
A disgusted woman sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
A disgusted woman sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
“I don’t love you anymore,” I met his gaze, unwavering.
The truth settled between us, cold and definitive. Claire let out a broken and silent sob. But I didn’t approach her. I didn’t comfort her.
Because the woman he had once loved had chosen to be a stranger.
And I had already chosen Sophie.
A man sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
A man sitting at a table | Source: Midjourney
A year later
Sophie continues to shudder at the loud voices.
He continues to hesitate before calling me “dad”, as if he feared that the word itself would make me disappear.
She keeps clinging to me when she’s afraid, when nightmares chase her to my room, when she loses sight of me in the store, when she takes my hand and someone lets her go.
But now he laughs more. It’s lighter. He is learning to trust the type of love that doesn’t go agoin.
A girl sitting on a sofa | Source: Midjourney
A girl sitting on a sofa | Source: Midjourney
Tonight, when I put her in bed, she snuggled up against my chest and her little fingers surrounded mine.
“Won’t you leave me, Dad?”
“Never,” I said, kissing his forehead.
He sighed and his body relaxed against mine.
Finally safe. Finally at home.
A smiling girl in a bed | Source: Midjourney
A smiling girl in a bed | Source: Midjourney
What would you have done?
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Zara’s world breaks down when she discovers that her husband has been secretly sending money to her best friend. For months. But the betrayal is deeper than he ever imagined. Instead of breaking down, Zara plots the perfect revenge. A public humiliation, a final confrontation and a lesson that the couple will never forget.
This work is inspired by real facts and people, but has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters and details have been changed to protect intimacy and improve narration. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, or to real facts is pure coincidence and is not the author’s intention.
The author and the editor do not guarantee the accuracy of the events or the representation of the characters, and are not responsible for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is”, and the opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or the editor.
