A help from afar

- Do you not understand? In addition to all my confusion about everything that's going on, you're bringing me more trouble when you're really supposed to help? Ah, I don't want you in this house anymore, or in my daughter's life.

He laughed, scornfully:

- "His daughter?

- Mine... Yes, mine. I'm the one who takes care of her. Salma is gone and you know very well the relationship we had.

- Yet she will never be “yours”.

I felt a tear trickle down my right eye, wiping it hard:

- Of everything you can say to get to me, touching her name is the worst way. If you knew how I feel about this child, you would never hurt me this way.

- Enough of being nice to you, Babi.

- Did you ever go?

- Believe me, I did.

He turned his back and left. I closed the door and stood there for a while, letting the tears flow. How many times would I still hear in my life that Maria Lua was not my daughter? It was like a stab to my heart. What I felt for that girl was greater than anything I'd ever felt in my life.