5October2025 Diary
Ive been pacing the corridor outside StMarys maternity ward in London, listening to the murmuring crowd of relatives crowding the stairs. Wheres Molly? someone whispers, We cant see her anywhere where has she vanished to? The question hangs in the air, and the puzzlement is almost palpable.
If Molly were actually a mansay, a husband named Victorthe bewilderment would be far less. In this case Molly is a diminutive of the female name, which makes the whole situation oddly out of sync. The fact that Molly had simply disappeared, instead of cradling her newborn daughter in her arms, felt like a scene ripped from a drama.
Shes run off! shrieks her mother as the documents are handed over to her soninlaw, Mark, together with the baby and a final letter from the fleeing wife. It reads like the standard fare of such notes: she isnt ready, dont look for her, she wont abandon her child, shell pay maintenance, and thats the end of it. No return address, no explanation for why a respectable womanonly six months ago dreaming of motherhoodwould suddenly vanish in such a fashion.
Mark, dont worry, Mollys mother tries to console her soninlaw. Shell come to her senses, realise what shes lost, and return. Her older daughter, Emma, stays silent; her inner voice tells her that Molly will not be back. Emma has never been one to act without purposeanything she starts, she finishes. If she decided to leave, she would do it decisively.
Dont be so hasty, Emma, the mother snaps when her daughter hints that Molly may never return. Shell be back. A month or two will pass and a mothers heart will remind her.
Three months later the divorce papers arrived. Molly never set foot in the courtroom, refused custody, and little Lily ended up living with her father. Emma began to visit Marks house more often, helping with Lily and even spending time with Mark himself. After all, both families now shared a new hardship: Emma, too, had been abandonedthough not right after the birth, but a year later, when her fiancé Max walked out.
They had planned to marry when Lily turned three and Emma finished her maternity leave. Yet Max fled, leaving Emma swamped with problems. At least the court confirmed paternity for Emmas son, Jack, and she collected a modest amount of maintenance.
Emma feared that the man who loved her sister would also abandon her, leaving her to raise a child alone. She kept searching Marks behaviour for warning signs, though she never mentioned it to either sister or mother. In the end she realised she had been looking at the wrong personher sister turned out to be the one she should have trusted.
It wasnt that the child had been forced upon her; she wanted Lily. Mark, on the other hand, suggested waiting five years to save enough money to turn his modest twobed flat into a threebed one, but Molly kept urging him forward, forward
The result? She abandoned Lilytiny, defenseless, needing a mother. Perhaps Emmas own experience of motherhood played a part, or perhaps the fact that Lily was, after all, her blood relative, made her eventually see the girl as her own daughter.
Mark, on a few occasions, handed Lily over to Emma, saying, Take her to your mum. He even proposed that Emma move in with him and Jack, offering space for Lily, while Emma could rent out rooms in her own flat to help pay off the mortgage instead of begging the motherinlaw.
When Emma told her own mother that shed moved in with Mark, the older woman launched an angry tirade about the impropriety of a sisters husband seeing his brotherinlaws wife. The former motherinlaw, now perhaps a future one, was ejected from the doorway by Mark, who claimed it was none of her business.
What surprised Emma was that Mark never denied anything. After a few drinks he confessed he was ready to marry her and even adopt Jack as his own. Everything will be fair, he said. You raise my daughter as yours, Ill consider your son mine. I wont push you into anything else; lets just stay togetherits easier for both of us. He could earn a decent wage, but the endless diapers, doctor visits, and baby soups left him clueless. Emma, who had worked as a nursery practitioner before her leave, earned modestly, even at a private preschool.
Marks proposal was pragmatic, perhaps too much so. Emma reflected on the fairytale love she once imaginednothing more than the affection for her own son. Maybe it was time to embrace a practical approach. Mark is a good, kind man; he doesnt drink, he doesnt smoke, and he always chips in financially for his children. Lily has, after two years, started calling Emma Mum. Could everything that has happened be for the best?
The mother never attended the weddingno one really expected her. They signed the papers, shared a drink with close friends, heard wishes of happiness, and returned to Marks flat, now home to four of us. Life changed little, aside from the children sharing one bedroom and the adults the other.
When Molly reappeared one afternoon, it was like a bolt from the blue. Mark, waiting for a delivery, didnt even glance up as his former wife barreled through the front door, arms outstretched.
My love, Im back! she announced. When Mark brusquely pushed her away, she blinked and asked, Arent you pleased to see me?
Should I be? Mark replied with disdain. He had rehearsed countless replies to this moment, but when it finally arrived he could only ask why she had returned at all.
I want to see my daughter. I thought we could sort things out, be a proper family.
I wont let traitors back in, he snapped. Youre speaking of Emma, arent you? You never truly had us.
Emma, just out of the shower, caught sight of the slightly ajar nursery door, the children peeking from behind like guards on a castle wall. Molly, spotting them too, slipped past Mark and rushed to Lily.
Sweetheart, look how youve grown! she cooed, scooping the child up just as little Jack, thinking he was protecting his sister, lunged and bit her leg. The only thing Lily wore was a pair of tights and a short skirt, and the sudden pain made Molly let out a shriek, dropping Lily onto the floor and clutching her own wound.
The children scrambled to Jacks side, and Emmas gaze hardened. Molly hissed, You snake you turned my daughter against me I wont let this stand!
In the end, neither mother nor stepmother managed to claim Lily. Molly had once refused custody, and Lily had never known her mother, showing no desire to reconnect. The mothers attempts to persuade Mark to reverse the situation failed.
Mark and Emma finally cut ties with the meddling motherinlaw entirely, and later moved to another city, leaving no address behind. They now live happily in a new town, raising three children. Lily, to her closest friends, sometimes whispers that she is the daughter of a genuine witch, while her Mum Emma is a kind fairy who rescued her. Jack confirms the tale, claiming his own father is a wicked sorcerer who abandoned a good fairy and fled.
Its a relief that a decent father found his way back, and now they have a contented family of mother, father, and two younger siblings. After all, stories ought to end well.
Lesson learned:People may change their colours, but the truth of who you are will always surface. I must trust the steady, honest bits of life rather than the dazzling promises of sudden returns.
