My mother chose a man over me: how she betrayed me for a stranger
My name is Valentine, Im 17 and Im from Marseille. I kept this story inside for years, silent, but now Im ready to share it. Maybe someone will see themselves in it, maybe someone will rethink their behavior, or at least a mother will think twice before betraying her own daughter, as mine did.
My parents split when I was ten. I cant say we were a happy family beforearguments, blame, a distance that I sensed even without fully understanding. After the divorce things got worse. My mother and father seemed to fight over my attention, not out of love but out of duty. I was shuttled from one flat to another, like a suitcase with no clear purpose. My fathers place was cramped but calm; my mothers house was spacious, yet each year the atmosphere grew more suffocating.
Everything collapsed when a new man entered my mothers life. His name was Christian, in his thirties, almost ten years younger than my mother, and he instantly acted as if he owned the house while I was just an inconvenience. At first he wore a polite smile, pretending to care about me. Soon, the façade fell. He didnt want me living with my mother. He didnt like my mother spending money on me. He didnt hesitate to loudly call my father irresponsible, label me a burden, and say I should already walk alone in life.
He manipulated my mother, drained her money, convinced her she didnt need a teenage daughter, that she needed freedom and to look after herself. And my mother she listened. She no longer noticed my tears at night, how I quietly gathered my books in the kitchen just to avoid crossing their paths, how I locked myself in the bathroom for an hour just to sit in silence.
The final straw came one night when I heard them arguing again. The shouting made the windows shake. I left my room to stand between them, trying to protect my motherI feared he would hit her. Instead, he stared at me with such fury that my heart clenched. I screamed, Enough! Dont yell at her! and he landed a hard, real blow on my face, sending me crashing into the corner of a cupboard. Everything blurred. I only remember my mothers scream and then silence.
I thought he would leave. I imagined my mother would throw him out, hug me, call a doctor, tell me how much she loved me. I stared into her eyes, searching for that hopeful rescue. She whispered, You ruined everything. An hour later she told me I had to go live with my father.
I packed my things in silence, my heart ripped from its roots. I didnt cry. I didnt shout. I simply left, realizing I no longer had a home.
Now I live with my father. He does what he can, but we dont have the closeness I desperately craved from my mother as a child. I no longer expect her to call, apologize, or come back Yet deep inside Im still that little girl waiting for her mother to open the door and say, Forgive me, my daughter. That will never happen. She chose a manhim, the one who struck her child.
I wish her no harm, but I know one day hell leave her for someone younger, prettier, more compliant. Shell be left alone, and perhaps then shell remember me. I wont be the one who forgives everything, because a mothers betrayal is a wound that never heals.
I tell all parents: dont have children if youre not ready to be there for them, if you cant place them above your romantic dramas. We children arent responsible for the choices of your heart. We didnt ask to be born. But if you chose to bring us into the worlddont betray us.
Mom, if you ever read this know that I survived. I got back up. I am strong. But I will never come to you crying like before. You are no longer my mother. You are just a woman who gave me birth once.
My Mother Chose a Stranger Over Me: How She Betrayed Me for Another Man
