The Woman Who Was Almost Me

I was thinking every day about how easily I had dismissed Gabriel's words. Had I been too eager to protect the life I had finally built, too quick to overlook the signs?

I convinced myself it was just my mind playing tricks, that nothing was wrong. But the doubt was persistent, lingering like a shadow, questioning my judgment.

Had my desire for stability made me blind, or was Gabriel simply stirring trouble where none existed?

I needed to know the truth, even if I was afraid of what I might find.

And so, the search for answers began.

I set up a hidden camera, and it didn't take long before I had what I needed.

The feeling of watching them was indescribable—disgusting, unsettling. It was clear this wasn't a one-time thing. The betrayal was far deeper than I had imagined.

Each moment on that footage felt like a knife twisting in my gut, and though part of me wanted to confront them immediately, I hesitated. I wasn't sure what would be worse—facing the truth or pretending it wasn't there.

But the truth was undeniable, and now, I had to decide how to handle it.

That night, I said directly, "Kaveh, Hanie stays with me after the divorce."

His face went pale, and for a moment, he was silent. I could tell he hadn't expected it to be this direct.

He finally spoke, but his words were quiet, measured, as if trying to buy himself time. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

I looked him in the eye, unflinching. "It's what's best for her. You've made your choices, and now I have to make mine."

The weight of the decision hung in the air between us, and for the first time, I felt a shift in the dynamic between us—something final, something irreversible.

Kaveh's face hardened as I spoke, the calmness he usually carried slipping into something sharper. He disagreed with me. "Dorsa, you can't just take Hanie. She's my daughter too," he said, his voice rising slightly.

I shook my head, not wavering. "She's my daughter too, Kaveh. You can't pretend you didn't know that."

But his response came quicker, as if he had been waiting for this. He leaned closer, his eyes narrowed, and with a mocking grin, he said, "Is this because of that past of yours? You never really let go of those feelings, did you? Maybe you think this will somehow give you the control you always wanted."

I froze at his words. My feelings, buried long ago, were irrelevant now. Yet hearing Kaveh twist the past made me feel exposed, vulnerable, and angry. I met his eyes, not backing down. "That was a long time ago. I don't have time for past mistakes now. Hanie is the priority, not whatever story you want to tell yourself."

Kaveh scoffed, turning away from me. "You think you're in control of this, but you're not. You've always been about control, Dorsa. Always trying to push people to do what you want. Well, this time, it's different."

Then, Kaveh did something I didn't expect. He pulled out a set of documents from his briefcase, and I immediately recognized them as psychological evaluations I'd had done years ago. "I've got these," he said, his voice cold. "You want to take Hanie from me? I've got proof that you're unstable. Your mental health issues, your history—it's all here. If you think you can get her, you'll have to go through the system first. I'll make sure they see what I see."

I stood there, frozen. My world, everything I had fought for, felt like it was crumbling at my feet. Kaveh was threatening to tear me apart with those papers. They were from years ago, false evaluations that had been manipulated, that had been twisted to make me seem like someone I wasn't.

"What are you going to do, Kaveh?" I whispered, my voice trembling. "Use my past to steal my future?"

"Don't make me do this, Dorsa," he said, his eyes now full of something darker. "I'm protecting Hanie from you. You can't even trust yourself. And neither can I."

Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I clenched my fists, forcing myself to stay composed. "You know this is wrong, Kaveh. This isn't about Hanie. This is about you trying to control me, to make me feel small. I won't let you win."

His smirk returned, colder than ever. "We'll see about that."

And just like that, the battle lines were drawn.

The air between us was thick with tension, the silence more suffocating than the words we'd exchanged. Kaveh, with his cruel, calculated move, had shifted everything—my trust, my hope, and my future. My daughter, the one thing I thought was beyond his grasp, was now a pawn in a game I never asked to play.

As I stood there, facing the man I had once shared my life with, I realized something: this was no longer about past mistakes, no longer about what we had or didn't have. It was about survival. It was about protecting Hanie at all costs, even if it meant facing the darkest parts of my own past.

The documents in Kaveh's hands were just paper, but they were also a reminder of the lengths he would go to hold onto control. I wasn't going to let that happen. Not again. Not ever again.

Without a word, I turned and walked out, my heart pounding in my chest. The battle wasn't over, but the war had just begun.