Mateo’s jaw tightens, but he says nothing.
You sit on the couch, trying to be invisible, trying not to interfere, but every instinct in you is screaming that this woman is not here for her daughters.
She is here for a storyline.
Over the next few weeks, Mariana starts showing up more often.
Always with a photographer nearby. Always with a social media post ready to go.
The girls appear on her Instagram with captions about redemption and second chances and the unbreakable bond between mother and child.
But at home, they are quiet.
Confused.
They ask Mateo why she only visits when there are cameras.
They ask you if she is going to take them away.
You do not know how to answer that.
Then one evening, Mariana’s lawyer sends a letter.
She is filing for partial custody.
Mateo reads it in silence, and you watch the color drain from his face.
“She wants them every other weekend,” he says, voice hollow. “And holidays.”
You feel rage rise in your chest, hot and protective.
“She cannot just walk back in and demand that,” you say.
Mateo looks at you with exhausted eyes.
“She is their mother,” he says. “The court might side with her.”
That night, you cannot sleep.
You lie awake thinking about three little girls who have already been left once.
Three little girls who built their entire sense of safety around a father who stayed.
And now that foundation is being threatened by a woman who sees them as props in her public image rehabilitation tour.
You make a decision then, in the dark, with Mateo asleep beside you.
You are not going to let this happen without a fight.
The next morning, you call a lawyer you know.
You ask what rights you have, if any. You ask what Mateo can do. You ask how to protect children from being used.
The answer is complicated, but not hopeless.
The custody hearing is set for three weeks away.
Mateo hires a lawyer. You help him organize documents, therapy records, school reports, anything that shows the girls are thriving exactly where they are.
Mariana’s team tries to paint Mateo as controlling. As someone who kept the children from their mother out of bitterness.
They try to make you look like an outsider. A woman trying to replace their real mother.
It is ugly and exhausting and nothing about it feels fair.
But the girls know the truth.
