My dear child,

Today, I said goodbye to the man I loved.

Do you know why I did that?

Maybe you don’t. Let me tell you.

Today, we talked about marriage. He painted many beautiful pictures of the future, but the one thing I wanted to hear about the most—was you.

Yet he didn’t mention you at all.

So I asked him, “What about my child?”

Do you know what he said?

He said you should stay with your grandparents.

In that moment, my heart shattered into pieces.

I never thought he would ignore what I had always made clear:

Wherever my child is, that’s where I will be.

He once promised me that he would let us be together, that mother and child would not be separated.

But now, he says otherwise.

My love, in that moment I understood—

I could only choose you.

Between love and my child, I will always choose you.

I ended it right there.

Do you know what he said afterward?

“To just let the child stay with the grandparents for a year.”

But I’ve seen how that story ends for many of my friends—

Once life settles, they never let the child come back.

I offered to live near you until the day I could bring you home,

But he didn’t accept that.

He wanted to separate us.

So this relationship… it had to end.

You’ve already grown up without a father’s affection,

You must not lose your mother’s love too.

Between you and the man I loved,

I still chose you—

I chose to let go of a love that had only just begun,

So you wouldn’t have to miss out on love again.

I never asked for anything grand—

I only wished he could love you too.

But even that, he couldn’t.

So I stopped walking toward that future.

Instead, I’ll walk with you, through your childhood years.

I’ll give you all the love I have.

There’s only one thing I want you to know:

I love you.

More than anything in this world.