When Ally hears that her daughter died, the heavy haze of grief takes over her until one evening when her son, Ben, admits that his sister waves at him from across the road each night. Is Emily still around, or is something spooky at hand?

Five years ago, I was the happiest I had ever been.

My husband, Matt, and I had spent years trying for a child, enduring endless doctor visits, invasive tests, and heartbreak. When the doctors told us it wasn’t likely I could conceive, I was devastated.

But Matt held me through it all, promising we would build a family another way.

That’s how Emily came into our lives.

She was seven years old, with big, hopeful eyes and a hesitant smile that melted my heart. From the moment we brought her home, our house seemed to glow with new energy. We threw a small welcome party, decorated her room with bright colors, and took her on a family trip to the zoo.

“Do you think she’ll like the zoo?” Matt asked me.

“I think so,” I said. “But more than that, she needs to know that we’re a family and that we’re going to take her out and be a family, Matt.”

I’ll never forget how she giggled when a giraffe reached across and licked her ice cream.

For the first time in years, I felt complete.

And then, the unthinkable happened: I got pregnant.

It felt like a dream. Our son, Ben, was born a year later. The miracle of his birth added another layer of joy to our home. And my goodness, Emily loved being a big sister and took her role very seriously.

She would hold Ben’s tiny hand, read to him, and teach him silly songs. For five years, our home was filled with laughter, bedtime stories, and the beautiful chaos of family life.

“I’m just the happiest woman in the world,” I told Matt one night when we watched Ben sleep. Emily was cradled in Matt’s arms, and held onto him tightly, as if even in her sleep, she needed to be close to us.

But then, five years later, the accident happened.

Emily was walking home from school when it happened. I wasn’t there, but Matt called me, his voice shaking, saying that she’d been hit by a car.

“Ally,” he said, his voice shaking. “She’s gone. Em is gone!”

“What do you mean? Gone? You can’t find her?” I asked as panic set in quickly.

“Darling, no,” he said. “She’s gone. Dead. She was hit by a car as she was crossing the road to come home… Ally, she’s gone. Our baby girl…”

“Where are you?” I asked. “I’ll come.”

“No,” he said. “Don’t come. I’m at the hospital. I’ll meet you at home… the sitter is waiting for you with Ben.”

Everything after that has been a blur. I fell into a deep depression, barely able to function. I missed her so much that it hurt to breathe. I hadn’t even seen her one last time; Matt had arranged for the cremation while I was in my grief haze. I couldn’t even be mad. I wasn’t able to cope with anything else.

Sometimes, it was so bad that I’d wake up in the middle of the night, convinced I could hear her footsteps on the stairs or giggle in the hallway.

One night, about two weeks later, Ben approached me hesitantly. He was five and restless, and struggling to sleep without Emily, who had had her own routine with him. But that night, his small voice broke through the fog of my grief.

“Mommy,” he whispered. “Sister waves me goodnight from the house next door.”

My heart twisted painfully. He was only a baby, and I knew he missed his sister. He must have been imagining things that only a child desperate to see his sister again would hope for.

But the certainty in his wide, innocent eyes made me pause. This child was convinced.

I told myself that it was nothing. But something about his words wouldn’t let me rest.

“How about I read you an extra story tonight?” I asked Ben, wanting to stay in his bedroom.

Around 9 P.M., he crawled into bed and pointed to the window.

“Look, Momma,” he said softly, pointing at the window.

My breath caught in my throat. There, across the street, in the upstairs window of the house that had always seemed empty, a small shadow stood.

It was Emily.

Her long hair fell around her shoulders, and her familiar wave, the same wave I used to see every morning as she left for school, sent a chill down my spine.

I blinked, sure I was hallucinating, but she didn’t disappear. She just stood there, looking at our house.

Panic flooded my veins. I kissed Ben’s forehead and whispered that I would be right back.

“Dad’s in our room, darling,” I said. “Wake him up if you need him.”

I threw on my coat, ran downstairs, and burst into the cool night air. My bare feet slapped against the pavement as I crossed the street to the house.

I knocked on the door, heart hammering against my ribcage.

“Come on, Ally,” I told myself. “You need to know if this is real.”

The door opened, and a tall, elegant woman stood there. She had polished features, the kind of beauty that spoke of wealth and status. Her expression flickered with confusion and irritation.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her tone short and irritable. “It’s rather late.”

“I saw my daughter in your window,” I said, my voice trembling. “Please, let me see her! Emily is my daughter. She… she died. And I know that this is impossible, but I know what I saw.”

Before the woman could respond, I heard footsteps pounding down the stairs.

And then Emily appeared.

“Mom!” she cried, running toward me.

I opened my arms, ready to catch her, but then everything shattered.

Matt stepped into the hallway.

I froze, my brain refusing to process what I was seeing. He looked between me and the woman, guilt, and panic plastered across his face.

“What is this??” I demanded. “What’s happening? You were in bed!”

The truth unraveled in fragments, each piece more horrifying than the last.

The woman was named Robin, Emily’s biological mother. A month ago, she contacted Matt, saying she wanted her daughter back. She had married a wealthy man, and now that she had the resources and stability, she felt ready to raise Emily.

“But how did the orphanage give out our details? That’s confidential!” I cried.

“It’s amazing how doors just open when you have money, Ally,” Matt said. “Trina just sat her desk and gave Robin all our details.”

“I didn’t want a custody battle,” she said. “A court fight would be lengthy, expensive, and damaging to my image. I don’t expect you to understand.”

Instead, she offered Matt an obscene amount of money, enough to secure Ben’s future and make our lives much easier. We were still paying off our debt from IVF and other fertility treatments we had undergone.

Matt, swayed by her promise of wealth and worried about losing in court, had agreed.

“I thought we couldn’t have kids,” he stammered. “That’s the only reason I agreed to the adoption in the first place. But then Ben was born, and everything changed. He’s been my focus, Ally. I love Emily, but Ben is… Ben’s future was the price I chose to pay.”

The explanation spilled out in a rush. Matt and the woman had staged the “accident” to devastate me and ensure I wouldn’t fight. I felt sick. I felt betrayed. I felt disturbed.

Matt was disgusting for doing what he had done. And as for choosing Ben over Emily? How could any parent choose one over the other? And fake a child’s death?

Is that why he had “cremated” my child? So that there would be no body for me to grieve over? No body for me to hold one last time?

I wanted to throw up.

It turned out that the house across the road was a temporary arrangement meant to ease Emily into her new life. They had fed her lies, telling her I didn’t want her anymore, that I had chosen Ben over her.

Emily’s cries filled the air as she clung to me, sobbing.

“Why didn’t you want me anymore, Momma?” she wailed. “You didn’t love me anymore?”

My heart shattered.

I held my girl tightly, promising her over and over that I loved her and had never stopped loving her. Tears streamed down my face as I looked at Matt, my rage bubbling over.

“You did this!” I hissed. “You betrayed her. You betrayed me!”

I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed Emily’s hand and ran home with her, getting Ben up and bundling them into the car. I needed to get my children out of this neighborhood. I needed them safe.

The legal battle that followed was brutal. The lies Matt and Robin had spun unraveled quickly, especially with Emily’s testimony and the evidence I presented.

In the end, I won full custody of both Emily and Ben. Matt signed the divorce papers, and the biological mother left without pursuing custody further.

“My husband said that this isn’t worth it,” she said outside the courthouse. “He said we should live our lives, not fight to keep our old lives. Keep her.”

My daughter still has nightmares about that time, but we are healing together. Every night, I tuck my kids into bed, grateful they are safe and are mine.

Life is fragile and often cruel, but love is stronger, isn’t it? Especially as a mother, nothing can come between my children and me. Not even Matt, the disgusting man who was ready to sell my daughter for the sake of our son.

Some betrayals can never be forgiven.

What would you have done?

If you’ve enjoyed this story, here’s another one for you |

My Fiancée Decided to Lock My Daughter up to Exclude Her from Our Wedding — I Overheard It and Came up with a Plan

After losing his wife, Jim finally finds a woman who makes him believe that happiness can be found once again. As Jim navigates the fine line between his daughter and welcoming Emily into his life, he realizes that blending a family isn’t as easy as he thought it would be.

I met Emily three years after my wife’s death. Losing Karen had shattered me. She was the person that I thought I would grow old with, and more importantly, Karen was the mother of our precious daughter, Amy.

There were days when I thought that I’d never heal from the loss of my wife, but as time went on, I knew that hope would come.

“It’s okay to feel your feelings, Jim,” my mother would say. “But it’s also okay to dream of a new start. Nobody will ever replace Karen. Not for you, nor for Amy. But it’s okay to want joy.”

And meeting Emily made me feel like it was a fresh start. After a few months of dating, I decided to introduce her to my daughter, who was nine at the time.

Read the full story here.

This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.