Today I signed the divorce papers. Lauren and I will remain married through October, by which time the case will have worked its way through the legal system. I feel relieved, but the focus now shifts to Dorian and Maya. Lauren is too rich for me to gain better access to the children by legal means. My task is to win their hearts and minds. This I can do, I am sure, but I will need some time. Time is on my side, though. In a few years we will be reunited. I can already see us talking, laughing, crying… It will not be exactly easy, but at least we will be free from all interference.

Addendum (April 16, 2016)

A bit more than thirteen years later, Dorian and Maya are entirely out of focus. In the meanwhile, we have not met even once, let alone been reunited in any emphatic sense of that word. Since a couple of years ago, we are not in touch, either. In particular, they have stopped responding to my electronic-mail messages. As it turns out, Lauren is way too rich for me to gain better access to the children by any means whatsoever. Which is why there is little chance that my relationship with Dorian and Maya will ever change. Relationship, what relationship? I am their biological father, and they are my biological children. And that is all there is to it.