“Especially then.”
He sat with that.
“Can I bring Gabriel tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Carla?”
“No.”
“I understand.”
We stood.
He hesitated.
“Can I ask again?”
“What?”
“A hug.”
This time, I opened my arms.
He held on.
“Forgive me, Mom.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“That doesn’t mean everything goes back to the way it was.”
He pulled away.
“I don’t want it to.”
That was the right answer.
Gabriel arrived the next morning.
He climbed from Hugo’s car and stared at the villa.
“You live here?”
“For a few days now.”
“It looks like a castle.”
“It’s just a big house.”
He ran into my arms.
“I thought you were mad at me.”
“Never.”
“Dad said they did something wrong.”
“They did.”
His expression became serious.
“Was it because they didn’t know you were rich?”
I crouched to his level.
“They believed having less money meant they could treat me with less respect.”
“But you do have money.”
“That doesn’t change the lesson.”
