“Hear me before you react. Gabriel deserves to visit his grandmother without being put between adults.”
After a moment, she nodded.
“I understand.”
I stood.
“One more thing.”
Hugo looked at me.
“I am not financing your lifestyle.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“I know. I’m telling you before the question ever exists.”
“It won’t.”
“Good.”
“Gabriel?”
My voice softened.
“My grandson’s education is already provided for.”
“He has a trust?”
“He has a plan. He will receive support for education. When he is older, anything else will come gradually, with financial education and safeguards.”
Hugo nodded.
“Thank you for not making him pay for us.”
“He is eight.”
At the door, Hugo stopped.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Can I hug you?”
For a second, I saw the little boy who once came home terrified after breaking a neighbor’s window.
Love had never been the problem.
I shook my head.
“Not today.”
Pain crossed his face.
I allowed it.
Some pain is information.
Carla turned at the door.
“I never thought you were a bad person.”
“No. You only thought I was an unimportant one.”
She had no answer.
After they left, I sat on the terrace.
I expected victory to feel better.
It didn’t.
Hugo was still the baby I had rocked at two in the morning, the boy whose hand I held on his first day of school.
I loved him.
But love could no longer mean protecting him from every consequence of how he treated me.
The next morning, the gate attendant called.
“Ms. Alvarez, your son is here.”
“Is his wife with him?”
“No.”
“What does he want?”
“He says he came to listen.”
I let him in.
We sat with coffee on the terrace.
