Chapter 12 - The First Bad Morning
The answer came four days later.
Nico had barely slept.
Neither had we.
I knocked over a bottle while trying to answer a work message. Milk spread across the counter and ran onto the floor.
“Damn it.”
Mia stood in the doorway.
“I’ll clean it.”
“I’ve got it.”
“You look upset.”
“I’m tired.”
The words landed harder than I intended.
Her face went blank.
I knew that expression now.
It meant she was disappearing while standing right in front of me.
I put down the phone.
“I’m tired,” I repeated more carefully. “I’m not angry that you need help.”
She didn’t answer.
I picked up a towel.
“You can go back to bed.”
“I’m awake now.”
“Okay.”
We stood in the kitchen with milk soaking through the cloth.
Then I said what I should have said four nights before she collapsed.
“I need ten minutes after this. Then I can take him again.”
Mia looked at me.
“You can say that.”
“So can you.”
She leaned against the doorway.
“I used to.”
The sentence stayed with me all morning.
That afternoon, Celia visited alone, with Mia’s permission.
She brought groceries and put them away without asking where every item belonged.
Then she sat at the table.
“I owe you an apology.”
Mia kept both hands around her mug.
Celia’s eyes filled.
“I believed her because she was my sister. I didn’t ask how you were.”
“No,” Mia said. “You didn’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
There was no excuse after it.
Mia nodded once.
Celia didn’t ask for a hug.
Before leaving, she handed me an envelope.
Part of the grocery money.
“Lourdes gave me this.”
I counted it after she left.
Less than half.
Inside was a note.
I hope this is enough to end the humiliation.
I showed Mia.
She read it and slid it back.
“Does she think the money is why I’m afraid of the door?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone buzzed.
Mom had sent a message.
Your father would be ashamed of you.
I stared at it.
She had finally reached for the one person who couldn’t disagree with her.
Mia noticed my face.
“What happened?”
I showed her instead of hiding it.
She read it slowly.
Then she looked at me.
“You can miss your dad without doing what she wants.”
May you like
Something in my chest gave way.
For the first time since finding Mia on the floor, I was the one who cried.
