Chapter 6 - The Party Ends Without Music
The celebration died in pieces.
First the music stopped.
Then the guests stopped pretending not to listen.
Then the servants froze with trays in their hands as if they were witnessing the moment the entire house changed owners.
Patrícia’s husband began muttering about disrespect.
Ricardo looked at him once.
“Pack your car.”
The man stopped talking.
Marcelo laughed nervously.
“You can’t be serious.”
Ricardo turned.
“You raised a toast to my transfers while my wife washed your pots.”
Marcelo’s face drained.
“That was a joke.”
“So was your allowance.”
Silence.
Dona Lourdes finally began to cry.
Ricardo watched her carefully.
He knew that cry.
It had made him send extra money after every argument. It had made him forgive insults. It had made him believe his mother was fragile when she had actually been powerful enough to rearrange his marriage from inside his own house.
“I gave you all my trust,” he said. “You used it to humiliate her.”
His mother whispered, “We are your blood.”
Ricardo looked back at Camila.
Her hands were still red from soap and grease.
“She was my choice.”
That was the difference his family had never respected.
Blood had demanded.
Love had waited.
Ricardo took Camila’s wet hands gently in his own.
She tried to pull away, embarrassed.
He did not let shame win.
He lifted her hands and kissed them once.
In front of everyone.
May you like
Patrícia looked away.
Good.
