Chapter 3 - “That One Eats Below Us”
Teresa shifted baby Bruno higher in her arms.
“This one is our pride,” she said softly, kissing the baby’s head. “He knows how to be held.”
Paulina’s smile returned, small and poisonous.
Mariana slowly lowered herself to her knees, far enough from Emiliano that he would not feel trapped. She placed both hands open on the floor.
“It’s okay, baby,” she whispered. “Mommy is here.”
Emiliano stared at her fingers.
He did not move closer.
That hurt more than if he had cried.
Rodrigo finally found his voice. “You should have called before coming.”
Mariana looked at him.
“I did. For two years.”
His jaw tightened. “Don’t start.”
Paulina gave a soft laugh. “Still dramatic, I see.”
Mariana ignored her.
She looked around the living room with eyes that suddenly worked like cameras. The framed family photos had been rearranged. Rodrigo and Paulina with baby Bruno near the fireplace. Teresa holding Bruno in the garden. Rodrigo smiling beside Paulina at a charity dinner Mariana had funded without knowing she was funding her own replacement.
There were no recent photos of Emiliano.
Not on the mantel.
Not near the staircase.
Not in the bright room where he should have been everywhere.
“Where is his room?” Mariana asked.
Teresa gave an impatient sigh. “He sleeps better downstairs.”
“In the guest wing?”
“In the service room near the laundry,” Teresa said, as if that were reasonable. “It’s quieter. He has difficult habits.”
Mariana’s stomach turned.
Rodrigo stepped forward. “He needed structure.”
“Barefoot on the floor while another child eats cake from a silver spoon?”
“Don’t twist this.”
Teresa’s expression sharpened. “The boy has problems. We did what we could. Paulina’s baby is easy because Paulina knows how to raise a child properly.”
Paulina rested one hand on Rodrigo’s arm.
Mariana looked at that hand.
Then at Bruno.
The baby was innocent. Safe. Fed. Loved by people who had somehow decided love was a limited resource and Emiliano did not deserve any of it.
Mariana stood slowly.
“May I have a glass of water?”
Rodrigo blinked. “Water?”
“Yes,” she said. “It was a long flight.”
For the first time, Teresa looked uncertain.
May you like
Because Mariana was not screaming.
And everyone in that room had expected her to.
