Chapter 8 - The Night She Woke Up
Sofia woke up screaming at 3 a.m.
She had been having nightmares since the attack, but this one was worse. She kept saying Carmen’s name and reaching for her face like she could still feel the slap.
I held her until she stopped shaking.
Alexander stood in the doorway, watching us. He didn’t come closer. He just waited until Sofia’s breathing evened out again.
When she finally fell back asleep, I stepped into the hallway with him.
“She’s stronger than both of us,” I said quietly.
Alexander nodded. “She gets that from you.”
We stood there in the dim light for a while.
Then he said, “When this is over… I want to be in her life. Properly. Not just when there’s a crisis.”
I looked at him.
“I know I lost the right to ask for that a long time ago,” he continued. “But I’m asking anyway.”
I thought about all the years I had raised Sofia alone. All the birthdays, the school plays, the hard nights he had missed.
But I also thought about how he had shown up the second she needed him.
“I’m not promising anything,” I said. “But I won’t keep her from you anymore.”
It wasn’t forgiveness.
It wasn’t reconciliation.
May you like
But it was something.
And for now, it was enough.
