“You’re giving me that chance after everything?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because eight years still happened.”
He said nothing.
“The marriage was good for most of those years,” I continued. “That was real too.”
“I might not become the person you need.”
“I know.”
“But you want to find out.”
“Yes.”
Three days passed.
Felix moved out of Lucia’s house and into a hotel.
During those three days, he confronted his mother.
Later, he told me the conversation.
“You lied to me about my wife,” he had said.
Lucia responded:
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
She couldn’t answer.
Because the honest answer would have been ugly.
From the marriage I didn’t choose for you.
From the life you created without me.
From the woman I decided didn’t deserve the position I once held in your life.
Instead, Lucia simply repeated:
“I was protecting you.”
When Felix called me after those three days, he sounded exhausted.
