Chapter 16 - Healing the Roots
The weekend arrived with a cool autumn breeze that swept down from the mountains surrounding Guadalajara, clearing the smog and painting the sky in brilliant shades of violet and gold.
In the backyard of the Chapalita house, Raúl was teaching four-year-old Lucía how to plant sunflower seeds in a freshly turned patch of soil.
“Push it down gently into the dirt, mija,” Raúl instructed, guiding her tiny fingers with infinite patience. “Just like that. Then we give it water, and we wait for the sun to do its work.”
Mariana sat on the patio bench, watching them with a warm cup of coffee in her hands. Elvira walked out of the kitchen carrying a tray of fresh sweet bread and sliced fruit, setting it down on the wooden table.
“You’ve been very quiet today, Mariana,” Elvira said softly, sitting down beside her daughter. “Are you still worried about Sergio’s lawyer?”
“No,” Mariana shook her head, smiling faintly. “I was just thinking about how different everything feels. If someone had told me two years ago that we would be sitting here like this—quiet, honest, and actually safe—I wouldn’t have believed it.”
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“We lived in a cage of our own making for decades,” Elvira murmured, her eyes fixed on her husband and granddaughter in the garden. “We thought protecting the family name meant protecting the worst person in it. It took you breaking the glass for us to finally see the light.”
“We broke it together, Mom,” Mariana said, taking her mother’s hand.
