Not reaching.
“I moved rooms,” you say. “You don’t have to sleep in the old one unless you want to.”
He looks at you.
“Where?”
“Your mother’s old studio.”
His eyes widen.
Mariana used to paint there. After she died, you locked the room because grief made you selfish. Diego had asked about it many times, and you always said later.
Later became years.
Now the studio is clean.
Sunlit.
Soft blue walls.
A bed near the window.
His books.
His telescope.
Mariana’s old easel in the corner, covered but not hidden.
Diego enters slowly.
He touches the windowsill.
Then the easel.
Then he sits on the bed.
“Can Elvira sleep nearby?”
You nod.
“She already chose the room next door.”
He looks down at his brace.
“Can I lock the door?”
Your chest aches.
“Yes.”
“From the inside?”
“Yes.”
He nods.
Then, after a long silence, he says, “You can say goodnight from the hallway.”
It is not forgiveness.
It is a door left slightly open.
You accept it like grace.
The trial becomes a media storm because your family is wealthy, Valeria is beautiful, and the crime is too horrifying for people to ignore.
Headlines call her the “Cast Stepmother.”
You hate the nickname.
Not because it is unfair to Valeria.
Because it turns Diego’s suffering into entertainment.
Your attorneys advise you to say nothing publicly.
For once, you agree.
The evidence speaks.
The hospital photographs.
The insects collected from the cast.
The puncture marks.
The chemical residue.
The notebook.
The messages.
The video.
Diego’s testimony is recorded privately to spare him the courtroom. He sits with a child psychologist and tells the story in a small voice that will haunt you forever.
She said Daddy would think I was crazy.
She said nobody believes bad children.
She said my mom was dead and couldn’t help me.
You leave the viewing room before you collapse.
Elvira stays.
She watches every second.
Later she tells you, “He looked brave.”
You say, “He looked hurt.”
She answers, “Both.”
Valeria’s defense is ugly.
Her lawyers claim Diego was disturbed after his mother’s death. They claim he placed substances in the cast himself. They claim Elvira manipulated him out of jealousy. They claim you are blaming your wife because you feel guilty.
That last part has some truth.
Not enough to save her.
But enough to burn.
