Mauricio laughed.
“You’re insane.”
Victor nodded.
“Then we proceed criminally.”
Mauricio’s face darkened.
“You wouldn’t.”
I said, “I already did.”
That was when his phone rang.
He looked down.
I saw the name.
Valentina.
He rejected the call.
A second later, it rang again.
Then again.
Finally, he answered.
“What?”
Her voice was loud enough for all of us to hear.
“Mauricio, there are men at the apartment.”
His face went pale.
“What men?”
“They say the lease is under investigation. They say we have to leave. What did you do?”
He turned away from us.
“Calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down! My mother is here, and your mother is screaming at everyone. They are taking pictures!”
Lidia’s voice erupted in the background.
“Tell that barren snake she cannot do this to us!”
I froze.
Barren.
The word landed like a stone in my chest.
For years, Lidia had whispered around it. At family dinners. At baptisms. At birthdays where she held other women’s babies and looked at me with pity sharpened into blame.
Mauricio had always told me to ignore her.
“She’s old-fashioned,” he would say. “She doesn’t mean harm.”
But he had let her say it.
He had let her make my grief into gossip.
I took one step forward.
“Mauricio.”
He turned.
I held out my hand.
“Put the phone on speaker.”
“No.”
“Put it on speaker.”
Something in my voice made him obey.
The room filled with noise.
Valentina crying.
Lidia shouting.
Someone knocking.
Then Lidia’s voice came clear.
“Amara thinks money makes her a woman, but she could never give my son a child. That is why he needed Valentina. That is why this family needed someone real.”
The room went silent.
Even Mauricio stopped breathing.
I looked at him.
“Is that what you told them?”
He swallowed.
“Amara—”
“Is that what you told her?”
Valentina’s voice changed.
“Told me what?”
I looked at the phone.
“Valentina, did Mauricio tell you why we didn’t have children?”
No answer.
Mauricio reached for the phone, but Victor stepped between us.
I continued, “Did he tell you I was the problem?”
Valentina’s breathing became uneven.
“He said… he said you couldn’t…”
I smiled.
It hurt.
But I smiled.
“Of course he did.”
Mauricio whispered, “Don’t.”
I looked directly at him.
“You don’t get to ask for mercy from the woman you buried alive.”
Then I said into the phone, “Valentina, I was not the reason we never had children.”
Mauricio closed his eyes.
“Tell her,” I said.
He shook his head.
“Tell her, Mauricio.”
Valentina whispered, “What is she talking about?”
I answered for him.
“Three years after we married, Mauricio had medical tests done. He never wanted his mother to know. He begged me to protect him from the shame. So I did. For seven years, I let Lidia blame me. For seven years, I let people ask me cruel questions. For seven years, I carried his secret because I thought that was love.”
Valentina made a small sound.
Lidia exploded.
“Lies! Filthy lies!”
Victor said calmly, “We have the records.”
Mauricio looked at him with hatred.
“You had no right.”
I said, “Neither did you.”
For the first time since I had known him, Mauricio looked small.
Not poor.
Not humble.
Small.
