She took them to a bench under the shade of a tree. She checked to see if they had a bracelet, a card, or a phone number on their clothes, but she found nothing. From her backpack, she took out an apple and a pack of cookies she had saved for her snack.
“I don’t have much, but we can share.”
Valentina took a cookie shyly. Camila waited for her sister to do it first, and then accepted another one.
During the first few minutes, the girls barely spoke. Marisol asked them simple things: their favorite color, whether they liked stories, what toys they had at home. Little by little, Valentina began to answer. Camila remained quiet, but she stopped crying and rested her head on Marisol’s arm.
That small gesture disarmed her.
It had been years since anyone had leaned on her as if she were a refuge.
Marisol told them an invented story about two twin princesses who got lost in a forest of jacaranda trees and found a woman with a magic broom that could scare monsters away. The girls laughed for the first time.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then forty.
Then almost an hour.
Marisol began to truly worry. She tried calling her supervisor, Mr. Robles, but he didn’t answer. She thought about notifying the police, but she was afraid the girls would get scared. She was about to do it when she heard a shout.
“Valentina! Camila!”
A man ran across the plaza.
He was tall, dressed in a dark suit, his hair messy and his face shattered by fear. Marisol recognized him immediately: Emiliano Arriaga, owner of one of the most important companies in the building. She had seen him many times entering surrounded by lawyers and assistants, always serious, always unreachable.
But now he didn’t look like a millionaire.
He looked like a destroyed father.
The girls jumped off the bench.
“Daddy!”
Emiliano fell to his knees before reaching them. He hugged them so tightly it seemed as if he wanted to pull them inside his chest. He kissed their foreheads, their cheeks, their hair. His hands trembled as he checked that they were all right.
