Chương 4
“Then what was it?”
Lucy looked toward the window.
Outside, a man on the sidewalk stopped to tie his shoe while a woman beside him checked something on her phone.
A normal morning.
A normal world.
Mariana hated how normal everything looked.
“She asked me to protect you,” Lucy said.
“By making sure I never knew who I was?”
Lucy closed her eyes.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“That is what everyone says when they make decisions for someone else.”
The words came out harder than Mariana intended.
Lucy accepted them anyway.
Maybe because she deserved them.
Maybe because she believed she did.
Alejandro shifted in his chair.
“Mariana.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You knew about this.”
“I knew about the transfer document.”
“That is not what I asked.”
His silence confirmed it.
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“Of course.”
She walked away from the table and stopped near the bathroom doorway.
Her reflection appeared faintly in the mirror.
The same brown eyes she had always seen.
The same face she had always known.
Yet suddenly everything about herself felt borrowed.
“My entire life,” she said quietly.
“I kept wondering why I was different.”
Neither of them interrupted.
“I thought maybe I was just difficult.”
Her fingers tightened around the paper.
“Maybe that was why she kept things from me.”
Lucy looked up.
“She never thought that.”
“You don’t know what she thought.”
“I do.”
Mariana turned.
Lucy’s voice remained soft.
“But I also know what she was afraid of.”
“What?”
Lucy looked at the document.
“The people who were looking for you.”
A cold feeling moved through Mariana.
“Who?”
Lucy did not answer immediately.
That hesitation brought back the anger.
“Who was looking for me?”
“Not you.”
Lucy swallowed.
“Your mother.”
Mariana waited.
Lucy looked older in that moment than she had before.
Not fragile.
Just exhausted.
“Your mother found out something she was never supposed to find.”
Alejandro leaned forward.
“What did she find?”
Lucy looked at him.
“You know some of it.”
“I know she was scared.”
“She was more than scared.”
Lucy folded her hands together.
“She was trying to disappear.”
Mariana shook her head.
“My mother was not the kind of person who ran.”
Lucy gave a sad smile.
“You only knew the version of her that survived.”
The sentence hurt because Mariana knew it was true.
Children rarely know the whole person who raises them.
They know the person who makes dinner.
The person who packs lunches.
The person who reminds them to wear a jacket.
They do not always know the person who cries quietly after everyone sleeps.
They do not know the battles fought before they were old enough to understand.
Lucy reached toward the folder.
“Your mother worked at Saint Catherine.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Lucy shook her head.
“She did not just give birth there.”
Mariana watched her.
“She worked there after.”
“What did she do?”
“She was a medical records assistant.”
Alejandro nodded slowly.
“That part I knew.”
Lucy continued.
“She discovered records that had been altered.”
The room became still.
“Altered how?” Mariana asked.
“Names changed.”
“Why?”
Lucy looked at her.
“Because some people wanted certain people to disappear.”
Mariana felt frustration rise again.
“Who are these people?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer sounded honest.
That made it harder.
“I never knew everything.”
“Then why should I believe any of this?”
Lucy looked down.
“You shouldn’t.”
The response caught Mariana off guard.
Lucy continued.
“You should be angry.”
A tear moved down her cheek.
“You should question everything.”
She wiped it away quickly, almost embarrassed.
“But please do not think your mother did not love you.”
Mariana looked away.
The sentence was exactly what she wanted to hear.
That was why she did not trust it.
People often gave you the thing they thought you needed.
Not always the thing that was true.
She walked into the kitchen without saying anything.
The house felt too small.
She opened a cabinet and closed it again.
Then opened the refrigerator.
Then closed it.
She was not hungry.
She was not looking for anything.
She just needed her hands to do something.
Alejandro followed a minute later.
He stopped several feet away.
“You hate me right now.”
Mariana looked at him.
“I don’t know what I feel.”
“That is fair.”
“No, it isn’t.”
She leaned against the counter.
“You brought her here because you thought I was connected to her.”
“Yes.”
“You found out something about my life before I did.”
“Yes.”
“And you decided when I was ready to know.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“There it is again.”
She shook her head.
“Everyone keeps using that word.”
Alejandro looked down.
“I was afraid.”
The honesty softened something, but not enough.
“Of what?”
“That I would find the truth and it would destroy you.”
Mariana looked at him.
“Did it occur to you that not knowing already destroyed something?”
He did not respond.
Because he knew she was right.
The quiet lasted longer than either of them expected.
Then Mariana noticed something on the counter.
A small plastic bag.
Inside was an old key.
She had never seen it before.
“What is that?”
Alejandro looked over.
His expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was here.”
He moved toward it but stopped himself.
“Lucy brought that.”
Mariana picked up the bag.
“Why?”
Lucy appeared in the kitchen doorway.
Her face changed when she saw the key in Mariana’s hand.
“Because your mother gave it to me.”
Mariana stared.
“What does it open?”
Lucy looked uncomfortable.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“She told me never to use it unless you came looking for the truth yourself.”
Mariana almost laughed.
Almost.
Instead, she placed the key back on the counter.
“So she left instructions for me.”
“No.”
Lucy shook her head.
“She left hope.”
Mariana looked at her.
“I don’t know the difference anymore.”
Lucy accepted that.
May you like
Maybe because she understood.
Maybe because she had spent years living with the same confusion.
