You leave the study with the envelope in your hand like it’s a verdict you didn’t get to appeal. The hallway feels longer than it ever has, the marble colder, the chandelier light too sharp, as if the penthouse is trying to look beautiful so it doesn’t have to look guilty. Your throat burns with the words you swallowed in front of Marcello Dart, and the worst part is that none of them were about you. They were about her.
Back in your room, the suitcase still gapes open on the bed, waiting for you to finish erasing yourself. You stare at it the way people stare at open water when they’re deciding whether to jump. Then you hear it, soft and careful, like a question made of footsteps.
Tiny socks on polished floor.
María stands in the doorway with her stuffed rabbit tucked under her arm, her dark eyes fixed on you like she’s holding a fragile glass of understanding. She doesn’t speak, not with her mouth, not with her voice, but the way her fingers tighten around the rabbit’s ear says she knows something is wrong. You force a smile anyway, because you’ve gotten good at smiling through storms.
You crouch so you’re at her level, and your knees pop with a sound that feels too loud for a house that worships silence. “Hey, Estrellita,” you whisper, using the nickname she secretly allowed you to earn over months of midnight nightmares and breakfast routines. “Do you want to help me with something special tonight?” Her eyes flicker, and you can tell she’s listening the way she always listens, with her whole body.
You point down the hall toward the kitchen. “We’re going to make a Christmas dinner. Just a small one.” You keep your voice light, like you aren’t packing your life into fabric and zippers. “And I need my best helper.”
María doesn’t nod. She doesn’t smile. But she steps forward, and her small hand slips into yours, warm and certain, and for a second you almost hate Marcello for thinking any amount of money can replace what that gesture means.
In the kitchen, Carmen watches you with her arms crossed, pretending she’s annoyed when her eyes are actually wet. “No extravagant,” she reminds you, repeating Marcello’s words like she’s reciting the rules of a game you both know is rigged. Still, she opens cupboards you didn’t even know existed, sliding out ingredients as if she’s been waiting for someone to bring warmth back into this house.
You and María start with what you know will comfort her. Simple things, familiar things, the kind of meal that says: I’m not leaving you alone with strangers tonight. You teach her to sprinkle cinnamon into hot chocolate, and she does it with the seriousness of a tiny scientist handling rare dust. When you hand her a cookie cutter shaped like a star, she presses it into the dough and watches the imprint appear like magic, her breath catching as if she can’t believe good things can still happen.
You glance at the clock, and each tick feels like a thief. Every minute is a step closer to the morning when you’ll be gone.
Carmen moves around you, quietly efficient, but every so often she stops and looks at María like she’s seeing something she’s tried not to feel for a year. “The child… she hasn’t touched the cookie dough since the accident,” Carmen murmurs, almost to herself. “Not once.” She clears her throat and turns toward the stove like she didn’t just drop a confession in your hands.
You swallow hard, because you can feel hope trying to rise, and hope is dangerous when you’re about to lose everything.
Later, you help María set a small table near the tall windows where the city lights look like fallen stars. You don’t use the formal dining room, because the formal dining room feels like a museum for pain. Instead, you choose a corner that feels human, and you drape a simple cloth over the table, smoothing wrinkles with your palm like you can smooth the year, too.
When Marcello finally appears, the air changes the way it changes when a powerful man enters a room and expects the world to adjust. He’s in another flawless suit, but the suit can’t hide the tiredness in his shoulders or the way his eyes hesitate when they land on the table you’ve set. For a second, he looks like a man who walked into the wrong house.
He stops when he sees María in her little sweater, standing by the table with flour on her fingertips. The child doesn’t run to him. She doesn’t speak. But she doesn’t retreat either, and in this house, that counts as a miracle.
Marcello’s gaze slides to you, sharp as a paper cut. “This is what you wanted?” he asks, like he’s bracing for disappointment.
You keep your chin up. “This is what she deserves,” you answer, and you don’t add: and what you deserve too, even if you’ve forgotten.
He sits. María sits. You sit. And for a moment the three of you look like a family someone paused in the middle of becoming.
Dinner begins cautiously, like approaching a dog that’s been kicked too many times. Carmen brings out the food, and you serve María first because you always do. Marcello watches the ritual as if it’s foreign, as if he’s never realized love is mostly repetition, mostly showing up in small ways until the small ways become a bridge.
María eats a few bites and keeps glancing at you. Not fearful, not panicked, just… tracking you, like she’s making sure you don’t evaporate.
Marcello clears his throat. “The specialist will be here after New Year,” he says, unable to stop being a man who thinks planning equals protection. “She has a strong record. We’ll do this properly.”
Your fork pauses mid-air. You don’t want to ruin the fragile peace, but you also can’t let the lie sit comfortably. “Properly,” you repeat softly. “Does that mean… with her father in the room? Or with her father behind a desk?”
His jaw tightens. “You’re still angry.”
You set your fork down carefully. “I’m scared,” you correct. “And so is she. She just doesn’t get to say it out loud.”
María’s fingers curl around her spoon as if she understands every word. Marcello notices the movement and flinches like he’s been struck by the proof.
Before either of you can say more, a bell chimes somewhere in the penthouse. It’s not the usual buzzer. It’s deeper, older, like a doorbell that belongs to a house with actual memories.
Carmen freezes. “Señor,” she says, voice suddenly cautious. “There is… a delivery.”
Marcello frowns. “On Christmas Eve?” He stands like a man preparing to confront an inconvenience, but his eyes flick toward María first, checking if she’s unsettled. The fact that he checks at all makes something inside you twist.
“I’ll get it,” Carmen offers quickly, but Marcello waves her off. “No. I will.”
He disappears down the hall, and you hear his footsteps fade into the penthouse’s long, echoing quiet. María’s gaze follows him, and then snaps back to you, urgent, as if she’s asking you to interpret what’s happening. You touch her hand lightly, grounding her. “It’s okay,” you whisper. “It’s just a box.”
You say it like boxes don’t change lives.
